What is the difference between a DVD MP3 and simple CD drive?

Answer 1

To answer your questions one at a time: 1) The main (and obvious) difference between a MP3 format and a DVD format is how the format store data. MP3 (or better known as MPEG Layer 3) was first created by the Fraunhoffer Institute as a method of compressing audio files and streams into a much smaller size, but maintaining its bitrate (measured by Kilobytes per second, or Kbps). As opposed to MP3, DVD is a revolutionary compression method that involves videos encoded into digital format at extremely high resolution. This explains why DVD quality is far more superior than MPEG or VideoCD (VCD) encoding. Futhermore, DVD allows host of other features to be added into the disc, such as special features, subtitles, sound options etc. To put it in a more simpler term, MP3 = Audio only ; DVD = Video + Audio at high res. 2)To understand the basics of optical drives, one must know the difference of the discs used for the drive. In a more simple enough explanation, a CD-ROM drive is capable of reading CDs of these format: - CD-ROM discs - CD-R discs - CD-RW discs - VideoCD discs (with third party player software installed) - MP3 discs - Audio CD A DVD drive, on the other hand, has the capability to read all of the above format, plus: - DVD Movie discs - DVD-R discs - DVD+RW discs Note: Both of these drives only have the ability to read the contents inside the discs. They do not, however, have the ability to write data onto the discs.