the media

[Stand Up Old]

We have CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW plus others I might have
missed.

They are all the same diameter, and have a thin film of something or other
sandwiched between sheets of plastic. The something or other can be
burned/reburned using a laser.

Many modern CD/DVD machines can read all these different media types quit
adequately.

So the big Q.... why, in this modern progressive age, are there so many
different types of media which more than likely could be devised into a
common part.

Perhaps its a bluff and sales ploy.

dj

 

[beenthere]

We have CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW plus others I might have
missed.

They are all the same diameter, and have a thin film of something or other
sandwiched between sheets of plastic. The something or other can be
burned/reburned using a laser.

Many modern CD/DVD machines can read all these different media types quit
adequately.

So the big Q.... why, in this modern progressive age, are there so many
different types of media which more than likely could be devised into a
common part.

Perhaps its a bluff and sales ploy.

You got it in one. Everyones got to make a dollar.

 

[John McGaw]

We have CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW plus others I might have
missed.

They are all the same diameter, and have a thin film of something or other
sandwiched between sheets of plastic. The something or other can be
burned/reburned using a laser.

Many modern CD/DVD machines can read all these different media types quit
adequately.

So the big Q.... why, in this modern progressive age, are there so many
different types of media which more than likely could be devised into a
common part.

Perhaps its a bluff and sales ploy.

dj

At least between CD and DVD media there is one huge difference. The
track pitch of a CD is 1.6 microns. The track pitch of a DVD, at least
the 4.7gB variety, is 0.74 microns (the ~4gB variety which nobody even
sells anymore was 0.8 microns). CD drives aren't gone yet so media to
support them will stay around to support the legacy.

The difference between R and RW is just as stark. Yes, you guessed it,
one can be reused and the other can't. But there are also matters of
reliability and the RW sort don't seem to hold up so well and aren't
quite as interchangeable among drives. But for some applications the RW
capability is attractive and there is still a market for them.

As for the + and - varieties of DVD, that was indeed a marketing ploy
and there is little to differentiate the two now since modern drives
handle both. But in earliest days different drives required different
media and the legacy drives still exist.

 

[kony]

We have CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW plus others I might have
missed.

They are all the same diameter, and have a thin film of something or other
sandwiched between sheets of plastic. The something or other can be
burned/reburned using a laser.

Many modern CD/DVD machines can read all these different media types quit
adequately.

So the big Q.... why, in this modern progressive age, are there so many
different types of media which more than likely could be devised into a
common part.

Perhaps its a bluff and sales ploy.

dj

Choice is good!

If you don't want to buy them all, buy what you want.

Some exist for legacy support purposes, people bought the
technology of that era and there was no need to require them
to have a DVD drive for distribution of 650MB of data (on a
CD) for example, especially when the modern drive is
backwards compatible.