How are CD-Rs different than store-bought CDs?
A CD-R is a blank “compact disc – recordable”. However, the music or software CD-ROM is a “compact disc – read only memory”. The CD-ROMs you buy in stores are not recordable. They were never recorded. Instead they were mechanically stamped or pressed, like the old-fashioned vinyl LP albums. Store-bought pre-recorded CD-ROMs use tiny pits or holes arranged in the tracks of the disc to encode the music, video or game software that you play. In a similar way, your CD-R burner uses laser-light bursts during your recording sessions to create tiny bubbles in the tracks around the CD-R. The burner’s laser blinks rapidly on and off, heating tiny areas of the bottom of the disc which expand into bubbles that closely resemble the stamped pits of a CD-ROM. Later, when the CD-R is played back, the CD-R is now actually a CD-ROM. CD players read CD-R and CD-ROM discs equally well in almost all cases.
A CD-R is a blank “compact disc – recordable”. However, the music or software CD-ROM is a “compact disc – read only memory”. The CD-ROMs you buy in stores are not recordable. They were never recorded. Instead they were mechanically stamped or pressed, like the old-fashioned vinyl LP albums. Store-bought pre-recorded CD-ROMs use tiny pits or holes arranged in the tracks of the disc to encode the music, video or game software that you play. In a similar way, your CD-R burner uses laser-light bursts during your recording sessions to create tiny bubbles in the tracks around the CD-R. The burner’s laser blinks rapidly on and off, heating tiny areas of the bottom of the disc which expand into bubbles that closely resemble the stamped pits of a CD-ROM. Later, when the CD-R is played back, the CD-R is now actually a CD-ROM. CD players read CD-R and CD-ROM discs equally well in almost all cases. (A few CD players may have difficulty reading CD-R discs, but playback problems are usually caused b
