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IDE, SATA, SCSI Hard Disk Drives, SSD, CD/DVD and Blu-ray drives - Page 3Last updated on 12 May 2008
Contents The Disk Drives section of the site consists of three pages. This page - Click one of the links below or scroll down the page: **** The other two pages: USB Flash Drives Click here! to go to information on this site on USB Flash Drives IDE and SCSI CD/DVD Optical Disc Drives
Introduction to optical drives and their media (discs)CD/DVD drives allow software/data to be installed/copied from CD/DVD discs, or allow software/data to be written to and read from recordable CD/DVD discs. A CD/DVD writer can write data to the recordable disc formats that it supports and read data from the disc formats that it supports. CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs are not written (burned), they are pressed in the same way as vinyl records are. The ROM stands for Read-Only Memory, which means that the discs can only be read, not written to. There are several recordable CD and DVD disc formats - CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM. Your desktop PC or laptop PC must have a CD/DVD writer/drive in order to be able to write data to recordable discs. Note that a CD drive cannot read DVD discs, but most DVD drives can read both CD and DVD discs. CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives can only read CDs or DVDs respectively. A CD-ROM drive cannot read DVD-ROM discs; a DVD-ROM drive is required. There are DVD writers (recorders) that can read from and write to all of the disc formats, but a CD writer can only write data to CD-R (record-once) discs, and CD-RW (recorded to many times) discs. Whichever type of disc you choose to use (the write-once CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R are are far more popular than the rerwritable discs (CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM), you should always buy brand-named discs that the manufacturer of the drive recomends for your PC's CD/DVD writer/drive. I have used write-once DVD-R discs since the standard's early days. At first I bought cheap no-brand discs and paid the price for that - discs that I could not read only a few weeks after burning them. Then I switched to using brand-name discs - Verbatim, Maxell, Sony, TDK, Imation, Memorex, etc. - which I have been using for five or more years with very few problems. The Blu-ray and HD DVD disc standardsSony's Blu-ray high-definition disc standard has beaten Toshiba's HD-DVD standard in the high-definition war, so it is not advisable to buy a HD DVD writer/player, because Toshiba is no longer developing it, but the disc manufacturers will be making HD-DVD discs available for as long as the demand warrants doing so. The new Blu-ray standard, created by Sony, also has write-once (BD-R) and rewritable (BD-RE) discs. Most Blu-ray drives/players can also play CD and DVD discs.
Any CD/DVD disk can hold many hundreds/thousands of times the amount of data that a floppy disk can hold. An ordinary CD-ROM disk that can only be read from can hold from 650MB to 800MB of data compared to the 1.44MB of a high-density floppy disk. And DVD disks can hold many times more data that CD disks; the multiple depending on what type of DVD media it is, because some types of DVD media can hold much more data than other types. This development was essential because modern software uses tens and hundreds of times as much disk space as the software that was developed to run on 4 to 8MB of RAM and the MS DOS and (its graphical user interface - GUI) Windows 3.x operating systems. Windows 3.1 was supplied on eight compressed floppy disks. Compare that with the compressed CD that the retail version Windows XP is supplied on. The full program would not fit on a single CD without being compressed. Windows XP Professional and Linux are stored on several CDs, or on one DVD-ROM disk. Like hard disk drives, CD/DVD drives use the IDE (ATAPI), or the faster and usually more expensive SCSI mode of operation. ATAPI stands for Advanced Technology Application Programming Interface. Any CD drive specified as IDE ATAPI will work on a PC capable of running an IDE ATA hard disk drive.
CD drives come as standard CD-ROM (read-only), CD-R (recordable only once), and CD-RW (re-writable - many times) drives. CD-R drives and blank disks are now incredibly cheap. You will not be able to find a less expensive way to archive and store large amounts of data - safely and long-lastingly. The significant differences between CD-R and CD-RW drive technology condition the playability of CD-R and CD-RW disks. Note that it is now possible to buy DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drives that can record to CD-R and CD-RW disks, and play DVD-ROM disks. Most car and music-centre CD players will play the gold, non-rewritable, CD-R disks. However, this is not the case with CD-RW (rewritable) disks, which use a different recording technology. Only most of the newer CD-ROM drives and CD players will be able to play them. For a CD drive to be able to read different media types, operating system support is required as well as CD drive support. Therefore you should make sure that your operating system supports a CD or DVD drive before you purchase it. A good way to find out if a mode of operation is supported by a particular versions of an operating system (Windows, Linux, etc.) is to ask the relevant newsgroup. There is at least one Alt newsgroup for each version of Windows (alt.windows.95 - alt.windows98, etc.),and there are many relevant Linux newsgroups. Visit the Newsgroup page on this site for more information on newsgroups. Obviously, the latest version of Windows (currently Windows Vista), will support all of the hardware that is currently available. The safest way to upgrade RAM: Use the UK and US Crucial Memory AdvisorsPaul Mullen, the highly-respected computer guru of the Helpfile at ComputerShopper.co.uk - "I have recently been buying my memory only from Crucial Technology. I would rather pay the extra cost than waste time trying to track down the obscure program faults that bad memory can cause." The memory requirements of the versions of Windows VistaMost of the versions of Windows Vista require more RAM memory to run optimally on a computer that doesn't use memory-hungry applications than Windows XP. A video-editing application is an example of memory-intensive software. Only Windows Vista Home Basic has a recommended minimum amount of memory of 512MB, which is the same amount recommended for Windows XP. Windows Vista Home Premium, the most popular version, and Windows Vista Ultimate require a recommended minimum of 1GB (1024MB) of memory, which is twice the amount of minimum memory recommended to run Windows XP. For more information on computer memory, read the RAM pages of this site.
For example, if your computer has an Asus motherboard, open the menu, scroll down to ASUS, and click GO. If, say, you have a Dell computer, scroll down to DELL, and do likewise. You will be taken to the relevant information on Crucial's website. If you don't know the make and model of the motherboard installed in your computer, here is a good free utility - Belarc Advisor - that creates an analysis of the hardware and software on a personal computer. Look under FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.belarc.com/. Another utility that also provides detailed information on the memory itself is CPU-Z. The new Blu-ray Disc (BD) and HD DVD high-definition formatsBlu-ray Disc (BD) is one of two optical disc formats designed to replace the current DVD format. The other competing format is HD DVD. Both of the new formats store High Definition (HD) movies. Sony is the developer of the Blu-ray format and Toshiba developed the HD-DVD format. I have used the past tense for the HD DVD format because Blu-ray has won the HD war. Toshiba has announced that it will be killing its HD DVD format off. There is now only one HD format, so consumers have no choice but to buy it if they want HD content. The Blu-ray format has the most support from the movie studios and the drive/player manufacturers, It therefore looks as if it will triumph over the HD DVD format, so I will explain it briefly here. Blu-ray drives use a laser that uses blue light that can pack more data on to a DVD-sized disc that the DVD format can. A single-layer DVD-sized disc can store up to 25GB and a dual-layer disc can store up to 50GB of data. Blu-ray drives and discs for the PC are available, but they are very much more expensive than comparable DVD discs. The drives can read dual-layer discs, but can currently only write to the 25GB recordable discs - BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) - and have a formatted capacity of 22GB. Recordable DVDs are therefore still much better value. Windows XP and Windows Vista does not support Blu-ray playback or recording. To play a Blu-ray movie therefore requires third-party software made by companies such as Cyberlink (CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra) and Roxio. If your PC came with a Blu-ray writer, it should have the writing software pre-installed. If you buy a Blu-ray writer/drive, it should come with writing software. The prices of Blu-ray players, drives/writers, and discs (media) are currently (March 2008) very much higher than the prices for comparable DVD players, drives/writers and discs. You can find out what the latest prices are by entering a suitable search term (blu-ray discs, bd-r, bd-rw, blu-ray writers, etc.) in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled). "Welcome to Blu-ray.com, your source for everything related to Blu-ray Disc (BD). We offer Blu-ray reviews, releases, news, guides and forums covering Blu-ray movies, players, recorders, drives, media, software and much more. For more information about Blu-ray, see What is Blu-ray? or the Blu-ray FAQ." Blu-ray Basics: Using The High-Definition DVD Format On Your PC - "Now that Sony's Blu-ray has won the next-gen DVD war against Toshiba's HD DVD, find out whether it's worth adding to your PC, for entertainment and data storage." - http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900962 Blu-ray writers are available, but they are extremely expensive compared to DVD writers, which can cost under £20. An expensive DVD writer currently costs under £40. In March 2008, Computer Shopper gave the LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray writer a Most Wanted award. It was probably only awarded four stars out of five because of its cost (£175) and because it burns DVDs sluggishly. As well as reading and writing Blu-ray discs (BD-R, BD-RE), it can read the discs (play the movies) of the defunct HD DVD standard, and read and write all of the DVD standards (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM). You can make use of the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled) to find information/vendors on/for the drive by copying "LG GGW-H20L" (as is) into it. There are news articles on both of the HD formats in the next item.
Reading, writing, and rewriting speedsCD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives can only read CDs and DVDs respectively, so they only have a reading speed. A reading speed given as 52x in the specifications means that it is capable of reading 52 times faster than the original CD-ROM drives, which could read at 1x. It's not really important to know how fast the reading speed is, it's just important to know that the higher the number in front of the x is, the faster that particular activity is. CD and DVD writers have read and write specifications such as this: 52x24x52. The MSI CR52-A2 52x24x52x CD-RW drive has this specification. The first 52x is the speed at which the drive writes to recordable CD/DVDs, the 24x in this case is the rewrite speed, which is how fast the drive can write to rewritable (RW) disks, and the last 52x is how fast the drive can read CD disks. The MSI 52x24x52 CD-RW offers a 52x write, a 24x rewrite (but 24x RW disks are almost impossible to find), and a 52x read, which is comparable to the other 52x CD-RW's currently being marketed. Click here! to read information further down this page on the reading, writing, and rewriting speeds of CD/DVD writers. Use your browser's Back button to return to here. How long do burned CDs and DVDs last?The longevity of recorded CDs and DVDs depends on a number of factors, such as the original quality of the discs, the conditions they are stored in (dry, cool conditions are obviously the best, and hot, humid conditions are obviously the worst), and the way in which they they have been labelled. The chemicals of some stick-on labels are known to destroy the top layer of the disc, which contains the information. But using a felt-tip marker to write on the top surface of a disc doesn't harm it in any way. The same is true of CD and DVD discs that are labelled by a printer that can make use of LightScribe technology to do so. The Optical Storage Technology Association website goes into great detail about CD-R and CD-RW technology. The CD-R and CD-RW information covers labelling, writing, longevity, etc., is at http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa.htm. Data and "music" CDsBlank CDs that are labelled as "music" discs are specifically intended for use with consumer, stand-alone audio CD recorders. If you're using a standard computer CD burner, there's no need to worry about the label; you can use both types. The RIAA worked with manufacturers of stand-alone, audio-only CD recorders to create a "special" type of audio disk so that it could receive a small amount of money from the sale of every "music" CD sold. With regard to blank CDs, avoid buying packs of cheap, no-brand-name CDs unless you're not worried about the lifespan of a disk, which in their case is likely to be short. And don't pay extra for "audio" CDs for disks used with a computer's CD burner. Tom's Hardware Guide and Computer Shopper UK have both commended Verbatim CD/DVD discs as being the make that is compatible with the most makes of CD/DVD writers. Cleaning CD/DVD discs and drivesCleaning a CD or DVD disk with a cloth by using a circular motion can create a curved scratch that might fool the laser that reads the disk. The laser can follow a circular scratch instead of the data track. Skips or misreads can result. The correct method is to wipe across the CD or DVD from its centre out to the circumference so that any accidental scratches are less likely to cause read errors. Of course any kind of scratching of the disk should be avoided. Only soft cleaning cloth should be used, and take care run to rub the surface too hard. How CDs Work: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cd.htm The following guide shows how to clean an Xbox DVD drive, but you can use the information for any DVD drive. "Cleaning your Xbox DVD drive" - an illustrated guide: http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/cleaning_your_dvd_drive.htm Labelling (US: labeling) recorded CD/DVDs: Manual methods and using LightScribeStick-on, print-it-yourself labels often ruin the CDs or DVDs that they're stuck on, so don't use stick-on labels - ever - and don't put a lot of ink on any CD or DVD either. If you want to label a back-up, for example, use a fine-point or medium-point felt-tip pen to write the the date, the name of the computer (if you have more than one), and a brief description on the CD. If you need to record more information about what's on a CD, if the disc's container doesn't have an enclosed leaflet that provides space for a description, write it on a piece of paper or a CD storage envelope, which only cost about a penny or two each when purchased in bulk. That simple method of labelling very seldom causes any problems with the CD/DVDs. If you really want to print on to your CDs and DVDs by using a printer that can handling such a task, which are themselves very affordable now, buy the more expensive brands of blank disks, which often have a protective plastic top coat to help preserve the data-carrying layers. However, cheap CD/DVDs usually have naked foil as the top surface, which is all right for the simple manual labelling method described above, but you should never trust them to any kind of label printer. CD/DVD writers are now available that can print a label on a recordable CD/DVD by using LightScribe technology. CD/DVD writers that support LightScribe technology can etch text and images on to the label side of specially coated LightScribe discs. The latest LightScribe discs have a LightScribe 1.2 logo on their packaging. A CD/DVD writer that supports LightScribe is required, however you don't have to buy a new drive that supports LightScribe 1.2, you just need some LightScribe 1.2 discs, some LightScribe labelling software, which is included in packages such as Nero and Roxio Easy Media Creator, and the latest version of the LightScribe host software from http://www.lightscribe.com/. Writing a label to a disc can take between 20 and 30 minutes using the older discs, but the job can be done in between 4 to 5 minutes using LightScribe 1.2 discs. CD/DVD copy protectionYou cannot use DVD-burning software to make copies of DVD movies, because it is illegal to do so, therefore, DVD-burning software cannot legally copy comercial DVDs. All comercial DVDs are protected by the Content Scrambling System (CSS), and it is illegal to create software that decrypts CSS. However, DVD-copying software is still useful for use with home movies, which you can make unlimited copies of. Moreover, DVD-copying software can also recode and recompress home movies, which allows you to change the format to suit different playback modes for use on, say, portable media players and CDs. ****Note that many new audio CD/DVDs won't play on a computer's CD/DVD drive because they are prevented from doing so by copy-protection measures built into the disks. You can still use a computer to listen to such disks by plugging, say, a CD player, such as a CD Walkman, into the sound card's line-in port, but you won't be able to use the computer to copy them. There are also cases of new stereo CD players that won't recognise some CDs, and of audio CDs that play in a stereo hi-fi player, but don't work in in-car CD players that are no more than two years old. BMG, which is part of the Bertelsmann AG Media corporation, and is the third largest music publisher, has implemented copy-protection on its audio CDs. Visit http://www.bmg-copycontrol.info/ for more information, and to access the contact information if a BMG CD won't play on your system. You are advised to contact the publisher and ask for an explanation if you can't play its disks. Note that I have read of cases in which the copy protection on CDs have trashed a system and made it unbootable. So, if you have tried to play any kind of copy-protected material on your computer and it suddenly becomes unbootable, try booting to the Windows CD and, if successful, reinstall Windows. See the Recovering XP page on this site for the ways of recovering Windows XP. CD ExtraA CD-Extra CD is a multi-session CD containing both computer data and audio files (MP3 and WAV files). The first session contains audio files so that a home or car CD player can play them. The second session contains data that is intended to play from a computer's CD-ROM drive. Many music CDs are created as a CD-Extra disk in order to provide music and video on the CD. A home or car player reads the tracks on the first session but ignores the second (data) session. However, a computer's CD-ROM drive has to read the second session first and so will not start up automatically. If the computer's CD-ROM player is already running when you put the disk in, it will announce that the drive is empty. Therefore, you should insert the disk and then start it up by entering its drive letter in Start => Run (usually D:). The only requirement is that the drive can recognise multi-session CDs. Most CD-ROM drives can - even those over six years old. Recording/burning CDs and DVDsApart from the DVD writers that can use DVD-RAM disks, which can use the CD/DVD burning software built into Windows XP and Windows Vista, and which can be used in the same way as giant floppy disks when they're formatted with the FAT32 file system, CD and DVD writers require special software to "burn" data to them. Read Why can't I write to DVD RAM discs with my LG 4160B DVD writer? on this site for more information on using DVD-RAM disks as giant floppy disks. 16x DVD writers are now very cheap. You canbuy a DVD burner for as little as £15/$30. However, there still are differences in the quality of the drives on the market. Are Cheap DVD Burners Worth the Trouble? - "There are various reasons why you might want to purchase a DVD burner for your PC. On one hand, it can serve as a versatile and inexpensive storage device, as recordable DVDs store 4.7 GB on single-layer discs or 8.5 GB of data onto double-layer media (DL). This provides plenty of space for storing your family pictures, wedding videos or other data. On the other hand, DVDs are the most popular medium for digital movies and audio. Most DVD players and recent car audio solutions support audio and video playback of various popular formats, and a single-layer DVD can hold over eight hours of DivX or XviD video in standard definition or 750 MP3 songs in 192 kb/s quality..." - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/...review-2134.html Most types of blank DVD discs can also be purchased very cheaply (DVD RAM disks aren't cheap), especially if they're unbranded, but experienced burners only purchase brand-name disks, because in that way they can be sure of faster and more reliable results. Both Tom's Hardware Guide and Computer Shopper have found disks made by Verbatim to be the most reliable and compatible with the widest range of different drives. CD/DVD recording/burning softwareThe most common burning software that is purchased and bundled with drives is Nero software made by Ahead. But there are many other burning programs, several of which are free downloads. Windows XP has inbuilt CD-burning software, but it can be difficult or problematic to use compared to very user-friendly burning software such as Nero. If you can't get it to work, read Burning CDs in Windows XP here: http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm. The article answers the following questions: "How does Win XP's inbuilt CD-burning software work? What are its limitations? How do you work around them, or fix common problems?" There are two types of CD recording software: packet writing software and standard CD recording software, often called CD burning software or premastering software. One or both types of software can be included with retail CD optical disk drives. OEM drives, supported by the vendor or private PC builder, may or may not come bundled with recording software. The standard recording software is used like any other tool, such as a backup utility. You select the folder or files that you want to burn to disc, and click on the options that get the job done from within the tool. Packet writing software installs at the driver level. The Universal Data Format (UDF) used in CD packet writing allows the user to use a CD writer in the same way as a floppy or hard disk drive. Note that the UDF format is only used for packet writing to CDs. Elsewhere, notably in DVD recording, it has other applications. With packet-writing software installed, a user can write files to recordable CD discs simply by dragging and dropping the files over the drive's icon in My Computer or placed on the Windows Desktop, or save the files to the drive from within an application, and they should be written to a recordable disc automatically. Note that My Computer in Windows Vista is just called Computer. Windows XP allows the user to drag-and-drop files to the CD/DVD writer's icon, but it does not packet write them straight to the drive so that they are burned to a disc, it just queues the files so that they can be burned (recorded) to the disc by activating the burning process of a CD/DVD burning program such as Nero. It is possible to add further files to a disc (multi-session recording) by using software provided by Windows XP. However, packet writing software allows the user to delete specific files on a rewritable disc (RW CD\DVD), reuse space, or open, alter, or save files, just as you can on a floppy or a hard disk, which cannot be achieved by using a feature in Windows XP. Many DVD software programs, such as Cyberlink Power2Go, allow the user to record data, image, or video files to recordable discs by dragging-and-dropping them on to icons placed on the Windows Desktop. For more information on UDF and packet writing, visit these pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_writing Burning CD/DVDs in Windows VistaRead the DVD-Video burning FAQ on microsoft's site, or try entering vista dvd burning in the Google search box provided at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled). Closing CD-R discsCD-burning software has the ability to close the CD so that no further recording can take place. Unclosed CD-R discs can probably only be read in CD drives that are not writers with burning software active, because a CD-R disc's Table of Contents (TOC) isn't written until the CD-R disc is closed, and most standard, non-burner CDs require the TOC to access the CD content. Note that Windows XP has built-in, basic CD-burning functions, so if you don't have any burning software installed and have a non-burning CD drive that can read unclosed CD-R discs, it's probably because Windows XP is making use of that software to read them. Burning CDs in Windows XP: http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm If you want to make a CD-R disc almost universally readable on almost any CD hardware, then use your burning software to close the CD. Doing that leaves the disc in a finalised state, which is what you want for backups, because if the disc can't be accessed, the backup can't be restored.
CD-Recordable FAQ - http://www.cdrfaq.org/ - contains all of the information anyone could need on recording to CD-R and CD-RW discs. If you need other sources of information here are a few good links: Windows XP CD Burning Secrets - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/.../bott_03september16.mspx Understanding CD-R and CD-RW Recording Software - http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa4.htm Drag and drop recording to a recordable CD - http://www.mrichter.com/cdr/primer/udf.htm This relevant Q&A on this site is self-explanatory: DVD COPYING SOFTWARE - DVD Copy Software Review - http://www.dvd-copy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
Most elderly systems, dating from around 1998 when the Intel Pentium 2 and the AMD K6-2 processors were the top processors, running Windows 98, with 64MB and more of RAM, can be used to operate a CD writer. But note that an Intel Celeron/Pentium 3 or an AMD Duron/Athlon processor running at 1GHz (1000MHz), or higher, is the minimum amount of processing power that should be used with a DVD writer. The minimum hardware and software requirements of a particular CD/DVD drive should be written on its packaging, or should be available from its manufacturer's or vendor's site. CD-RW drives that can also record to CD-R disks are dirt cheap now that DVD writers with their much greater recording capacity per disk are the state of the art. You can buy a very good combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive for £20 in the UK. The software that does the burning of the data to the disks is often bundled with the CD/DVD drive, but it can also be found as free downloads or purchased. The software's or the CD/DVD drive's website will usually provide detailed instructions on how to use it. Here is just one example of such a page provided by the drive manufacturer, Iomega. - How do I create CDs or DVDs using the software that came with my Iomega® CD-RW (ZipCD 650) or DVD drive? - http://www.iomega.com/support/documents/11082.html Note that CD-RW and DVD-RW and DVD+RW disks have to be formatted before they can be used. How do I use DirectCD to format a CD-RW disc in Windows® 95/98/2000/Me or Windows NT - http://www.iomega.com/support/documents/10034.html Look under the letter C and D on this Links-1 page - one of four Links pages on this site - for links to CD/DVD sites, some of which provide excellent tutorials. PC World - Free toolsFree CD Utilities: Burn Disks, Fix Damaged Tracks - these tools let you detect corrupted files, rip tracks from your disks and burn them: - http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1289,tk,lg,00.asp A good anonymous posting from the alt.windows98 newsgroup"CD
burners do wear out. I've read that 2-3 years is an average life span but
mine still works at 4 years old and 400+ burns to its credit (an HP 8100).
Also read that burning at DAO (disc at once) setting is less wear and tear on
the unit versus burning at TAO (track at once). At TAO, the laser is turning on
and off after each track is burned. Try DAO and see if you can get past 7 songs. "Now you know why it costs more to fix one than to buy a new one. Techs have expenses too." DVD technologyBoth CD and DVD discs have pits in their readable surfaces, which can be on one side or both sides, that are of two sizes - one size is read by the CD/DVD drive's laser as a 0 (zero) and the other side is read as a 1. The data is imprinted or burned to the disc as a binary code made up of 1s and 0s. The drive's laser can read the pits because the disc has a reflective surface that reflects the laser beam back to the drive. The drive can interpret the changes in the laser beam as quickly as the continous line of pits is presented to it as the disc revolves in the drive. DVD discs have a smaller pit size than CD discs. DVD discs also have tighter track spacing (track pitch) between the spirals of pits. In order for a DVD player to read the smaller pit size and tighter track spacing of the DVD format, a different type of laser with a smaller beam of light is employed. Because of this difference, CD players or drives can't read DVD discs, but DVD players and drives are capable of reading CDs. The smaller beam can read a more widely spaced track of pits, but the laser used in a CD player or drive can't track the smaller more densely packed pits an a DVD disc. There is just one standard of pre-recorded video DVDs - DVD-Video - but there are three different varieties of rewritable DVD, two types of write-once DVD, and two new standards/formats competing to become the successor to the music CD. Unfortunately, there are now also two new types of blue laser DVD that are threatening to replace standard DVD. Add to this the Philips' tiny new Small Form-Factor Optical - SFFO - video disc, and the possibility of high-definition TV movies (HDTV), and you will no doubt come to the conclusion that the present is not the right time to choose DVD equipment. High definition DVD offers 1080 lines of video resolution video, compared to the 576/480 lines offered by current DVDs. There are currently two main high-definition DVD formats under development and competing to become the dominant format - HD DVD (not the same as the general term High Definition DVD, which refers to all high definition DVD formats, and Blu-ray disc or BD). Visit the following page for more information on the new technology. The High Definition DVD FAQ - http://www.digital-digest.com/highdefdvd/faq.html Serious issues with regard to PC and video-card support for HDCP, the copyright protection built into high-definition DVDs have come to light. HDCP stands for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection and is a content-protection system that is mandatory for the high-definition playback of HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs. The following two articles provide the details: The Great HDCP Fiasco - http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_nvidia_hdcp_support Only big companies' PCs will play high-def DVDs - http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/12/only_big_companies_p.html That said, most of the latest DVD drives support reading and writing to all of the current CD/DVD formats. You merely have to understand what they are, and then take care to find out which formats a drive supports before you purchase a computer containing that drive, or the drive itself. One of the two new standards of copy-protected DVD audio compact disc is called DVD-A. It is supported by Creative's SoundBlaster Audigy 2 and the Audigy 2 ZS sound cards. DVD-A discs have a DTS or a Dolby surround-sound track so that they can be played on any DVD-Video player, not just on dedicated DVD-A players, or those DVD-Video players with specific DVD-A support. The other new standard/format for high-quality audio is called Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD), which is being promoted by Sony and Philips, the developers of the original CD, to compete with DVD-A. A SACD disc is really made up of two discs stuck together. One of the discs is DVD-based and carries the multi-channel audio, and the other disc is an ordinary CD, which makes it possible to play a SACD disk on a standard CD player. Note that although its maximum supported volume is two terabytes, the FAT32 file system has a 2GB file-size limit. (One gigabyte (GB) = 1024 megabytes (MBs) and one terabyte (TB) = 1024GB.) If you download a DVD video file to a FAT32 system that exceeds this size limit you will be in trouble. The only solution is to upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP, and either do a clean installation, which will install the superior NTFS file system by default, or upgrade from Windows 9.x and convert from FAT32 to NTFS, which does not suffer from such a file-size barrier because its maximum file size is unlimited. When working with or playing home movies on DVD, there is no benefit to having Windows XP Professional edition over Windows XP Home edition. Spending the extra money that XP Professional costs (compared to the Home edition) on a larger, faster, hard disk drive will have a bigger impact on working with video. If you want more information on these new standards/formats, enter the name or term in the Google search box at the top of this page. Keep reading this page if you want to know more about the competing DVD standards/formats. DVD regions - Regional codesWhen you start using a DVD player, including the DVD drive in a computer, you are asked to enter the regional origin of the DVDs that you want to play. The idea of this is to prevent purchasers from buying and playing DVDs that come from another region. The regions are US, Europe, Japan, etc., The strategy is aimed at overcoming copyright issues, and at preventing purchasers from buying DVDs from countries in which they are cheaper. For instance, CDs and DVDs are much more expensive in the UK than they are in the US. You are only allowed a certain number of attempts at entering the region. If the player's programming determines that you're changing the region, it will suddenly lock on one region. So, if you have entered US as the region to play an American DVD in the UK, and the player locks on to it, you won't be able to play DVDs made in the UK. Once the player is locked on the wrong region, there is no way to get it to change the region other than by getting the manufacturer of the player to replace one of its parts. Otherwise you'll have to buy another DVD drive/player - or just have to keep buying your DVDs from the region that the player is locked into. DVD Region Codes - What You Need To Know - http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdlaserdisc/a/aaregioncodesa.htm DVD region code - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code The firmwareYou should also take great care when you download and install the firmware for a DVD drive from its manufacturer's site. Make sure it is for the specific make and model, and make sure that it is for the correct region of the world. If you install the incorrect region, you won't be able to play DVD movies created for your region. A particular DVD drive's firmware and a utility that can update it can usually be downloaded from the manufacturer's website. A website that provides firmware upgrades is http://forum.rpc1.org/. How to unlock the region for a DVD driveIs there software that can unlock the region on a DVD drive or a region-free DVD drive? is a Q&A on this site that addresses that problem. DVD-ROM drivesDVD (Digital Versatile Disk) technology is really no more than several methods of doing the same things as CD technology, but with much higher storage capacities. The higher storage capacity is attained by superior reading and error-checking technology that makes higher-density storage possible. The minimum computer hardware and software requirements of a particular CD/DVD drive should be written on its packaging, or should be available from its manufacturer's or vendor's site. A CD can only contain 650MB of data, whereas a DVD-ROM disk can hold up to 17GB. A capacity that is constantly rising as new technology provides the means of increasing it. The multiple-layer capacity of DVD discsA DVD disc can have up to four layers of information, with two layers on each side. To read information on the second layer on the same side, the laser focuses deeper into the DVD and reads the pits on the second layer. When the laser switches from one layer to another layer, it is referred to as the "layer switch" or the "RSDL (reverse spiral dual layer) switch". To read information from the other side of the DVD, almost all DVD players and drives require the user to flip the disc manually. DVD-ROM disks are the same size as CD disks, but come in four capacity versions - single-sided, single layer (DVD-5 - 4.7GB), single-sided, double layer (DVD-9 - 8.5GB), double-sided, single layer (DVD-10 - 9.4GB), and double-sided, double layer (DVD-18 - approx. 17GB). The capacities provided above are shown in the table below.
A double-sided DVD disk is two disks sealed back-to-back. At present there are no players that can play both sides of these disks automatically; they have to be turned over manually. All four capacity types can be read by a conventional DVD-ROM drive. The technical principles involved are essentially the same for both recordable CDs and DVDs. If you want to know how CD-R and CD-RW drives record data or burn disks, visit this article: How CD-Burners Work - http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cd-burner.htm DVD discs can be used to provide the following formats: DVD-VideoDVD-Video is a video and audio format used for movies, music-concert videos, and other video-based programmes. This format first became available in the spring of 1997. DVD-AudioThe DVD-Audio format features high-resolution 2-channel stereo and multi-channel sound that comprises up to six separate channels of sound. The format made its debut in the summer of 2000 after a delay in overcoming a copy-protection issue. DVD-Audio/Video players are numerous and widely available. DVD-ROMDVD-ROM is a similar data storage format to the CD-ROM format. DVD-ROM discs can only be used in DVD-ROM drives in computer systems. They can be used for for archiving data files, for mass storage, and for interactive and/or web-based content. **** Note that a DVD disc can contain any combination of DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, and/or DVD-ROM content. For example, some DVD movies contain DVD-ROM content on the same disc, which provides additional interactive and web-based content that can be accessed when using a computer with a DVD-ROM drive. Some DVD-Audio titles are actually DVD-Audio/Video discs that actually have additional DVD-Video content that provide video-based content, such as interviews with the recording artists, music videos, or a Dolby Digital and/or DTS surround sound track that can be played back by any DVD-Video player connected to a 5.1 surround sound system. DVD burners: Writers and rewritersNow that the formats that DVD writers support have largely been sorted out, your main choice involves choosing the drive that supports all or most of the read/write formats, and choosing whether to buy an internal drive or pay a little more for the flexibility of having an external drive. The prices of DVD writers continue to fall. For example, in October 2005, the Pioneer DVR-110D internal DVD writer that supports writing to DVD+R dual-layer discs and DVD-R double-layer discs was priced at only £32. Here are the writing speeds of the Pioneer DVR-110D DVD writer: 16x DVD-R, 16x DVD+R, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 8x DVD-R DL, 8x DVD+R DL, 40x CD-R, 32x CD-RW. Note that the DVD+R standard uses the term dual-layer for its discs that have two recordable layers that double the amount of data that can be saved, and the competing DVD-R standard uses the term double-layer for the same feature in order to distinguish it from the DVD+R standard. You have to use DVD+R DL discs to record using the DVD+R standard, and you have to use DVD-R DL discs to use the DVD-R standard. Most of the current DVD writers can burn data to both kinds of disc. If there is no DL description on the packaging, then the discs are single-layer discs. The minimum hardware and software requirements of a particular CD/DVD drive should be written on its packaging, or should be available from its manufacturer's or vendor's site. Examples of external DVD writers are the Amacom DVRW4UF DiVID Burner, the Freecom FX-50, and the Freecom Traveller II Plus. As with external hard disk drives, the manufacturers of external DVD writers are usually not the main manufacturers of internal DVD writers, but are companies that specialise in manufacturing external drives. DVD-R is the DVD version of CD-R. DVD-R disks can only be recorded to once, after which they become read-only disks. However, unlike CD-RW drives and discs, which allow CDs to be written to many times, there are at present three different types of rewritable DVD discs available - DVD+RW, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM. You'll have to look for a drive that supports DVD-RAM, because most drives don't support it.
DVD-RAs with CD-R discs, you can only write to a DVD-R disc once, then it becomes read-only. 1x single-sided (4.7GB) discs can be purchased for as little as 50 pence ($1) each or even less if purchased in bulk, But the 4x single-sided discs currently cost about £1 ($2) each (February 2004), not counting discounts for bulk purchases. Double-sided/double layer discs with twice or four times the capacity of single layer, single sided discs are the most expensive discs. DVD-RWDVD-RW discs are used in the same way as CD-RW discs, but have a much larger capacity, measured in GBs instead of MBs, and can be written to up to 1000 times. Write speeds to the discs are slower than to DVD-R discs, and erasing them and then writing to them is time-consuming. The discs currently (February 2004) cost between £2 and £4 per disc, depending on the supported burn speed and the brand, and without taking bulk purchase discounts into consideration. Rewritable discs have to be reformatted. DVD+RDVD+R is an alternative standard to DVD-R. The discs are a little more expensive than DVD-R discs, but DVD+R is the only technology that offers an 8x writing speed. At first, DVD+R discs lacked compatibility with home DVD players, but this is no longer the case with current players. DVD+RWDVD+RW is an alternative standard to DVD-RW, with each single-sided disc having a standard capacity of 4.7GB. Double-sided discs are available. As with CD-RW and DVD-RW, the discs can be erased and written to 1000+ times. As with the other rewritable standards, the write speeds are about half of those to the write-once-only discs. Reliability and compatibility with home DVD players is lower than that of +R discs, but the standard is no less reliable or compatible than the DVD-RW standard. Rewritable discs have to be reformatted. DVD-RAMDVD-RAM is the least commonly used DVD standard, but it is nevertheless the most reliable. Some DVD-RAM discs have a protective cartridge that keeps dust and light out, but even unprotected discs have an expected lifespan of 100,000+ rewrites. Data is written to DVD-RAM discs so that truly random access in reading and writing takes place, hence the extension -RAM. The discs are accessed in much the same way as RAM memory. This makes drag-and-drop data transfers to and from the discs possible. However, compatibility is not good with other DVD drives and players. (See further down the page for an example of a drive that supports all of the DVD writing standards, including DVD-RAM.) Single-sided DVD-RAM discs have a capacity of 4.7GB, but are also available as double-sided discs. DVD-RAM discs are easily the most expensive of the DVD-rewritable discs. There is some more detailed information on DVD-RAM further down this page.
Reading, writing, and rewriting speedsDepending on the drive itself and the format of disk used, writing (burning) speeds can vary between one-speed (1x) and eight-speed (32x). The x is used as shorthand for the word 'speed'. 1x is the original reading speed of the first CD-ROM drives. The higher the number in front of the x, the faster the reading or writing speed is. CD/DVD drive manufacturers specify a maximum writing speed for each of the formats supported by their drives. Typically, in 2005, these are currently 32x to 48x for the CD-R format, 24x for the CD-RW format, 8x to 16x for the DVD-R and DVD+R formats (often shown as DVD-/+R), 4x for the DVD-RW and and DVD+RW formats (often shown as DVD-/+RW), 2.4x to 4x for the DVD+R DL (double layer) format, and 5x for the DVD-RAM format. If DVD drives actually performed to their maximum speeds, a full single-layer DVD would be burned in 14 minutes at 4x, 7 minutes at 8x, and 4 minutes at 16x. However, there are a number of reasons why the maximum speed is not delivered in practice, such as the fact that drives can write faster to the outer areas of the disk than they can write to the inner areas, and it takes time for the drive to prepare for and then end the writing process. The higher the speed rating, the more expensive the disks (also known as the recording media). Remember that all DVD writers can also burn to CD-R and CD-RW disks (albeit not as fast as dedicated CD-R and CD-RW drives), currently writing at 40x and rewriting at 24x. In order to avoid reliability problems, you are advised to buy only brand-name disks, or disks that have been proven to be reliable with a particular make of drive.
Note that DVD drives are now available that support the reading and writing of all of DVD reading and writing standards (DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW) and most of these drives can also write to CD-R and CD-RW disks. A recent U.S. government study has found that DVDs and DVD drives are only compatible 85% of the time. This is probably due to the fact that CD and DVD writers can be intolerant of the disks made by certain manufacturers. Therefore, buying a DVD writer it is no longer so much of a gamble on which standard will win out over the others and make them redundant, because you can always fall back to writing to CDs. However, the CD-R and CD-RW writing speeds of these DVD drives don't yet match the speeds of dedicated CD writers/rewriters. As with CD writers and rewriters, the DVD rewriters' disks are more expensive than the record-once-only disks, and the drives themselves are significantly more expensive that CD writers/rewriters. DVD-RAM has a couple of years start on the other four types of DVD writer, but it is by no means certain how this situation will eventually shake out. Note that DVD-RAM is considered as a safer, more reliable format for archiving important data than either of the DVD-R and DVD+R formats. But it will probably be at least another two years before DVD-R or DVD-RW is affordable and compatible enough to be a serious contender as a backup device for the home user. As with hard disk drives, you can purchase a retail boxed product, supported by its manufacturer, or an OEM product supported by the vendor. The former will come with a user manual, driver CD, CD-burning software, and often even CD authoring software. However, OEM drives usually only come in a box with perhaps a driver CD, but often without even that. You will have to allow Windows to install the drivers, or download the latest installation file from the manufacturer's site. Bundled softwareCD/DVD-burning software can be expensive if purchased separately, so it's a good idea to buy a drive that comes with good burning software. Examples of DVD-burning software included with boxed retail products are Nero 6.0, Roxio Easy CD, with PowerDVD for DVD playback. And examples of DVD-authoring software included are Videowave, Movie Creator, and Studio 8 SE. Nero 6.0 ReloadedFebruary 2005 - Note that Nero 6.0 Reloaded is now available. - "Capture and export files to Nero Digital™ format with our video editing application NeroVision Express 3 and experience the best audio and video quality! NeroVision Express 3 is part of the Nero 6 Reloaded suite." - http://www.nero.com/ The user manualThe user manual (or information on the manufacturer's site) provides the technical details such as the read/write speeds of the various supported modes of operation (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, etc), and the supported recording modes (disk-at-once, incremental recording, session-at-once, track-at-once, packet write, etc.). For more information on this subject, visit - DVD Formats - http://www.dvdirect.com/TSS/charts/DVDFormats.htm The firmwareA drive's firmware is the built-in software that manages the drives behaviour. It works in much the same way as the motherboard's BIOS, and affects the capabilities and performance, such as the read and write speeds for a CD/DVD format. Note well that for most modern drives the firmware is upgradable, which allows the manufacturers to keep their drives up to date as well as make improvements in format support. If a firware upgrade is available from the manufacturer's site, all you have to do is download the file and install it by executing that file - or install it by using a special utility proved from the same site. However, you should read the documentation that came with the drive before you upgrade the firmware, because doing so can render its warranty invalid. And you must make absolutely sure that the firmware is meant for that specific make and model of drive - and, if necessary. that it is the correct version for a particular country. Click here! to read Upgrade your 'firmware' on this site. Use your browser's Back button to return here. A site that provides firmware upgrades is: http://forum.rpc1.org/. DVDINF Pro - is a free utility that provides all the details you might want to know about an installed DVD drive, including the driver and version of firmware being used - http://www.dvdinfopro.com/. DVD Media Format Compatibility TestsYou have to make sure that the DVD drive or player you buy supports the formats that you want to use. To view the information listed under the DVD Media Format Compatibility Tests, go to http://www.cdrinfo.com/ and look under the Articles heading. A wide range of DVD drives and media have been tested, and the results are recorded there.
Reviews & GuidesBuyers' Guides - PC WorldRead the Buyers' Guides for PC hardware and peripherals on PC World by clicking the HOW-TO button on the home page. CD/DVD drive reviewsComputer Shopper - CD/DVD drive Reviews: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/archiveproductsearch/1/CD-DVD-drives Computer Shopper - Latest Reviews - the latest computer hardware and peripherals, including printers: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/reviews/latest/ Over 3,000 reviews are browsable by category or company name. Computer Shopper Laboratory (tests): http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/labs/ Computer Shopper Hotlist - hot computer products, including printers: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
