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CD and DVD Drives
Compact Discs and Digital Video Discs are forms of optical data storage. Questions about CD or DVD drives and CDs or DVDs themselves belong here.
3,060 Questions
Which material is used for making CDs?
A compact disc, or CD, is an optical storage medium with digital data recorded on it. The digital data can be in the form of audio, video, or computer information. When the CD is played, the information is read or detected by a tightly focused light source called a laser (thus the name optical medium). This article will focus on audio compact discs, which are used to play back recorded music.
The history of the compact disc can be traced back to the development of electronic technology and particularly digital electronic technology in the 1960s. Although the first applications of this technology were not in the recording area, it found increasing use in audio components as the technology evolved.
During the same period, many companies started experimenting with optical information storage and laser technology. Among these companies, electronic giants Sony and Philips made notable progress in this area.
By the 1970s, digital and optical technologies had reached a level where they could be combined to develop a single audio system. These technologies provided solutions to the three main challenges faced by the developers of digital audio.
The first challenge was to find a suitable method for recording audio signals in digital format, a process known as audio encoding. A practical method of audio encoding was developed from the theories published by C. Shannon in 1948. This method, known as pulse code modulation (PCM), is a technique that samples a sound during a short time interval and converts the sample to a numerical value that is then modulated or stored for later retrieval.
The storing of audio signals in digital form requires a large amount of data. For instance, to store one second of music requires one million bits of data. The next challenge, therefore, was to find a suitable storage medium to accommodate any significant amount of sound. The solution to this problem came in the form of optical discs. An optical disc can store large amounts of data tightly compressed together. For example, one million bits of data on a CD can occupy an area smaller than a pinhead. This information is read by means of a laser beam that is capable of focusing on a very narrow area as small as 1/2500th of an inch.
The final challenge of digital audio was to process the densely packed information on compact discs quickly enough to produce continuous music. The solution was provided by the development of integrated circuit technology, which allow the processing of millions of computations in just micro-seconds.
By the late 1970s, a common set of standards for the optical storage discs had been developed by the joint efforts of Sony and Philips. A consortium of 35 hardware manufacturers agreed to adopt this standard in 1981 and the first compact discs and compact disc players were introduced in the market in 1982.
What is the difference between 2 wheel drive and 4 wheel drive?
2wd is when one set of axles(or drive wheels),either front or rear propells the vehicle 4wd is when all drive wheels (axles) supply the motivation. In reality unless the vehicle is equipped with LSD, Posi-trac, True-trac, Detroit-locker or one of the many other names that limited-slip or locking differentials go by, the preceding statement is only half correct.
A DVD shattered inside my DVD Drive how does this happen?
Sometimes a DVD or CD will shatter inside a drive due to the stress of the CD/DVD disc. If there are a lot of scratches or deep marks on the disc or on the inside ring where the disc locks in to spin occasionally there will be small fractures located there. When the disc is loaded and the drive spins up the stress from the lateral load put on the disc is to much and the disc will break (or shatter if the scratches or fractures are significant enough). Most new drives of today spin discs around about 2000 RPM and the newer Blu-ray or HD-DVD drives go upwards of that. Hope this helps.
How do you determine which drive is the CD-ROM drive?
If there is one partition in a hard disk and one CD device then the default drive letter assigned is D. Else, If there are two partitions in a hard disk and one CD device then the default drive letter assigned is E. Else, If there is only one partition in a hard disk and two CD devices then the default drive letters assigned to both CD devices are D and E.
Working principle of CD-drive?
Fig.1 CD-ROMs
Along with the development of information technology, many families now have their own computers at home. New personal computers are usually equipped with CD-ROM drives for multimedia uses. You must have used CD-ROMs. But do you know the working principle of CD-ROM? What are its advantages over other storage devices?
The full name of CD-ROM is Compact Disc - Read Only Memory. It is a read only information storage device. Roughly speaking, a CD-ROM consists of three layers. It has a transparent substrate as its base. On the base there is a reflective metal layer which carries information. On top of it, there is a protective coating. We know that information like sound, graphics and computer software can be digitized, that is, the data can be represented by binary numbers, which are made up of a series of '1' and '0' digits. This information is recorded on the metal layer. If we magnify the surface of the metal layer, we can see 'pits' and 'lands' in circular tracks.
We use laser beam to read the data. When the beam travels from the direction of the base and reaches the pits, the pits on the metal layer reflects the beam like a mirror. The depth of the pits is one-forth of the wavelength of the laser. The laser rays reflected by the pits and the lands have a path difference of half the wavelength (Fig. 2). It leads to destructive interference, that is, the two rays cancel each other and no reflected ray is resulted, and this produces a '1' digit. The path difference is zero for two rays both reflected by the pits, or both by the lands. No destructive interference occurs and we say it is a '0' digit. Therefore we have digit '1' at the edge of pits and digit '0' elsewhere. This is the basic mechanism of information storage and retrieval using CD-ROMs.
Fig. 2 Destructive interference occurs when laser is reflected by the edge of a pit, giving a '1' signal.
As laser beam can be focused very sharply, we can make very narrow tracks, typically in the order of wavelength of the laser, so the storage size of a CD-ROM is much larger than that of a floppy disk. We can store a lot of data like a whole movie or many softwares in a single CD-ROM, thus it speeds up the development of multimedia computers. No mechanical contact is required to read the data from a CD-ROM and it has a protective layer on it. Therefore a CD-ROM is very durable, which is one of its greatest advantages.
At present, we use semiconductor lasers, whose wavelengths are in infrared region, for reading CD-ROMs. If we use violet or even ultraviolet lasers, the tracks on CD-ROMs can be ten-folds narrower. Correspondingly, the capacity can be increased a lot. However, these products are not fully developed yet.
Is audio DVD playable by stereo set like audio CD?
No, CD-players do not play DVD's. You have to use a DVD player.
What are some sites to burn music CD's on?
well its alot of web sites but one good one is limewire.com
Which software will convert 8mm film to DVD?
The software asperasoft will convert 8mm film to DVD. There are several other software applications that also convert 8mm film to DVD including globalsafe and video2dvd.
Who invented the rollercoaster?
Rollercoasters originate back to the 15th century. In Russia, people constructed hills of snow known as "Russian Mountains" These hills were supported by wooden frames and people used to slide down them.
The first 'real' rollercoaster was created by LaMarcus Adna Thompson and is named "Switchback Railway" It consisted of a bench-like car which people sat on and they travelled down a track around 600ft long. When the car reached the end it changed to a return track and went back to the start. This track was soon replaced with an oval circuit.
So that's basically the start of rollercoaster :P
Why does it take so long to format my CD-RW before I can burn files to it?
The amount of time it takes to format a cd-rw disc is controlled by three things, software(1) and hardware(2). Software is the program you are using to format the cd-rw with. There are many different programs to choose from. I would recommend Nero. Most programs have two options available for formating know as: Full format or Fast/Quick format(fast format option depends on cdrw drive). Full Format: Full format takes about 60 minutes for a 2x drive, 30 minutes for a 4x drive and about 15 minutes for an 8x drive. It verifies the integrity of the CD surface, prepares the CD for data, and writes the UDF file system to the CD. Quick Format: Quick format takes only a few minutes. It writes the file system to the CD, but does not verify the physical condition of the CD. Any files that were on the CD will not be accessible, but they are still on the CD and could be retrieved by a data recovery company or nutcase dumpster diver. Regarding the hardware side of the issue is the CD drive itself. Any drive that operates at less than 8x speed will do the job but much slower and the time lost is not really worth it since you can get a fast burner from tigerdirect.com for about $30. The other hardware to consider is the actual cd-rw discs you are using. They have different burn rates. They range anywhere from 1x to 12x. Last but not least, if you are not erasing and re-writing to your cd-rw discs then you should be using cd-r discs. Most of the large retail chains offer cd-r discs that are free after rebate every couple months. Free media with no formating? It's a no brainer!
Can you transfer pictures from a CD ROM onto a computer?
Yes you can, assuming it is in a format legible by a PC. Place the CD into the CD/DVD player, and wait for the disk to spin up. On a PC (Windows), open My Computer, and left-click on the DC drive. You should see your folders and/or pictures appear in the window.
Select the pictures you want to move, and right-click them. Choose "Copy". Then, navigate to the folder you want to put the pictures in, right-click and select "Paste". Your pictures will be transferred then.
Can a DVD bought in US be played in India with a standard DVD player?
Commercial DVDs, Bluray discs and game discs are normally given a region code. The code is specifically to control where the content can be used.
North American discs have region code 1 and use 59.94Hz refresh rate. Indian DVD players will normally be coded with region 5 so they are unlikely to play US discs, unless they have had their region codes removed. Also, India uses 50Hz refresh rate so some equipment may not handle North American content even if the codes do not conflict.
With the right combination of disc and player, it may well work but it is not guaranteed.
Does anyone have a DVD copy of Kevin Redding's The Idol?
It should be available in stores and on line.
Why doesn't your DVD burner recognize any media?
The DVD may not have loaded correctly. Try reloading the DVD or a different DVD.
The DVD burner may be broken or dirty.
The DVD itself may be dirty or scratched or you may not have the correct kind of DVD.
The DVD software on your computer may have become corrupted or may need to be updated.
If it is an external DVD burner, make sure all the connections are connected correctly and are not loose.
Coping the content of a DVD to your computers hard drive so that it can be viewed (or listened to in the case of DVD-audio) without the DVD, or a 'backup' copy of the DVd made, or so it can be shared (pirated, or more to be more accurate "copyright violation") over the internet via p2p or bittorrent.
Ripping DVD is the process of copying audio or video content off DVDs to hard disk, typically from Removal DVD media. The word is used to refer to all forms of DVDs. Despite the name, neither the media nor the data in it is damaged after extraction. As for how ... you could check out a detailed guide via related link below.
CD+r means write once, read many. This means that you can only write data to the CD once, after that it will be on there forever and you can always get to it.
How do you format computer if the CD rom is not on computer?
go to "computer" then right click on "system c " then right click on it and go to "format" but you will lose your windows you are running your computer on and everything else
Can an r driver drive on a motorway?
yes R plated restricted drivers can drive on motorways however the 45mph speed limit for the restriction still applies causing lorries to overtake them in overtaking lane leading to cars at 70mph having to brake the world then stops going round and people get very stressed expect road rage :(
Can you transfer a computer game to another computer without the CD disk?
If possible, you could save the data from the CD onto your computer.
Then, you could transfer the data to another computer via a USB drive, email (if the data is small enough), or via the internet, using a file host or a cloud server.
Do Pimsleur CDs have tracks in order to replay the last phrase again?
I cannot imagine that they would as commercially prerecorded CDs are not writable.
The very first Porsche, a hand-built aluminum prototype, was completed on June 8, 1948. The history of Porsche automobiles goes back much farther, however, all the way back to 1900 when Dr. Ferdinand Porsche introduced his first design, a Lohner-Porsche.
