CD’s and DVD’s

1. CD’s and DVD’s

2. CD’s and DVD’s • The following presentation is intended for the layperson who only wants to know how to use CD’s and DVD’s. • The primary focus of this presentation will be CD’s although DVD’s will be briefly addressed.

3. CD’s and DVD’s • History: • The Compact Disc, and more specifically audio compact disc (CD-DA), was introduced to the market in 1982 (Japan) by the Philips and Sony Corporations as an alternative to the vinyl disc and audio cassette. • Beethoven’s 5th Symphony established the capacity of the first audio CD’s.

4. CD’s and DVD’s • History: (conti.) • In 1984 both companies extended the technology so it can be used to store and retrieve data and so the CD-ROM was born. • In 1990 again Philips and Sony expanded the technology and created the recordable compact disc (CD-R). Up to then, the CD-ROMs were manufactured by industrial stamping with a master made from the original.

5. CD’s and DVD’s • History: (conti.) • In 1991 the Pioneer Corporation began development of a new Digital Video Disc format. During this time significant advances in software development, specialty compression algorithms for video applications were developed so that the CD disk size could be maintained. • In 1995 Sony led a 9 company consortium to introduce a standard for recordable DVDs. Today, though, the DVD recordable is not standardized and two types of systems coexists: DVD-R and DVD+R.

6. CD’s and DVD’s • CDs and DVDs although they look the same they are all different. • On each disk is a media descriptor that tells the computer what type of disk it is. • CD-Rs technically WORMs (Write Once Read Many) are once written too and are read-only. Approximate capacity is 80 minutes of audio or 700 MB of data. • CD-RWs are read writeable (or reusable) and with proper software can be used like a floppy disk. Approximate capacity is 74 minutes of audio or 650 MB of data.

7. CD’s and DVD’s • CD Formats: • CD-DA (Compact Disk – Digital Audio), the original format, is a variable length file format and is used exclusively for audio. • The files (Tracks) are a digital representation of audio. • Its specification is defined in what is called the “Red Book”.

8. CD’s and DVD’s • CD Formats: (conti.) • CD-FS (Compact Disk – File System) is also a variable length file format and is used to store computer data files. • Its specification is defined in what is called the “Yellow Book”.

9. CD’s and DVD’s • CD Formats: (conti.) • CD-RW (Compact Disk Rewritable) disks, depending on how they are formatted, can be either a variable file length, as the CD-R, or a fixed file length (packet) as floppy disks. • Its specification is defined in what is called the “Orange Book”. • Other types of CD formats are VCD (Video CD), PCD (Photo CD), CD-I and other proprietary formats.

10. CD-RW disk formats: • CD-RW disks can be formatted two ways: • Streaming (variable length) – files are added as in the same way as CD-Rs are. Only erasure of the entire disk is possible (reusable). • Packet (fixed length) – uses the same architecture as floppy disks and require packet writing software (UDF) such as Direct CD, CD-In.

11. CD’s and DVD’s • Equipment: • CD-R drives, the original, will only read CDs. • CD-RW drives, besides reading CDs can also write to CDs. Making separate drives in a computer redundant. • DVD-R drives will only read CDs and DVDs. Most drives will read both DVD standards. • DVD-RW drives, will read and write to both CDs and DVDs. • CD-RW/DVD combo drives, will both read and write to CDs as well as read DVDs.

12. CD’s and DVD’s • Equipment: (conti.) • When buying a CD burner or DVD burner make sure it is “Burn Proof” or has a “write cache”. This will minimize the making of coasters (unusable CDs). Also buy a good quality unit.

13. CD’s and DVD’s • Software: • Microsoft’s Operating System (XP) includes the software needed to read either CD’s and DVDs. • CD and DVD writing (burning) require special software. Such as: • Nero • Easy Media Creator (formally known as Easy CD Creator. • NTI