How do the features (not capacity) of Blu Ray and HD-DVD compare with DVD-RAM for general computer data use? Is one of the "HD" technologies better than the other for IT usage? All the industry focus seems to be on movies and such and I couldn't care less about that. Rather, I'm interested in the technologies for backup and archiving.

I think because they aren't being made for such high data integrity. They aren't made to last forever or to be overworked like it might be in that setting. Tape Drives and DVD-Ram seem to be the competing leaders for that area. Soon Holographic media should take over Tape Drives though.

" HD DVD-RAM" (single layer 20GB) is in development so perhaps we will not have to consider a compromise and the real question is whether it will live up to the reliability of good ol' DVD-RAM.

This is the first time I've heard of HD DVD-RAM (that'll be my google search for today). The capacity is right in the middle of HD DVD and Blu-ray capacity. I was kinda rooting for Blu-ray over HD DVD because of its capacity, now there appears to be a new kid on the block. From what I've read, Blu-ray has better defect management than non-HD DVD technology (it has to have it since the data density is greater). How that compares to today's DVD-RAM technology is what I'd like to know. Blu-ray was developed supposedly from the "bottom up" in that they considered all the possible uses (basically CE and PC usage) and engineered the disc structure from there, which is unlike some of the other technologies we have today (DVD?).

A table comparing all of the current and proposed optical disc technologies features and characteristics would be a nice thing to find. It would save a lot of typing in many posts and eliminate a bunch of posts/responses that do nothing but state facts/specs about particular technologies.