DVDS, MP3 the modernway to store data
Dec 08, 2006
Compact discs (CD), digital video decoders (DVD) and MP3s can be used to store music, data or computer software. They have become the standard medium for distributing large quantities of information.
By Roger Mugisha
Compact discs (CD), digital video decoders (DVD) and MP3s can be used to store music, data or computer software. They have become the standard medium for distributing large quantities of information.
Compact discs are cheap and literally found anywhere. If you have a computer with a CD-R drive, you can record any information on your own CDs. They have become a must-have for office and home computers.
However, people do not know the technological difference between CDs, DVDs and MP3s. A DVD has at least seven times the capacity of a CD and has enough room to store a full-length MPEG-encoded movie. Its picture quality is better and many of them have Dolby Digital Sound or DTS, which is much closer to the sound in a movie theatre. DVDs can store almost eight hours of CD-quality music.
Another frequently asked question is the number of songs that can be recorded on a CD. Audio CDs are time-based. They can store a maximum of 99 songs. However, the actual number of songs will depend on the length of the song. For an 80-minute blank CD-R, one can record up to 80 minutes of song if one’s CD recorder drive supports it.
DVD recordables are only for movies but also hold files that can only be readable off a DVD player whereas a CD recordable is made for music. So what then is an MP3 disc? It is the format in which one can pack a lot of songs (up to 100) or data in one disk. However, only a player with an MP3 format can play it. If you have old players, then record the songs in WMA format. It will only record about 10 or 15 songs per CD, but it will play it. For computers and laptops, it is wiser to buy good software that gives you the flexibility to record data or music in an MP3 or other format. The main (and obvious) difference between an MP3 format and a DVD is data storage. An MP3 (better known as MPEG Layer 3) compresses audio files into a much smaller size. On the other hand, a DVD is a revolutionary compression method that involves videos encoded into digital format at extremely high resolution. This explains why DVD quality is superior to MPEG or Video CD (VCD) encoding. DVDs allow a host of other features to be added into the disc such as special features, sub-titles and sound options.
Compact discs (CD), digital video decoders (DVD) and MP3s can be used to store music, data or computer software. They have become the standard medium for distributing large quantities of information.
Compact discs are cheap and literally found anywhere. If you have a computer with a CD-R drive, you can record any information on your own CDs. They have become a must-have for office and home computers.
However, people do not know the technological difference between CDs, DVDs and MP3s. A DVD has at least seven times the capacity of a CD and has enough room to store a full-length MPEG-encoded movie. Its picture quality is better and many of them have Dolby Digital Sound or DTS, which is much closer to the sound in a movie theatre. DVDs can store almost eight hours of CD-quality music.
Another frequently asked question is the number of songs that can be recorded on a CD. Audio CDs are time-based. They can store a maximum of 99 songs. However, the actual number of songs will depend on the length of the song. For an 80-minute blank CD-R, one can record up to 80 minutes of song if one’s CD recorder drive supports it.
DVD recordables are only for movies but also hold files that can only be readable off a DVD player whereas a CD recordable is made for music. So what then is an MP3 disc? It is the format in which one can pack a lot of songs (up to 100) or data in one disk. However, only a player with an MP3 format can play it. If you have old players, then record the songs in WMA format. It will only record about 10 or 15 songs per CD, but it will play it. For computers and laptops, it is wiser to buy good software that gives you the flexibility to record data or music in an MP3 or other format. The main (and obvious) difference between an MP3 format and a DVD is data storage. An MP3 (better known as MPEG Layer 3) compresses audio files into a much smaller size. On the other hand, a DVD is a revolutionary compression method that involves videos encoded into digital format at extremely high resolution. This explains why DVD quality is superior to MPEG or Video CD (VCD) encoding. DVDs allow a host of other features to be added into the disc such as special features, sub-titles and sound options.