What is the Difference Between CDs and DVDs?
Dear Daryl: The first difference that comes to mind is how CDs and DVDs are most commonly used. We use DVDs for movies and we use CDs for music and general data storage. A CD does not have the storage capacity required to store an entire movie. However, an uncompressed movie file is too large for a DVD as well, so a form of compression called MPEG-2 is used to decrease a movie files size. The physical differences between CDs and DVDs are found in the size and organization of the pits and bumps on the reflective material of the disks. The pits are what the CD and DVD players read to interpret the data on the disk. The pits on DVDs are smaller and closer together than those of CDs, allowing you to store more data on a DVD than on a CD. Also, DVDs may have one to four layers of data storage space, which increases their storage capacity even more. If you need to brush up on your CD and DVD knowledge, glance at http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cd1.htm and http://electronics.howstuffwork
Generally, people think of CDs holding music and DVDs holding movies. On the computer, CDs and DVDs have much more versatile uses. In the case of most of our products, we use both types of discs to store data files, like books or Old Time Radio episodes. The key difference in the two is the amount of files that can be stored on a disc. CD media (discs) can hold up to 700 Megabytes of data. DVD media can hold approximately 4.5 Gigabytes of data (about 7 CDs). Remember, there are two different types of DVD media, DVD-R and DVD+R. Check the documentation of your drive to see which media is supported. We use DVD-R media unless otherwise noted.
While it is certainly true that CDs and DVDs look a great deal alike, there are a few significant differences that make each electronic device more appropriate for various functions. Here are a few examples of how the two data options are quite different from one another. One of the first differences between CDs and DVDs to note is in the amount of data storage that is possible with each device. The typical DVD will provide in the range of seven times the capacity that is available on a compact disk. DVDs make use of a series of recording layers and also store data on both sides of the device, which makes a big difference in the storage capacity. The older technology associated with the CD does not allow for these same applications. The equipment used to read the data on CDs and DVDs also is geared to accommodate the different configuration for each device. DVDs actually record data is smaller nonreflective holes, referred to as pits, that are located in the grooves of the surface. Wit
Dear Daryl: The first difference that comes to mind is how CDs and DVDs are most commonly used. We use DVDs for movies and we use CDs for music and general data storage. A CD does not have the storage capacity required to store an entire movie. However, an uncompressed movie file is too large for a DVD as well, so a form of compression called MPEG-2 is used to decrease a movie file’s size. The physical differences between CDs and DVDs are found in the size and organization of the pits and bumps on the reflective material of the disks. The pits are what the CD and DVD players read to interpret the data on the disk. The pits on DVDs are smaller and closer together than those of CDs, allowing you to store more data on a DVD than on a CD. Also, DVDs may have one to four layers of data storage space, which increases their storage capacity even more. If you need to brush up on your CD and DVD knowledge, glance at http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cd1.htm and http:// electronics.howstuffwo
