CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM,
DVD-RW to read write on CDs.
Every Computer comes with a
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM unit now. There is also CD-RW
and DVD-RW units that are writers to make your
own data CD's or DVD's on a blank media. You
can use the writers to make backup copies of
your original data CD's or DVD movies or can
use them to simply store your files for
backup.
CD-ROMs are now obsolete and
are replaced by DVD-ROMs that are sold at a
very cheap price. DVDs can hold much more data
than the 650-700 MB of data that a CD-ROM can
have. When CD-ROMs first came out, they were
connected to a special ISA controller card or
sound card. Now CD units are connected on the
standard IDE ports of your computer.
DVD-ROMs will read standard
650-700 MB data CDs, audio CDs and DVD movies.
Since DVD-ROM units read all actual CD/DVD
media and their prices went down a lot, they
replaced the old CD-ROM as a standard
component of a computer.
CD-RW can write data to a
650-700 MB blank CD. Some are also able to
re-write on rewritable CD. Rewritable CDs are
fun since they can be erased and re-written to
up to 1000 times. The write once CDs cannot be
erased and re-written to, you can only add
data to them until they are full.
A DVD-RW is like the CD-RW
and can write data to a blank DVD media. It
will hold much more data than a standard CD
and some can also do double-layer writing.
Double-layer writing is to write data to two
different depth of the media to store more
data on the same DVD. Movies are usually
written on multi layers and have to be
compressed to be written on a single layer
media.
Installing a CD or DVD unit
to a computer is easy. It's connected on an
IDE port alone or with an other IDE device
like an other CD unit or a hard disk. You can
set the CD unit to slave and connect it with
an other device set as master on the same 40
pin cable or be installed alone as master or
slave on one IDE port. If the system use
ATA-66 or ATA-100 IDE hard disk, the CD unit
can be set to use CS (Cable Select) and
installed on the same 80 pin cable with the
hard-disk.
CD and DVD-ROMs have an
audio connector that plugs on the sound card
to send the analog sound signals to the sound
device. This is to play audio CDs for example,
but most computers will not need this cable
anymore since the audio tracks will be dealt
straight by the sound card.
|
