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Optical storage.
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CD
Some CDs contain information such as music, games, or digital audio files. Some are
blank, contain nothing, and can have information put onto them (or writen, or burnt)
with special
CD/RW drives (CD writers),
using special
CD authoring software. These blank
disks are called CD-R or CD+R. There is also CD+RW, and CD-RW, which are different blank CDs.
CD-RW/CD+RW is CD re-writable disk. It can be writen on and erased, and
writen on again many times. These CD-RW/CD+RW disks are more expensive.
CD+ is a competing format to CD-, and is virtualy the same.
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Audio CD
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Audio CDs were the first formm of Digital Audio. The audio CD
format
is old, and only gives you about 70-80 minutes of sound per CD.
On the plus side, you can play an audio CD in any CD player, many DVD
players, portable CD players, CD MP3 players, CD car stereo, your computer,
video game consoles.
There are many audio books available in Audio CD format. You can make, or
"burn" your own CDs with a computer with a
CD writer (burner),
or a standalone CD writer.
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MP3 CD
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How can you have more sound on the same CD? By putting
digital audio formats
on it. You can have 10 to 100 times more audio on the same CD with or
with out loss of quality, depending on the format.
There are many digital audio formats you can put on a CD, but the most
popular is
MP3.
Many portable MP3 CD players, and car MP3 CD players will only play this format.
You can play MP3 CDs on
portable MP3 CD players, some
DVD players, some
car stereos,
your computer, or you can use your computer to transfer the MP3 files
to almost any
digital audio player.
Make your own MP3 CDs.
You will need a computer to make an MP3 CD. With it you can
make your own
MP3s or other digital audio formats from other sources such as
Audio CDs or Cassete Tapes.
With a CD wtiter (burner) in your computer, you can also
create (burn) a CD,
and fill it with sounds, images, and videos.
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DVD
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You can create, or burn your own DVDs, using a computer with a
DVD writer (burner),
and
DVD authoring software.
To do that you will need a blank DVD disk. These blank disks are usualy called DVD-R or DVD+R.
There are also DVD+RW, and DVD-RW, which is DVD re-writable disk. DVD-RW/DVD+RW can be
writen on and erased, and writen on again many times. These DVD-RW disks are more expensive.
DVD+ is a competing format to DVD-, and is virtualy the same.
There is also double layer DVD-, or DVD+ disk. Much as a store-bought DVD it can hold
twice as much on one side as a single layer, regular disk. Any player or drive will read
double layer disk, but you need a special double layer DVD writer and special blank disks to
make them.
There are also double sided DVD-, or DVD+ blank disks. These can also be single or double
layered. Double sided disks are not very popular, and can be hard to find.
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