DVD

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DVD, commonly expanded to Digital Versatile Disk although it doesn't officially stand for anything, is an optical storage medium supported by most recent Macintosh models. Introduced worldwide between 1996-1999 and included in Macintosh computers from around the same time, DVD disks physically resemble CDs and can be used in Macs equipped with a SuperDrive, Combo Drive or DVD-ROM.

The main user-visible difference between a CD and DVD is the storage capacity, up to about 700 MB for a CD and 4.7 GB or more for a DVD.

Contents

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DVD Variants

There are many variants of DVDs, shown below. Typically, Macs don't have a problem reading any, except proprietary formats (Xbox, PS2, SACD, for example).

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Application types

  • DVD-Video (containing movies (video and sound))
  • DVD-Audio (containing high-definition sound)
  • SACD (containing high-definition sound)
  • DVD-VR (containing recorded video and sound, usually from TV or camcorder)
  • DVD+VR (a variation of DVD-Video used for recording on +R and +RW discs)
  • PS2 DVD (containing games for PlayStation 2)
  • Xbox DVD (containing games for Xbox)
  • DVD-Data (containing data)
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Disc Mediums

  • DVD-ROM: read only, manufactured by a press
  • DVD-R: recordable once
  • DVD-RW: rewritable
  • DVD-RAM: random access rewritable
  • DVD+R: recordable once
  • DVD+RW: rewritable
  • DVD-R DL: dual layer record once
  • DVD+R DL: dual layer record once
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Capacities

The disc may have one or two sides, and one or two layers of data per side; the number of sides and layers determines the disc capacity.

  • DVD-5: single sided, single layer, 4.7 gigabytes (GB), or 4.38 gibibytes (GiB)
  • DVD-9: single sided, double layer, 8.5 GB (7.92 GiB)
  • DVD-10: double sided, single layer on both sides, 9.4 GB (8.75 GiB)
  • DVD-14: double sided, double layer on one side, single layer on other, 13.3 GB (12.3 GiB)
  • DVD-18: double sided, double layer on both sides, 17.1 GB (15.9 GiB)

Note: GiB shows actual usable capacity. See Computing Units for more information.

There are also 8 cm DVDs (not mini-DVD, which usually refers to DVD-Video data on a CD) with a disc capacity of 1.5 GB.


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Links

See also Wikipedia:DVD

Retrieved from "http://guides.macrumors.com/DVD"