Lets Talk About Classical Music

Classical Music

Posted by Jenny on August 20, 2010 in Music with No Comments


So What’s So Different About CDs and DVDs

CDs and DVDs are two completely separate and distinct pieces of technology but to the naked eye they look exactly the same.  There are many different things between the two, such as what they hold and how much they can hold.

It becomes apparent how the big difference in storage capacity is achieved when you understand how data is written to a CD or DVD.  As the disc spins a laser is moved across the surface to burn pits in a spiral groove around the disc. A laser is an intensely focused beam of light and all lasers operate on a particular wave length. A smaller wave length will create a smaller pit. Consequently you can have more pits in the same amount of surface area on a DVD, which explains the large difference in storage capacity.

DVDs and CDs are digital storage mediums which basically means that all data is stored as ones and zeros. Pits and lands (an area where there are no pits) represent ones and zeros. The laser light will reflect off the lands but not off the pits when the disc is being read. Microprocessors in the disc drive take the information from the laser and convert it into a digital format that your computer can easily understand.

The tracks of a DVD are narrower as well, which allows for more tracks per disc and translates into more capacity than a CD.  The typical single layer DVD holds 4.5 GB of data, while a CD holds only 700 MB..

As the pits on a DVD are smaller the physical make up of a DVD has to be different to a CD in order to allow the laser to focus on them.  This is achieved by using a thinner plastic substrate than in a CD, which means that the laser needs to pass through a thinner layer, with less depth to reach the pits.

DVDs will access data at a much faster rate than a CD can.  The average 52X CD-ROM drive reads data at 8MB a second, while a 24X DVD drive reads at 32MB a second.

DVDs are still the most popular choice for movies and data storage these days but they are slowly being taken over by Blu-Ray. CDs will be available for a while yet but as Blu-Ray prices come down and storage needs continually spiral upwards I can’t see them lasting forever. For additional related information on CDs and DVDs in regards to presentation and marketing take a look at the following website CD DVD Packaging.

Also check out Portable Hard Drive Reviews and Toughest Portable Hard Drive

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