Each of the following is a different CD or DVD standard/format: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW DL, DVD-R DL, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD RAM. Only the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM standards are not recordable. -R and +R mean that the disc can be recorded to only once, and -RW and +RW mean that the disc is rewritable (can be written to hundreds or thousands of times). The DL stands for Dual Layer, which means that the disc has two recordable layers on the same side that doubles its capacity. If you need to know the capacity of a particular format immediately, enter a suitable search term in the Google search box at the top of this page, (with its Web radio button enabled) such as: capacity + dvd+r dl. The first link probably goes to a Wikipedia page devoted to that format.

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 difference in price between different makes of DVD writer is due to the build quality, although it is difficult to buy a bad a DVD-RW drive these days. Unless you are only looking at Blu-ray drives, then any optical DVD burner you buy is likely to be of good quality. However, if you want the best quality, you should be looking at drives made by Pioneer or Plextor. Drives of mid-range quality would be Samsung or Sony, NEC and Sony Optiarc. All of the makes of DVD writer have risen to a certain level of features and reasonable quality, probably due to the arrival of Blu-ray. That is, there is no innovation in DVD burners anymore, so they all are competing on pretty equal terms.

Quality, brand-name optical CDs and DVD discs (including Blu-ray discs) are probably still the best option for long-term storage of data. If the discs don't have labels glued on to them and are stored in a dark place at normal residential heat and humidity levels, most estimates give them a minimum lifespan of 5 to 10 years. I have tested some 10-year-old CDs that worked 100%.

If the discs are kept in carefully controlled data-center or museum-quality storage conditions (in dark, dry, low-temperature conditions) the lifespan of recordable optical discs can be very much longer — from 30 to 100 years.

The Blu-ray and HD DVD disc standards

Sony'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.

Blu-ray writers are currently much more exensive than DVD writers - up to ten times more expensive. A good DVD writer currently (January 2009) costs £20 or less and a Blu-ray writer costs between £150 and £200.

Note that the latest-standard Blu-ray writers are currently much more expensive than DVD writers, but most of them can also write to the recordable CD and DVD disc formats. Here is an example:

LG GGW H20L Super Multi Blue Blu-ray writer - £135 (April 2009) - Supported disc formats and writing speeds:
BD-RE / HD DVD-ROM combo drive - Internal - Serial ATA - Read speed: 40x (CD) / 12x (DVD±R) / 8x (DVD±R DL) / 6x (recent DVD recorders can work with discs either with or without cartridge, and many devices do not support cartridges at all. Discs can be removed from cartridges for use with these drives.) / 4.8x (BD-R DL) / 3x (HD DVD) / 3x (HD DVD DL) - Write speed: 40x (CD) / 16x (DVD±R) / 4x (DVD±R DL) / 6x (BD-R) / 4x (BD-R DL) - Rewrite speed: 24x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 5x (DVD-RAM) / 2x (BD-RE) / 2x (BD-RE DL)

The new Blu-ray standard, created by Sony, also has write-once (BD-R) and rewritable (BD-RE) discs. Single and dual layer (DL) discs are available that have capacities of 25GB and 50GB respectively. Note, however, that not all of the current (August 2008) Blu-ray writers can write to the 50GB discs. If you want to write to the 50GB discs, check the drive's specifications before you make a purchase.

50GB is enough storage for 9 hours of HD movies, 23 hours of standard definition content, or 72 CDs on a single disc. Moreover, Blu-ray Disc gives you playback of MPEG2, the native compression technique for HDTV broadcasts, or even more capacity with advanced codes such as AVC.

The LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray writer can write to single layer and dual layer discs.

GGW-H20L [Review] -

http://www.pcworld.com/article/140332/lg_ggwh20l_bluray_drivehd_dvd_reader.html

Excellent free CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc-burning software

Ashampoo Burning Studio Free is excellent disc-burning software, available free from the program's download page on CNET's Download.com. -

http://download.cnet.com/Ashampoo-Burning-Studio-Free/3000-2646_4-10776287.html

This burning software does not require much hard-disk space, is relatively simple to use and rips and burns recordable CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs reliably in all of the standard video, audio, and data formats. It supports all of the current versions of Windows, even Windows 7, released officially on October 22, 2009.

Rewritable discs: How many times can a CD-RW/DVD-RW/DVD+RW/BD-RE disc be written to/rewritten?

Currently, CD-RW discs can be rewritten approximately a 1,000 times. A DVD+RW or a DVD-RW disc is very similar to a CD-RW disc with regard to the number of times that it can be rewritten. However, as with CD-RW discs, in practice the number of times will probably be much higher and vary between the brand-name makes of disc. Blu-ray rewritable discs (Blu-ray Disc Rewritable discs) are designated by BD-RE (not BD-RW in the way that CD-RW and DVD-RW/DVD+RW are used for the CD/DVD rewritable standards). The BD-RE specifications require that the discs, at minimum, should be rewritable at least 1,000 times. However, different materials, designs, and fabrications may allow a greater number of rewrites. Some, but not all of the BD-RE disc manufacturers, specify that their discs are capable of 10,000 or more rewrites.

How to identify the make and model of a CD/DVD drive and the disc formats that it supports

If you want to find out which formats a particular CD or DVD writer supports, you can usuallyidentify its make and model in the Windows Device Manager under the DVD/CD-ROM drives category of devices, and then enter that information enclosed within double quotation marks in a search engine, such as Google, to find links to specifications and reviews. If it is not identified in the Device Manager, you can use a free utility, such as the Belarc Advisor.

Alternatively, most CD/DVD writers that are purchased come with writing (burning) software, such as Nero Express, that also installs the Nero Toolkit, which contains the Nero InfoTool that provides information and technical specifications on a particular CD/DVD writer and the disc formats that it supports. The toolkit also provides the Nero CD-DVDSpeed and the Nero DriveSpeed utilities that measure reading and writing speeds. Other CD/DVD writing software bundled with CD/DVD drives probably also provides similar tools. The information provided by the Nero InfoTool is show below. The letters DL stand for Double Layer, which means that discs in that format that have two layers instead of just one are supported. More information is provided on all of these disc formats further down this page.

The information provided on CD/DVD drives and writers by the Nero InfoTool

Unfortunately, it is now assumed that most PC users have DVD drives/writers and players, not CD drives and players. The following pages provide disc-compatibility information on a huge number of DVD drives/writers and players:

DVD Writer and Blu-ray Writer list - http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters

DVD Player and Blu-ray Player list - http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

Are Do-It-All CD/DVD Packages Worth It? -

"The packages we will look at are used for creating, compiling and burning CDs and DVDs: whether to create the ultimate mix, to immortalize home videos, build looping slideshows with music and voiceovers or simply to keep ancient vinyl or tape recordings alive. As far as we can tell, the race is on between Nero and Corel/Roxio to take the top spot in this latest go-round of "Clash of the Titans." Fortunately for consumers, this kind of battle offers tremendous value and lots of outstanding capability for a relatively small amount of money..." - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/...review-2117.html

RECENT ARTICLES ON CD/DVD/BLU-RAY OPTICAL DRIVES AND DISCS

Primer: The Principles Of 3D Video And Blu-ray 3D -

"Today we're partnering up with the experts at CyberLink to introduce the principles underlying 3D video, how it is created, and how it's displayed. Our main interest is Blu-ray 3D, so we'll be exploring the tech your 3D-enabled home theater might include." -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/blu-ray-3d-3d-video-3d-tv,review-31899.html

Blu-ray 3D On The PC: The Tom's Hardware Review -

"Tom's Hardware has an exclusive first-look at Blu-ray 3D technology running on a notebook and HTPC leveraging Nvidia's 3D Vision technology, CyberLink's PowerDVD 10 Ultra Mark II software, and an Acer display. Might this setup be in your future, too?" -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/...

128GB Blu-ray Disc format slated for release -

"The Blu-ray Disc Association this week announced plans to release a new commercial high-definition disc format that will offer up to 128GB of write-once capacity within months.The association also said it plans to release a rewritable disc format for consumers that will support up to 100GB of data, or twice the Blu-ray capacity available today." -

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9174895/...

Watch Blu-ray And Burn DVDs: Three Low-Cost Solutions : Return Of The “Combo” Drive -

"Combo drives have a long history of bringing value to people with simple burning needs. As prices for expensive Blu-ray media drops, we review three low-cost drives that can read high-priced content and write to the most value-oriented formats." -

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/blu-ray-dvd,review-31742.html

Any CD/DVD disc can hold many hundreds/thousands of times the amount of data that a floppy disk can hold. An ordinary CD-ROM disc 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 discs can hold many times more data that CD discs; 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 hard-disk-drive and optical disc 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-ROM disc 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 disc. All of the versions of Windows Vista comes on a single DVD-ROM disc.

Like hard disk drives, optical CD/DVD drives use the IDE (ATAPI), the SATA, or the SCSI interfaces. Most new optical DVD and Blu-ray drives used in PCs now use the SATA interface, but IDE (ATAPI) drives are still available because of the huge number of ageing PCs that use them.

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 PATA hard disk drive.

A CD/DVD/HD DVD/ Blu-ray burning application

"ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!" - http://www.imgburn.com/

SATA optical CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives

January 5, 2009. - Most of the new optical CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives only have the SATA interface that is also the main interface used by hard disk drives in PCs. However, there are still millions of ageing computers that use the older IDE interface for both hard disk drives and optical drives, so IDE drives of both types are still available.

Drive mapping: How to map a network hard disk and/or CD/DVD drive

Drive mapping: "Drive mapping is the way by which Microsoft Windows and OS/2 associate a local drive letter ("A" through "Z") with a shared storage area to another computer over a network. After a drive has been mapped, a software application on a client's computer can read and write files from the shared storage area by accessing that drive, just as if that drive represented a local physical hard disk drive." - That applies to both hard-disk, SSD and CD/DVD/Blu-ray optical drives.

Mapping a network drive [Windows XP] -

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/maintain/mapdrive.mspx

Create a shortcut to (map) a network drive [Windows Vista] -

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/help/...

Bear in mind that Vista's strict security policies can hinder drive mapping. If you run into trouble doing so in Vista, this Technet article may help you solve your difficulty. -

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766208.aspx

CD drives come as standard CD-ROM (read-only), CD-R (recordable only once), and CD-RW (re-writable - many times) drives.

CD-R and DVD+/-R writers and blank discs 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.

Most DVD writers can record to CD-R and CD-RW discs, play DVD-ROM discs and write to DVD-R/DVD+R and DVD-RW/DVD+R discs. Some, but not all DVD writers can also write to DVD-RAM discs. The DVD-RAM format has built-in error control and a defect management system. The structure of a DVD-RAM disc is similar to hard-disk and floppy- disk technology, as it also stores data in concentric tracks. The data on DVD-RAM discs is accessed and can be erased in the same way as it is on a hard disk drive or floppy disk and usually without any special software.

As with CD/DVD PC drives, the CD/DVD players that are available as portable units, in music centres and as car players should be able to read all of the current CD/DVD formats.

How to install a CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive

It is easy to install any type of optical drive in a desktop PC - CD, DVD, Blu-ray drive. You open the case and screw the drive into a large drive bay in the PC case so that its face shows at the front of the case. You then attach the data cable to the drive and to the motherboard. The motherboard's user manual will show you where the IDE ATA or SATA ports are. Blu-ray drives use an SATA connection.

A user manual can be downloaded from the motherboard manufacturer's website. Note that older motherboards might not support the SATA standard, the first version of which came out in 2003. Most motherboards that support SATA have at least one legacy IDE ATA port, which many CD/DVD drives still use.

If you don't know the make and model of the motherboard installed in your computer, a good free utility - Belarc Advisor - 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 motherboard (processor and memory) is CPU-Z.

Then all you have to do is attach a power cable from the power supply to the drive and connect the sound cable from the drive to a header on motherboard, the position of which will be shown in its user manual.

DVD Drive Install [IDE ATA/ATAPI connection not SATA connection] -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dDOghWEHEOM&feature=related

The safest way to upgrade RAM memory: Use the UK and US Crucial Memory Advisors

Paul Mullen, who was 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 best way to choose RAM memory for a brand-name desktop or laptop computer, or memory for a paricular make/model of PC motherboard is to make use of the Crucial Memory Advisors (provided under the brief guideline on the minimum memory requirements for Windws XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7). If the Crucial memory you receive does not work, you are guaranteed a refund and standard shipping is free.

The memory requirements of the versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7

Most 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. Note that if you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, up to 4.0GB, it requires twice the amount of memory as a 32-bit version, which can only use a maximum of about 3.5GB. For more information on computer memory, read the RAM pages of this site, which includes information on the lower memory requirements of Windows 7.

UK - Crucial Memory Advisor - UK

USA - Crucial Memory Advisor - USA

How to Use the Crucial Memory Advisor

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 formats

Blu-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. However, Pioneer has produced experimental Blu-ray discs that can store a huge 500GB of data by making use of 20 layers, which should be made available in a few years' time.

Pioneer Increases [Blu-ray] Disc Size to 500GB -

"August 5, 2008.- "About a month ago, Pioneer announced that they had developed a 400GB Blu-ray Disc. Not satisfied that they had exhausted all avenues, they continued developed and found a way to add four additional layers, bringing the total disc capacity to 500GB. As with the 400GB version, the disc is compatible with current Blu-ray drives found in computers, players, and recorders." -

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1616

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-re, 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

Can my computer/PC play high-definition (HD) Blu-ray movies?

It is a common assumption that only a computer Blu-ray writer such as the Pioneer BDR-202 is required to watch (high-definition) HD movies. However, both the PC's video/graphics card and its processor must be powerful enough. The PC should have at least a 2GHz dual-core processor and a video/graphics card that supports PureVideo HD (Nvidia video cards) or Avivo HD (ATI video cards). The video card or motherboard should also have a DVI or HDMI output port that supports HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection). Blu-ray movies won't play on computers that are not HDCP-compliant. Playback software, such as CyberLink PowerDVD is also a requirement. The Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard has integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics that are powerful enough for Blu-ray playback. The graphics has its own dedicated 256MB of graphics memory. Most integrated graphics solutions make use of system RAM memory installed on the motherboard. That Gigabyte motherboard was priced at only £64 in March 2008. Note that you should not buy a desktop PC or laptop PC that has integrated/onboard graphics (graphics chip) built into the motherboard) unless you know that the graphics is powerful enough to play Blu-ray movies.

Superfast online movie downloads will be competing with movies on Blu-ray discs to the extent that the Blu-ray standard might be be maginalised.

Time is running out for Blu ray format -

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/...

There are news articles on both of the HD formats in the next item.

CD/DVD AND HIGH DEFINITION (HD) NEWS AND MATTERS OF INTEREST

Verbatim's faster blank Blu-ray rewritable double-layer discs with double capacity due out in June 2008

March 8, 2008. - Optical CD/DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray disc manufacturer, Verbatim, has announced a new range of blank Blu-ray high-definition discs that will be available in June 2008. Current single-layer rewritable Blu-ray BD-RE discs can only store up to 25GB of data, but Verbatim's new double-layer rewritable discs can store up to 50GB of data. However, they will be limited to 2x write speeds, which is slow compared to the current write speeds of DVD rewritable discs that operate at between 4x and 8x. Verbatim's other new products include 25GB single-layer, single-use BD-R discs that can be written to at 6x, and 25GB single-layer rewritable BD-RE discs that can be written to at 4x. This is an improvement compared to current 25GB single-layer, write-once and rewritable Blu-ray discs which are limited to 4x and 2x respectively. Verbatim says that its write-once discs have a shelf life that should exceed fifty years and that it will continue selling blank HD-DVD discs for players that support Toshiba's defunct high-definition standard as long as there is demand from consumers. Verbatim will not be developing faster or higher capacity HD-DVD discs, because Toshiba has announced that it has stopped developing the technology.

Sony beats Toshiba in the high-definition format war

February 20, 2008. - Yesterday, the news agency Reuters reported that Toshiba is moving to cut impending losses and kill off its HD DVD high-definition disc format, leaving Sony's competing Blu-ray high-definition format the winner of the format war. Today, Toshiba made a formal announcement of its withdrawal from the competition. Losing out to Sony is expected to cost Toshiba hundreds of millions of dollars.

This result was inevitable after Warner Brothers, which has the largest share of the global home video market, withdrew its support for the HD DVD format, because, as expected, several other high-profile companies, including Wal-Mart in the US, withdrew their support for the HD DVD format.

Although the HD DVD format has cheaper players and cheaper discs, consumers will now only be able to purchase the more expensive Blu-ray players and discs. The confusion as to which player to buy has at last been ended by this development, but consumers are unlikely to be able to pay HD DVD prices for Blu-ray given that Sony and the manufacturers of Blu-ray players did not drop their prices when the outcome of the format war could not be foreseen.

Toshiba makes it official, abandons HD-DVD format -

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?...

Home movie DVD battle won, hard sell begins -

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSSIN2084220080218

Blu-ray future limited for some -

"Owners of Blu-ray DVD players may find themselves frozen out of future developments in the technology because their machines are not upgradeable..." -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7187179.stm

Warner backs Sony's Blu-ray and drops Toshiba's HD DVD

January 7, 2008. - Warner Brothers has announced that it is to release high-definition movies exclusively in Sony's Blu-ray format. Warner was the only major studio still releasing films in both Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD format. Five studios have opted to release only Blu-ray. Walt Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and, Sony Pictures are the other studios that release movies only in the Blu-ray format. Now only Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures favour HD DVD. Both formats deliver high-definition pictures and sound from discs, and work with HD TVs, however they are not compatible with each other, and neither format plays on standard DVD players. Warner said that it has chosen the Blu-ray format exclusively because 60% of its US high-definition sales in 2007 were in that format. Warner Home Video will stop releasing new titles on HD DVD at the end of May 2008.

CES: Warner's Blu-ray Disc move has industry buzzing - Could the high-def format war finally be over? - http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?...

Reading, writing, and rewriting speeds

CD-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) discs, and the last 52x is how fast the drive can read CD discs.

The MSI 52x24x52 CD-RW offers a 52x write, a 24x rewrite (but 24x RW discs are almost impossible to find), and a 52x read, which is comparable to the other 52x CD-RW's currently being marketed.

Understanding CD-R and CD-RW Recording Speed -

http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa5.htm

Understanding DVD Recording Speed -

http://www.osta.org/technology/dvdqa/dvdqa4.htm

X (writing speed) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(writing_speed)

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 and recordable and rewritable DVD technology.

Data and "music" CDs

Blank recordable 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 disc so that it could receive a small amount of money from the sale of every "music" CD sold.

With regard to blank recordable CD/DVDs, avoid buying packs of cheap, no-brand-name discs unless you're not worried about the lifespan of a disc, which in their case is likely to be short. And don't pay extra for "audio" CDs for discs used with a computer's CD burner.

Tom's Hardware Guide and Expert Reviews 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 drives

Cleaning a CD or DVD disc with a cloth by using a circular motion can create a curved scratch that might fool the laser that reads the disc. 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 disc 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 LightScribe

Stick-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 discs, 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 the label side of 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 special coating on LightScribe CDs and DVDs is what differentiates it from other media. Look for the LightScribe logo on CDs and DVDs." 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.

If your DVD writer is not functioning properly, check its manufacturer's site for a firmware update for that specific model (it must not be for a any other model of drive). The free LightScribe Diagnostics Utility from http://www.lightscribe.com/DownloadSection/windows/index.aspx can be used to make sure that the latest LightScribe System Software is properly installed.

If the drive can't etch text or images on to the label side of discs, try using a different brand of LightScribe disc. Also check for updates for your LightScribe labelling program. Ahead Nero and Roxio Easy Media Creator both support that function. Free labelling utilities can be downloaded from the page linked to above.

CD/DVD copy protection

You 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 discs 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 discs.

Note that I have read of cases in which the copy protection on CD/DVDs 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 from the Windows XP/Vista CD and, if successful, reinstall Windows. Note that in order to boot from a bootable CD/DVD disc, the PC's BIOS must have the CD/DVD drive set as the first boot device.

CD/DVD copy protection -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_copying_software

See the Recovering Windows XP and Recovering Windows Vista sections of the website for the recovery options for those versions of Windows.

CD Extra

A 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/DVD-ROM drive or CD/DVD writer.

Many music CDs are created as a CD-Extra disc 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 disc in, it will announce that the drive is empty. Therefore, you should insert the disc 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.

How to record/burn CDs and DVDs and Blu-ray discs

Apart from the DVD writers that can use DVD-RAM discs, 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.

Note that Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional can only write directly to DVD-RAM discs formatted with the FAT32 file system. Windows Vista can access and write DVD-RAM discs formatted with FAT32 and UDF file systems, however, Windows Vista uses its own version of the UDF format giving rise to compatibility problems. Windows Vista also has issues with Windows-XP formatted FAT32 discs as Windows Vista uses the CPRM (Content Protection for Recordable Media) features. Only a very few files systems perform well on DVD-RAM because most file systems over-write data on the disc frequentlym, which includes the table of contents that is placed at the start of the disc.

Read Why can't I write to DVD RAM discs with my LG 4160B DVD writer? on this website for more information on using DVD-RAM discs 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 discs aren't cheap), especially if they're unbranded, but experienced burners only purchase brand-name discs, because in that way they can be sure of faster and more reliable results and disks that last a long time. Both Tom's Hardware Guide and Expert Reviews have found discs made by Verbatim to be the most reliable and compatible with the widest range of different drives.

How to record/burn recordable Blu-ray discs

You burn Blu-ray discs in the same way as you burn recordable CD and DVD discs. However, you need to use burning software that is capable of burning to recordable Blu-ray discs. Here is a free program that does the job well:

How to Burn Blu-Ray Discs With ImgBurn -

"Since the Blu-Ray format has won the format war of DVDs, it's worthwhile to find programs that allow you to burn Blu-Ray discs. ImgBurn is a free program (donations accepted) that works very well. After completing the two steps necessary to complete the process, you will be able to make as many copies of Blu-Ray discs as you like." -

http://www.ehow.com/how_2387554_burn-bluray-discs-imgburn.html

You can find other suitable programs by entering a suitable search term, such as burn blu-ray discs, in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

CD/DVD recording/burning software

The 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.

Free Utilities and Software Tools -

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/index.shtml

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 disc 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 in Windows XP 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 and Windows 7 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 Vista and Windows 7

The situation is different in Windows Vista and Windows 7 (the latest versions of Windows). The following link provides information on burning CD/DVDs in Windows 7.

Windows DVD maker -

"Windows DVD Maker has been introduced with Windows Vista and it continues to be present in Windows 7. Unlike with other tools in Windows 7, Windows DVD Maker doesn't have any new major features compared to its Windows Vista counterpart. The differences are cosmetic at best and the tool works the same. In this article I will touch on the following topics: where to find Windows DVD Maker, which file types and discs is supporting, how to customize and burn a DVD and how to solve issues with this too.NOTE: Windows DVD Maker is included only in Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Ultimate ." Windows DVD Maker, is available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate. -

http://www.7tutorials.com/how-burn-dvds-windows-dvd-maker

Windows DVD Maker in Windows Vista -

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/products/features/entertainment

The following two links provide information on burning CD/DVDs in Windows Vista.

Burn a CD or DVD - Applies to all editions of Windows Vista -

"If your computer includes a CD or DVD recorder, you can copy files to a writeable disc. This process is called burning a disc. By default, Windows burns discs in the Live File System format, but you can also choose to burn discs in the Mastered format. Note: You can use Windows to burn a data disc, which is useful for storing, archiving, and sharing files among different computers. If you want to make a disc that will play in a music or video player, you should burn the disc using a music or video program." -

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/...

Which CD or DVD format should I use? - Applies to all editions of Windows Vista -

This page provides a table that describes the different CD or DVD burning options and gives advice on the best disc format to use.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/...

Packet writing software: Save and drag-and-drop directly to CD/DVDs

Question

How can I drag-and-drop and copy files directly to recordable CD and DVD discs in the same way as I can to a hard disk drive? That is, by dragging-and dropping them to the CD/DVD drive without having to start my burning software.

Answer

Packet-writing software enables a user to drag-and-drop files to blank recordable CDs or DVDs using Windows Explorer, My Computer in Windows XP (just Computer in Windows Vista and Windows 7), and the standard Save functions from within applications.

There are two leading software packages that can work in that way with most CD/DVD writers. Drag to Disc, which used to be called DirectCD, is part of Roxio's Easy Media Creator. InCD is part of the Nero suite. Both of those packages can use rewritable media to drag-and-drop record, such as CD-RW and DVD-RW discs, but only Roxio's Drag to Disc can write to write-once media, such as CD-R, CD+R, DVD-R, and DVD+R discs by dragging-and-dropping them.

Hardware-based packet writing has been made possible by the Mount Rainier standard, which means that the CD/DVD writers themselves support packet writing. Many CD-RW writers are Mount Rainier compatible, but, so far, very few DVD writers are. Therefore, if you have a DVD writer that doesn't support that standard, you'll have to use packet- writing software, such as Cyberlink Power2Go.

The versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 for home users support the Mount Rainier standard natively, so, if the CD/DVD writer itself supports the standard, you should be able to drag-and-drop files to the CD/DVD writers listed in Computer (in Windows Vista/Windows 7) and Windows Explorer.

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

Understanding DVD Recording Speed -

http://www.osta.org/technology/dvdqa/dvdqa4.htm

X (writing speed) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(writing_speed)

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:

If I format a CD-RW disc and drag and drop files to it, would another computer be able to read and write to the same disc?

DVD COPYING SOFTWARE - DVD Copy Software Review -

http://www.dvd-copy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

Internal and external USB/FireWire CD/DVD drives

One or more CD/DVD drives can be installed in a computer's drive bays, in which case they are called internal drives and are connected to the motherboard, or they can be external drives that are attached to the computer via a USB, FireWire, or eSATA port as a peripheral device. As with external hard disk drives, external CD/DVD drives are significantly more expensive than internal drives.

Several of the major internal CD/DVD drive manufacturers make external DVD drives.

COMPUTER STORAGE DEVICES - REVIEWS BY EXPERT REVIEWS

Expert Reviews - storage reviews - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/storage

The above page on the Expert Reviews website provides reviews on the following storage devices:

Internal hard disk drives
External hard disk drives
DVD/Blu-ray drives
Network attached storage
USB flash drives

Google searches

If you want more information about any particular make/model of CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive, or to locate local vendors, enter the make and model in the Google search box (with its Web radio button enabled) at the top of this page.

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 discs are dirt cheap now that DVD writers with their much greater recording capacity per disc 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 discs 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? -

Note that re-recordable CD-RW and DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs can be formatted. If they are not formatted they can be used just like CD-R and DVD+R/DVD-R discs except that the files are erasable. - "Now that your disc is formatted, you can drag and drop information directly to your disc [To its icon in My Computer (XP) or Computer (Windows Vista and Windows 7)]. Once the disc is full, you can use it just like a Zip® disk or any other removable media disk and delete single files to free up space. The files you delete will be removed permanently and cannot be recovered."

http://www.iomega.com/support/documents/11082.html

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.

A good anonymous posting from the alt.windows98 newsgroup

The following information also applies to DVD writers...

"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.

"Often a burning-out CD burner starts getting more and more finicky. It gets to where it won't produce good CDs at some speeds, most often the higher ones, and you have to keep cutting back, or, as the previous poster said, it only wants to work on the disc at once setting. One source I've seen says that you can expect only around 200 CDs on average with the bottom of the line models such as you usually see in large lots at Comp-USA or similar stores. 400+ for an HP is also in line with this, although it may well go quite a bit more. The 500 dollar + industrial models will usually burn thousands of CDs, and are often worth repairing when they fail.

"If you replace a CD burner, make sure your new one is solidly mounted. I.e., don't put in just 2 screws, but use as many as you reasonably can, and even get some tiny lock washers at a hardware store and include them in the install. Vibration on a CD burner has a big negative effect compared to most devices, and levels of vibration that a hard drive will ignore will eventually cause your burner lens to get off axis. This is what "burn out" is most likely about, just the lens caddy getting out of alignment. Tools to fix it require a test disc that is usually sold only to professionals, and will cost you as much as several burners, plus in some areas you have to take a laser safety certification course.

"Now you know why it costs more to fix one than to buy a new one. Techs have expenses too."

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) technology

Both 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, high-definition TV movies (HDTV) the new Blu-ray HD disc standards that range from pre-recorded discs to write-once and rewritable discs with huge data capacities per disc, and you will no doubt come to the conclusion that the present is not the right time to choose DVD equipment. - A two-layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50GB of data, nearly six times the capacity of a dual-layer DVD disc or 10.5 times that of a single-layer DVD disc. That said, the data-saving requirements of most people are still easily catered for by recordable DVDs, which cost significantly less than recordable Blu-ray discs. Indeed, many users still use 700MB recordable CDs to store their files.

High definition DVD offers 1080 lines of video resolution video, compared to the 576/480 lines offered by current DVDs.

The High Definition DVD FAQ - http://www.digital-digest.com/highdefdvd/faq.html

There were two main new high-definition DVD formats under development and competing to become the dominant format - Toshiba's HD DVD (not the same as the general term High Definition DVD, which refers to all high definition DVD formats, and Sony's Blu-ray disc or BD). Sony's Blu-ray technology has won the battle to become the sole HD standard. Toshiba has stopped developing HD DVD. Visit the following page for more information on the new technology.

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

This page provides the latest information on HDCP:

High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP

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 (and later models). 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 disc 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.

If you want more information on any of these new standards/formats, enter the name or term in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

Keep reading this page if you want to know more about the competing DVD standards/formats.

DVD regions - Regional codes

When 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 firmware

You 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 The Firmware Page - http://forum.rpc1.org/.

How to unlock the region for a DVD drive

Is there software that can unlock the region on a DVD drive or a region-free DVD drive? is a Q&A on this website that addresses that problem.

DVD-ROM drives

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) 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 disc 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 discs

A 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 discs, 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 - rare).

The capacities provided above are shown in the table below.

DVD Type	Capacity
DVD-5 - single-sided, single layer - approximately two hours (120 minutes) of digital video and audio for DVD-Video, or 74 minutes of high resolution music for DVD-Audio	4.7GB
DVD-9 - single-sided, double layer - DVD-9 discs do not require to be flipped manually. The DVD player automatically switches to the second layer in a fraction of a second. This capability allows for uninterrupted playback of long movies of up to four hours.	8.5GB
DVD-10 - double-sided, single layer - DVD-10 discs are often used to put a widescreen version of the movie on one side, and a full frame version of the same movie on the other side. Almost all DVD players require you to flip the DVD manually, which is why the DVD-10 disc is called the "flipper" disc. There are a few DVD players that can perform the flipping automatically.	9.4GB
DVD-18 - double-sided, double layer - 8 hours of video and audio as a DVD-Video. Think of DVD-18 disc as a double-sided DVD-9 disc, in which up to four hours (240 minutes) of uninterrupted video and audio can be stored on one side. To access the content on the other side of a DVD-18 disc, you have to flip the DVD manually. To date, few titles have been released tha use this type of disc, because the movie studios usually choose to use two DVD-9 discs instead of a single DVD-18 disc, because DVD-18 discs are much more expensive to produce.	Approx. 17GB

A double-sided DVD disc is two discs sealed back-to-back. At present there are no players that can play both sides of these discs 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 discs, 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-Video

DVD-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-Audio

The 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-ROM

DVD-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.

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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 rewriters

Now 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 are now so low that they probaby won't be getting any cheaper. However, the prices of Blu-ray writers are still very expensive by comparison, so they have plenty of room to move down to the current prices of DVD writers. You can find out the current prices of both types of drive by entering dvd writers or blu-ray writers. Add the word external if you want an external drive that you can move from computer to computer.

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. Those are the typical writing speeds for most current DVD writers.

Note that the DVD+R standard uses the term dual-layer (DL) 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 lower-capacity 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 discs can only be recorded to once, after which they become read-only discs. 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 not all DVD writers support it.

FORMAT	ADVANTAGES	DISADVANTAGES
DVD-ROM	Plays on laptops and home DVD players.	Read only discs. No writing to discs.
DVD-R	Recordable. Plays on laptops and most home DVD players.	Each disc can only be recorded to once.
DVD-RW	Recordable up to 1,000 times. Plays on laptops and most home DVD players.	The discs may not play on older or basic home DVD players. DVD+RW is much easier to handle in terms of erasing and editing than DVD-RW.
DVD+R	Recordable. Plays on laptops and most home DVD players.	Each disc can only be recorded to once.
DVD+RW	Recordable up to 1,000 times. Plays on laptops and most home DVD players. DVD+RW is much easier to handle in terms of erasing and editing than DVD-RW.	The discs may not play on older or basic home DVD players.
DVD-RAM	Recordable up to 100,000 times. Operating-system-level drag-and-drop saving and editing of files is possible. When the discs are formatted with the FAT32 file system, they can be used like gigantic floppy disks. The discs can't be formatted with the NTFS file system.	Only plays on DVD-RAM compatible drives. The discs won’t play on older or basic home DVD players.
HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD)	There were 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. Sony's Blu-ray Disc has won the battle to become the sole HD disc standard. Toshiba has stopped developing its HD DVD standard after most of the movie studios opted to use Blu-ray for their movies. Toshiba has stated that it will continue to produce HD DVD discs as long as there is sufficient demand for them. Visit the following page for more information on the new technology. The High Definition DVD FAQ - http://www.digitaldigest.com/faq.html	-

DVD-R

As with CD-R discs, you can only write to a DVD-R disc once, then it becomes read-only. These discs are more expensive that CD-R discs but are still very cheap - especially when bought in bulk. You can find out the latest prices by entering dvd-r + uk in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled). If you live in the USA just enter dvd-r. Double-sided/double layer discs with twice or four times the capacity of single layer, single sided discs are the most expensive discs.

DVD-RW

DVD-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 1,000 times. Write speeds to the discs are slower than to DVD-R discs, and erasing them and then writing to them is time-consuming. Rewritable discs should be formatted to the FAT32 file system in order to be able to drag-and-drop files to the drive as you can with a floppy disk. Adding a file system makes the disc behave like a floppy disk, which has to be formatted in order to be used. These discs are more exensive than DVD+/-R discs, but they are still not very expensive. You can find out the latest prices by entering dvd-rw + uk in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled). If you live in the USA just enter dvd-r.

DVD+R

DVD+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+RW

DVD+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-RAM

DVD-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 speeds

Depending on the drive itself and the format of disc 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 disc 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 discs (also known as the recording media).

Remember that all DVD writers can also burn to CD-R and CD-RW discs (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 discs, or discs that have been proven to be reliable with a particular make of drive.

"Are Cheap DVD Burners Worth the Trouble?"

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/...review-2134.html

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 U.S. government study found that DVD discs and DVD drives were only compatible 85% of the time. This is probably due to the fact that CD and DVD writers can be intolerant of the discs made by certain manufacturers.

Therefore, buying a DVD writer it is no longer so much of a gamble on which recordable DVD 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 match the speeds of dedicated CD writers/rewriters, which are no longer being manufactured.

As with CD writers and rewriters, the DVD rewriter (+/-RW) discs are more expensive than the record-once-only discs (+/-R).

DVD-RAM had a couple of years start on the other four types of DVD writer. 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.

As with hard disk drives, with internal DVD writers you can purchase a retail boxed product, supported by its manufacturer, or an OEM product supported by the vendor, not the manufacturer. External drives are only sold as the retail boxed product because their manufacturer's don't want to seel them as an OEM product because less of them are sold. The retail product comes 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 software

CD/DVD-burning software can be fairly expensive if purchased separately, so it's a good idea to buy a CD/DVD writer that comes with good disc-burning software.

You can find plenty of paid-for and free DVD-burning software by entering a search term such as dvd software in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled). You should only use free software from reputable sites, because some site are a source of malware (Trojans, etc.). Here is a page that links to reputable free downloads:

Free Utilities and Software Tools -

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/index.shtml

The DVD writer's user manual

The 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+R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, etc), and the supported recording modes (disc-at-once, incremental recording, session-at-once, track-at-once, packet write, etc.).

For more information on this subject, visit -

DVD Formats Explained -

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/.../DVDFormatsExplained.asp

The firmware

A 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 Tests

You 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 => Hardware reviews headings. A wide range of DVD drives and media have been tested, and the results are recorded there.

USEFUL DVD PAGES AND WEBSITES

If you want to create DVD Video discs to watch on a DVD home player (not a DVD drive), visit DVD Player and Blu-ray Player List - http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers to find out which DVD formats the player supports.

DVDINF Pro - is a paid-for 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/. The program has a 14-day trial period.

DVDPlusRW.org - "This web site is dedicated to the DVD+RW and DVD+R format, and as such it is by far the largest - independent - online source for DVD+RW information. It will provide you with lots of product information, technical stuff, downloads, promotional material, compatibility lists, media overviews and other resources about DVD+RW. This site provides you with the most interesting, unique and up-to-date DVD+R and DVD+RW related information available on the web. Have a look around, and make sure to come back regularly as we will frequently add more intresting material! Don't forget to visit our discussion forum for all your DVD+RW questions, comments and inquiries." -

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/

For more links to CD and DVD sites look under the letters C and D on the first of the four Links pages on this site.

DVD support in Windows 98 - Standard Edition:

Quite a few users are still using Windows 98. This article lists DVD decoder adapters that are supported in Windows 98 [Standard Edition]. Other DVD playback software and decoder adapters, including other Cinemaster DVD decoder adapters such as the Cinemaster S, are not supported and require the drivers and software provided by the manufacturer to function properly. -

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=188513

DVD writers: Additional information

The writing speed of DVD writers continues to increase. 16x for DVD burners using DVD+R mode is now supported by most new drives. Using 16x DVD+R discs made by manufacturers such as Imation, the top burners can burn 4.7GB of data (the volume of a single-layer DVD disc) in around 5 or 6 minutes on a computer running any Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP processor. The burning speed to DVD-R discs is usually slower at between 8x and 12x, because most of the drive manufacturers appear to have chosen DVD+R as the mode to support for the fastest burning.

However, on most of the current drives, maximum DVD-RW burning speeds to DVD-RW discs are slower at 4x. At that speed, 4.7GB of data takes around 14 to 15 minutes to burn. Writing to double-layer (DL) discs can be slower than the maximum DVD-RW writing speed, and varies quite a bit from drive to drive, with the range being between 2x and 5x.

Remember to take the bundled burning software into account before making a purchase. Some drives come with software, such as Cyberlink's PowerDVD, Nero and Pinnacle's Instant CD/DVD, which, according to most reviews, isn't quite as good as Nero. But some OEM drives (supported by the vendor, not the manufacturer) don't come with burning software, and you have to buy it separately, thankfully, usually at a very cheap OEM price.

Optical CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive reviews & guides

Buyers' Guides - PC World

Read the Buyers' Guides for PC hardware and peripherals on PC World (US site) by clicking the HOW-TO button on the home page.

COMPUTER STORAGE DEVICES - REVIEWS BY EXPERT REVIEWS

Expert Reviews - storage reviews - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/storage

The above page on the Expert Reviews website provides reviews on the following storage devices:

Internal hard disk drives
External hard disk drives
DVD/Blu-ray drives
Network attached storage
USB flash drives

DVD-RAM drives and discs

The prices of the DVD-RAM discs have dropped considerably from their highest prices.

There are two types of media - Type 1 and Type 2.

Type 1 will hold up to 5.2GB on a single double-sided disc, with one-sided discs storing up to 2.6GB of data.

The unremovable double-sided discs are encased in a cartridge, but the single-sided discs are often available bare or in a cartridge from which the disc can be removed.

Type 2 is able to store 4.7GB on a single-sided disc, and 9.4GB on a double-sided disc, and can be removed from the cartridge so the disc can be used in other drive types if the data is in a compatible format.

The unremovable type of discs have to be used in a special DVD-RAM drive that is capable of using them. If the disc can be removed from its case, it can be used in any DVD writer that supports the DVD-RAM standard.

A DVD-RAM drive will read other CD/CDR/CD-RW and DVD media. Depending on the quality of the media, the DVD-RAM discs can be overwritten up to 100,000 times, making them a very attractive alternative to other removable media storage options.

DVD-RAM was designed for reliable industrial archive use. It has comprehensive built-in error and data integrity checks that are lacking in DVD+RW and DVD-RW. That is partly why its discs are able to withstand 100 times more write cycles than the media for the other two technologies. Because it records on the disc's lands and the pits, it is capable of higher-density storage. So if you want to store large raw images, the DVD-RAM media cannot be beaten for storage capacity and reliability.

The cost of drives is beginning to come down, but because it is still not a highly popular format, there is at present a premium to pay, which, considering the broad availability of large USB and FireWire hard disks, might last a long time.

See this Q&A: Why can't I write to DVD RAM discs with my LG 4160B DVD writer?

The video/graphics card should support the playing of DVD movies

When working with or playing home movies on DVD, there is no benefit to using Windows XP Professional Edition over Windows XP Home Edition. Spending the extra money that Windows XP Professional costs on a larger, faster hard disk drive will have a bigger impact on working with video files, which, as you should know, are usually very large. (Note that Windows XP Home and Professional are no longer being sold, but are still available secondhand.) You can also use any version of Windows Vista or Windows 7, both of which were on sale at the time of writing (June 2010).

Hardware and software DVD decoding are the two options that enable the playing of DVD movies. The system will, of course, require one of the several types of DVD drive (DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, etc.) to play the discs.

Hardware decoding is provided by a video card that supports DVD playback. Software decoders are available that can be used with a video card that doesn't support DVD playback, but should be avoided - especially on slow systems.

If your video card supports DVD playback, all you need to play DVD movies is a decent DVD player program such as PowerDVD by CyberLink. This program has the same features as a home DVD player, including DTS and Dolby sound decoding, and it claims to be compatible will all CD/DVD discs and drives. Another well-reviewed DVD player is called FusionSoft DVD,which is to be found on most freeware sites, or you should be able to locate it by using the Google search box at the top of this page.

To play DVD movies in Windows and Linux, the media players of the kind mentioned above, require plug-in software called DVD codecs that make it possible to do so. A DVD drive will come with the software that, when installed, allow DVDs to be played. A computer running Windows XP (and later versions of Windows) that has a DVD drive should have a DVD media player with a DVD codecs plug-in already installed. If the media player lacks them, search http://www.digital-digest.com/ for them.

If you want to play a DVD movie in a distribution of Linux, such as SuSE Linux, which uses the bundled media player called Kaffeine, you can make use of the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled) to find links to the codecs.

You should be able to determine if your make and model of video card supports DVD playback by looking up the information provided by the manufacturer's site.

Visit the Video and Graphics section of this website for information on how to identify the video card installed in a desktop or laptop PC without opening the case.

If your video card does not support DVD playback, then you are advised to upgrade your video card in order to play a DVD movie on your computer. Software DVD decoding packages are available, but the hardware decoding provided by a video card is by far the superior option, especially if you have a slowish processor (running at under 1GHz).

Most recent video/graphics cards costing around £40/$60 or more support DVD playback.

See the Video and Graphics section of this website for more information on video/graphics cards.

Running DVD discs can be problematic

Running DVD discs can be problematic for a number of reasons.

If, say you have difficulty in playing one DVD movie and not another, this could have to do with having a cheap DVD drive, mess-ups to do with regional codes, or a firmware issue.

The regional codes are the codes hard-programmed into the drive to prevent a country from playing movies, etc., that have only been issued in another - usually the USA. Almost all DVD drives have the regional code feature. Some DVD drives are region-code-free, or allow the region code to be disabled. Some DVD drives can check if the region code has been disabled, and if so will refuse to play any DVD discs.

The firmware is the software that is copied into the drive to make it work properly. It is hard-copied into the drive so that it remains intact when the machine is switched off. Unlike a PC's BIOS file, which is kept alive by a battery on the motherboard.

You should also check that the video card (graphics accelerator) in your computer is compatible with the DVD drive that is installed, or that you intend to install.

The following websites can provide you with all the information you might need to avoid or overcome existing DVD problems.

DVD Formats Explained -

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2003/...

Visit the DVD Player and Blu-ray Player list to find out what kinds of media a particular DVD player supports. -

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

A site that provides firmware upgrades is: http://forum.rpc1.org and Firmware HQ - http://www.firmwarehq.com/.

If none of these suffice, or are no longer available, look under the letter D on this Links page of this site, or try using the Google search box at the top of this page to search for DVD information. Just Entering the term dvd, for instance, brings up plenty of sites with information on that subject. You can refine the search using a more specific search phrase.

CD/DVD optical disc drives - Problems and solutions

Click here! to go to the page on this site that deals with CD/DVD drive problems and their solutions.

Magneto-optical drives for the safest back-ups

CD/DVD discs containing a back-up or a master image of the system can be rendered unusable if they become deeply scratched. Therefore, if the security of back-ups or archiving data is of crucial importance, using a magneto-optical drive would be the safest option.

The data is recorded magnetically, but the data cannot be destroyed by an external magnetic source, as is the case with HDDs and floppy disks, because it can only be removed or recorded if the disc is heated to a specifically high temperature by its formatting/recording laser. That is why it is called a magneto-optical drive. Moreover, if the discs were lost or stolen, they could only be accessed by using a magneto-optical drive, because the discs cannot be read by a CD/DVD drive. A thief is unlikely to possess such a drive, because at present they are not rarely used in this country. There is also no limit to the number of times a disc can be wiped and re-recorded, whereas CD/DVD writers can usually only be used about a thousand times.

The downside is the cost of the drives and the discs, which are much more expensive than CD/DVD writers and media.

Internal IDE and External USB Floppy Disk Drives - FDDs

Large-capacity USB flash drives (also known as memory sticks, thumb drives, etc.) are set to assign floppy disk drives to computer-component heaven. Click here! to read the information about flash memory and USB flash drives on this site. Not many new desktop PCs and no new laptop PCs have a floppy disk drive.

However, although I no longer see floppy disks on sale in supermarkets, many users that only need to store text files and who have desktop PCs with a floppy disk drive, will be using floppy disk drives for some time to come. If you want to know the technical details of how a floppy disk drive (FDD) works, visit this article. -

However, users that only need to store text files will be using floppy disk drives for some time to come. If you want to know the technical details of how a floppy disk drive (FDD) works, visit this article. -

How Floppy Disk Drives Work -

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/floppy-disk-drive.htm

Round cables (instead of ribbon cables) are available for FDDs. -

Round FDD cables: http://www.xoxide.com/roundidecables1.html

Visit this Build a PC page on this website for information on how to install a standard floppy disk drive (FDD).

Note that all versions of Windows from the first version up to Windows XP and Windows Vista format floppy disks using the FAT12 file system. (I couldn't find any information in this regard on Windows 7, the versions of which were made available in October 2009.) FAT12 because it doesn't take up much space on a floppy disk, which only has a very limited amount of disk space. Floppy disks can't be formatted with the FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS file systems. Every version of Windows can therefore read and copy data to all standard 1.44MB floppy disks no matter which version created them, and no matter which file system any Windows computer is using to organise its files.

External USB Floppy disk drives

It is now possible to purchase external USB floppy disk drives.

A 4x USB FDD is 400% faster than a 1x standard FDD. Such drives usually support all of 3.5" floppy disk formats, including 720KB (2DD), 1.4MB and 1.44 MB (2HD). A 4x USB FDD connects directly to a Mac or Windows PC via the USB port. There is no need to carry a bulky AC adapter, because the unit can be "hotplugged", and is powered through the USB port. Simply plug it in and play without a system reboot.

For links to information and vendor sites, enter a search term such as usb + "floppy disk drive" (plus your country code, such as + uk) in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

How can a PC system be booted using a USB floppy disk drive?

Problem

I need to insert a back-up boot floppy disk into the A: drive in order to restore a back-up or master image of the system. However, this is not possible because my PC's floppy disk drive (FDD) died and a replacement drive also failed to work. I have purchased an external floppy drive that connects to a USB port, but the system won't boot from it. I need to know how to get around this problem.

Answer

If the system is going to read from a floppy disk in an external USB floppy disk drive, it has to load the device drivers when it boots. However, a system can only boot from boot devices that are supported in the system's BIOS setup program.

Some lightweight laptop computers support booting from a USB floppy drive, but in most cases the boot choices are limited in the BIOS to using the disk-drive controllers on the motherboard that are used by hard disk drives, CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives and internal floppy disk drives.

The floppy disk drive controller on the motherboard could have failed, which was why you couldn't get a replacement drive to work. However, you could also not have installed the replacement drive properly. It is quite easy to fit the ribbon cable the wrong way round, because many floppy disk drive cables don't have keyed
connections designed to prevent this. You could also easily have bent some pins on the drive itself. So you could try installing another floppy disk drive again. See this Build a PC page on this web site for information on how to install one properly.

Apart from buying an LS-120 drive that boots via the motherboard's IDE controller instead of the floppy disk drive (FDD) controller, and can use floppy disks and its own 120MB SuperDisks, the only practical solution is to boot from the Windows CD (or any other bootable CD). Note that LS-120 drives are difficult to purchase new now, and you may have to look for one at an auction site such as eBay. Make sure that you get an IDE drive, not one that uses a USB connection.

Almost all relatively recent computers can be booted from a bootable CD. If this is so, somewhere in the BIOS setup program you will be able to find an option to set the boot order. The computer probably has an Award or AMI BIOS, so you would press the Del key at start-up to enter it. However, most brand-name computers have their own access key or key combination that will be provided in its user manual. The boot order can have its own section in the BIOS, or appear under Advanced Settings. Set the CD drive as the first boot drive ahead of the boot hard disk drive or the floppy disk drive. Then at start-up, with the Windows or some other bootable CD in the CD-ROM drive, the computer will ask you to press a key in order to boot from it.

If you have the correct software, you can create your own bootable CDs.

Bart's Boot Disks

Everything you need to create network, CD-ROM, or Windows NT4 boot disks is on this website. There are files available that you can use for creating a boot disk for SCSI devices, or even a bootable CD. -

http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ - system boot disk

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd - bootable CDs

You can also install a second hard disk drive and set it up as an emergency boot drive. If the system uses IDE PATA hard disk drives, using it would mean having to switch the hard disk drive (HDD) ribbon cables around and reconfiguring the hard disk drives, because most systems can only boot from an IDE hard disk drive that is set as the master drive and connected to the Primary IDE Channel on the motherboard. If the PC uses SATA hard disk drives, you can choose which one to boots the system.

If necessary, visit this Build Your Own PC page on this site for information on installing an IDE or SATA hard disk drive.

See the articles on the Tips page of this site on how to use the free XXCopy to create a bootable clone of the system on a secondary HDD.

Recovering data from corrupt floppy disks

"For anyone who has ever had a corrupt floppy disk with important data on it, then this tip from Charles McClory is for you. Charles says, 'Users come to me with their damaged floppies and I recover the good data from their corrupt floppies 90% of the time without the Norton Disk Recovery program. All I do is insert the bad floppy into the floppy drive, right-click on the floppy icon in My Computer and choose the 'Copy Disk' option. The trick is to keep hitting "Retry" every time it fails; eventually, it WILL work! I have clicked "Retry" 50-100 times to eventually read the entire disk. Then just put in a new, blank, formatted floppy, and Windows will create a duplicate of the original. This even works on floppies for which a directory listing fails.

"Also, another neat trick I do is [enter the command] copy *.* nul from the command prompt (make sure to type a: and press Enter to switch to the floppy drive). This will copy all the files into the 'bit bucket.' The advantage is that it will read all the files and stop on the corrupt ones.

"Another trick that I do is run a ScanDisk [in Windows 95/98/Me] on the corrupted floppy disk. Many a times this has gotten the disk to a readable state so that I can copy the disks to a hard drive and then to a new disk. From there, it is up to you what you do with the corrupted floppy. I have found that most of these disks are OK after a full format. [BS]" - from the Lockergnome Windows Daily. [Note that the Lockergnome newsletters were restyled and renamed since that was written.]

Note that you run chkdsk , the hard-disk-drive checking and diagnostic utility, on hard disk drives and floppy disks in all of the versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. You should read this forum thread on using chkdsk to check floppy disks:

Why is Chkdsk less reliable than ScanDisk? -

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/114357-45-chkdsk-reliable-scandisk

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