The art of CD and DVD

A CD is a CD and DVD a DVD right, well sort of. Despite marketers’ most sincere efforts most consumers still struggle to keep up with what CD and for that matter DVD recordable formats are available out there.

Fortunately, it’s not rocket science and if you understand your plusses and minuses, no really your “+s” and “-s” you’ll find that uncovering the mystery that is CD/DVD recording is definitely not as difficult as unearthing Ms Pless or Little Foot.

We often find that people get confused between music and standard CDs. In the case of Verbatim, music CDs are in an audio format. There are technical differences between the audio and data formats in blank CDs, enhancing music that is stored on an audio CD. However, both music and data can be stored on audio and ‘normal/data’ CD’s.

Apart from the above, CD-Rs can only be written once whereas CD-RW
(CD-ReWritable) can be written to several times. CD-RWs store the same amount as a normal CD-R but are slightly more expensive. The majority of PC/laptop CD writers will create both CD-Rs and CD-RWs.

CD’s are manufactured with a variety of surfaces including printable where printing can be done directly onto the CD rather than printing a label; crystal which features a clear, scratch resistant surface, extra protection which features a ‘very’ scratch resistant surface and colour surfaces allow for ease of identifying specific information that is ‘colour coded’.

When looking at DVDs it does become slightly more complex but fortunately technology has evolved to such a point that we don’t really have to read the manual beforehand.
Currently, there are two major versions of recordable DVD: DVD-R and DVD+R, which were developed by competing parties and not compatible with each other. The latest DVD writers, however, will read and write both types of disc. For older writers, make sure which version the device supports before buying discs.

In the past, double-layer (in the case of “+”) and dual-layer (in the case of “-“) discs, with up to 8.5Gb of space, were only limited to shop-bought film discs but now the majority of DVD writers on sale will write these discs.

Again, these writers are no more expensive than others, but the discs will take longer to write, having twice as much data on it.

There is currently a huge demand for double and dual-layer discs, particularly if one considers the amount of data it can store and that the writers are available at the same price point as their single-layer counterparts.

Moving slightly sideways, 8cm DVDs are optimised for digital video cameras.
Standard 8cm DVD discs can record up to 30 minutes of video while double-layer discs can record almost double that – 55 minutes to be precise.

Again the plusses and minuses and Ws come into play: 8cm DVDs are available in single, write-once or rewriteable formats. Furthermore, the rewriteable
(+RW) media has the added benefit of no finalisation, therefore users can record content, play it back and continue recording.

Furthermore, manufacturers such as Verbatim have “toughened up” these disks, and they now feature a HardCoat technology. Essentially the additional layer protects your immortalised moments against scratches, fingerprints and dust.
In tests, for example, Verbatim’s HardCoat technology proved to be times more protective from general wear and tear than discs without the coating.

So, now that we’ve simplified CDs and DVDs to layman’s terms, what is next big trend we should take note of? LightScribe or “gold” discs are now enabling users to, with advanced disk-burning software, create silkscreen-quality labels.

How does it work? With LightScribe-enabled disc drives, which are available as peripherals and as plug-in replacement drives, users can use the same optical disc drive laser to burn content to the data side of the disc and create a silkscreen-quality label on the other side of the disc.

Verbatim has taken it one step further. The company offers – the first -vibrantly coloured LightScribe disks that enable users to truly customise their favourite music or multimedia packages.

And the future? Well, Blu-ray hasn’t enjoyed the market scramble some might have hoped for but as with any new technology we shouldn’t count our chickens just yet.

Despite slow adoption, Blu-ray does offer a number of import advancements.
For one its shorter wavelength allows for more data to be stored — as much as 500% more than on red laser DVDs.

Developed to enable rewriting and playback of high-definition video and large amounts of data, a single Blu-ray disc can hold 25 gigabytes (GB) of data, while the dual layer version holds double the capacity of the single layer – namely, 50 GB.

It is also expected that Blu-ray will eventually replace DVD, however, the formats will in all likelihood co-exist for quite some time. Looking at adoption, already seven of the eight major movie studios (Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM) have released titles in the Blu-ray format. Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month

The future looks bright for Blu-ray – it has won the proverbial format race and coupled with widespread industry support it is definitely a technology for the future.

By Kerry Simpson