We have long since come from the world of “burning” (CD-RW) and simply watching DVD’s on our computers — we can even make our own DVD’s (DVD-RW). We have asked for more. And our demands have been answered. We can now watch HD or High-definition video on more than just our televisions — we can watch it on our computers, our laptops.  We have successfully brought this desire to fruition and made it portable to boot!

There are many different formats for the once simple disk. This article will review the most common selections that are available.

We have CD ROM’s, CD-RW’s, DVD-Rom’s, DVD-RAM, DVDRW Rom’s, Blu-ray or BD-Rom, and even optical drives or rom’s that include a feature known as LightScribe.

Most are familiar with Cd’s and DVD’s. Yet Blu-ray is a fairly new term. Blu-ray, the project, began in February of 2002. The first consumer devices were in stores just over a year later. The first device was the Sony BDZ-S77 and was only available in Japan for the whopping price of $3800.00. At the time of its initial release there were no pre-recorded video and movies available. The Blu-ray standard was still years away from being common and ‘practical.’ The biggest fear was the undesirable repeat of the copy right failure previously used on DVDs.

The physical specifications were finished in 2004, however, due to setbacks involving security, the first BD-ROM players were not released until the middle of June two years later. The first BR Disk rewritable drive for the PC was released by Sony on July 18, 2006. It recorded both single and dual layer BD-R as well as BD-RE; the suggested retail prices in the US was $699.

There was some competition from HD DVD discs but that was overcome with the help of Sony’s PlayStation III. Many believe The PlayStation served as a catalyst for Blu-ray as the PlayStation 3 used a blu-ray disk drive as its primary information storage medium.

Blu-ray formatted discs can hold much more than the formats that preceded it.

At one time it was only possible to store 700mb worth of data on a standard CD-ROM disc. Now we have expanded with the help of DVD disks and Blu ray as well. DVD and Blu ray discs come in different forms. The two most common are single layer and dual layer capacities.

The difference between single layer and dual layer lies with in the names themselves. Standard DVD discs are single layer and hold 4.7 GB of data. Dual Layer discs are just that — they have two layers and thus are able to hold twice as much information (8.54GB). These discs work only with certain burners that specify Dual Layer writing ability. Dual layer allows for the writing of DVD movies without having to compress them thus improving video quality. Blu ray single layer discs holds around 25GB of data and a dual layer disk will hold roughly 50GB of data.

Blu ray format gives you a higher quality picture and more space available on a media disc.

Another feature included in optical drives is LightScribe or LS. LightScribe is an optical disc recording technology that utilizes specially coated recordable CD and DVD media to produce laser-etched labels with text or graphics, as opposed to stick-on labels and printable discs.

LightScribe uses a laser in a similar way to when plain data is written to the disk; a greyscale image of the label is etched onto the upper side of the disc. This feature requires a special disc–said disc comes in many selectable colors.

The way LightScribe works is the surface of a LS disc is coated with a reactive dye that changes color when it absorbs light from a laser. The etched label will show no noticeable fading under exposure to indoor light for at least two years. Yet optical media should always be stored in a protective sleeve or case that keeps the data content in the dark and safe from scratches. If stored this way, the label should last the life of the disc in real-world application.

Essentially, this feature is great if you are in the profession or maintain a hobby in which you would use this feature. I.E: music production, video editing, etc. (You would want to professionally label your cd’s)

My advice with optical drives goes back to the same advice for wireless, if you aren’t going to truly use something why spend the extra money? That’s all for today folks. Feel free to leave some suggestions for posts that you would like to see in the future.

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