First off, what is DVD-ROM? It's revved-up CD-ROM technology that crams far more information onto a single disc. While most CD-ROM discs hold around 650MB of data, a DVD disc can hold some 4.7GB of data. Using techniques such as gluing two discs back-to-back, manufacturers can effectively double the capacity to 9.4GB. The downside of this is that you have to flip the disk in the drive to use both sides.
Another scheme for cramming twice as much data onto a DVD disc is to add a second layer. The first layer becomes semi-transparent so a laser can read through it to the second layer, and with this process, manufacturers can get some 8.5GB of data onto a DVD disc. Finally, glue two of these discs together, and you end up with a disc that can hold a whopping 17GB of data. The beauty of this evolution is that the DVD drive that you buy today should be able to read all of these different-capacity discs.
So with its superior capacity that can hold up to 17GB of data on a CD-sized disc, DVD-ROM is the future of multimedia. In addition to its impressive storage capabilities, DVD-ROM drives can play movies on your computer, and the drives are backwards compatible so they can read your existing CD-ROM discs.
The
DVD-ROM Drive
To read a DVD-ROM disc, or play a DVD movie on your computer, you have to
purchase and install a DVD-ROM drive. You can buy DVD upgrade kits from various
manufacturers. Besides being more expensive than CD drives, DVD drives are
generally slower when they read CD discs.
Since DVD-ROM holds more data than CD-ROM, you may wonder why most computer users haven't upgraded to DVD. As it turns out, while there are lots of DVD movies on the market, there are relatively few DVD-ROM software titles–computer programs that come on a DVD disc. For hardware manufacturers and software publishers, DVD-ROM has long been in the chicken and egg phase. Consumers don't need DVD-ROM drives if there are no applications such as games that run on them. And software publishers don't want to develop DVD titles if few PC owners have DVD drives.
There have been a handful of DVD-ROM titles released, but so far, many of these are CD-ROM titles that have been repackaged onto DVD. In a word, "shovelware." The term "shovelware" hearkens back to the early days of CD-ROMs, when software publishers would burn four or five old floppy games onto a single CD and sell it as a new title. Despite this practice, there are some promising aspects.
Because a DVD-ROM disc holds so much more data than a CD-ROM, publishers can take a title that comes on multiple CDs, and deliver it on a single DVD-ROM disc. I can think of many CD titles where swapping discs was an absolute pain. If a DVD title alleviates the swapping, it's worth it.
In this regard, I've been particularly impressed with Microsoft's Encarta Reference Suite that comes in a DVD version. The DVD version offers better quality video, and because it comes on a single disc, offers links between its references that couldn't be offered in the past. For example, if a reference suggests that you check out another topic, you can simply click on it, and the program takes you there. This was something that was difficult to do when the program came on multiple CD-ROMs. Best of all, there's no swapping CDs.
These days, with the popularity of DVDs, and the arrival of recordable DVD, you'll be hearing a lot more about the technology.
peripherals - Buying a DVD-ROM Drive
