pctechguide.com

  • Home
  • Guides
  • Tutorials
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • Glossary
  • Contact

CDR-RW Disc Capabilities

CD-R’s have a pre-formed spiral track, with each sector address hard-coded into the media itself. The capacity of the most widely available CD format is expressed either as 74 minutes or 650MB. Each second of playing time occupies 75 CD sectors, meaning a complete CD has a capacity of 74x60x75 = 333,000 sectors. The actual storage capacity of those 333,000 sectors depends on what’s recorded on the CD, audio or data. This is because audio imposes less of an error correction overhead than data, the capacity of a sector being 2353 bytes for the former, compared with 2048 for the latter. Consequently, a 74-minute disc has a capacity of 783,216,000 bytes (746MB) for audio but only 681,984,000 bytes (650MB) for data.

In the late-1990s CD-R media began to emerge with more capacity than the 74-minute maximum allowed by the Red Book audio CD or Yellow Book CD-ROM standards. The additional capacity was achieved by reducing the track pitch and scanning velocity specification tolerances to a minimum. The margin of error between drive and media is reduced as a consequence which, in turn, leads to potential compatibility issues, especially with respect to older CD drives and players.

The first of these higher capacity formats had a play time of 80 minutes and 360,000 sectors instead of the usual 333,000. In terms of data capacity this meant 703MB compared with a standard 74-minute CD’s 650MB. Not long into the new millennium even higher capacity CD media appeared in the shape of 90-minute and 99-minute formats, boasting capacities of around 791MB and 870MB respectively. It’s interesting to note that since CD time stamps are encoded as a pair of binary-coded decimal digits, it won’t be possible to push the capacity of a CD beyond 99 minutes!

It was easy to see the attraction of these high-capacity CD formats:

  • the confusion surrounding rewritable DVD and its various competing formats, was severely hampering the technology’s adoption
  • CD-RW technology was by now ubiquitous, with even entry-level PCs being equipped with CD-RW drives
  • CD-R and CD-RW media was unbelievably cheap compared with its DVD counterparts
  • the huge popularity of the VCD and SVCD formats meant that CD capacity was never enough for many users in the far east and China.

The fashion for CD overburning is a further manifestation of consumers’ desire to extract as much as they possibly can from CD-RW technology.

  • ISO 9660 Data Format for CDs, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs
  • CD-R – Recordable Compact Disk
  • CD Rewritable
  • CDR-RW Mini Media
  • CDR-RW Digital Audio Media
  • CDR-RW Double Density Media
  • CDR-RW UDF File System
  • CDR-RW Multi-Read Technology
  • CD-ROM Burn Proof Technology
  • CDR-RW Disc Capabilities
  • CDR-RW Over-burning
  • CDR-RW Mount Ranier
  • CDR-RW DiscT@2 Technology

Filed Under: CD-RW

Latest Articles

Switch & Sync

Switch & Sync Software Review

PROS: Switch & Sync is one of the easiest products to use in the synchronization area. CONS: Wireless users will not be able to use this product. OVERVIEW: Switch & Sync is a very basic software program; it does no more than synchronize and transfer data from a pc to mac, or … [Read More...]

Graphics Card Adjustments

When we checked Display Properties earlier, to confirm drivers for the new card had been installed successfully, you may have noticed that they indicated a colour resolution of 256 colours. Now's the time to adjust both this and display resolution you want to run at. You may also … [Read More...]

Preparing Installation – How to do a clean installation of Windows XP

In the Preparing installation phase, more files are copied to your computer in preparation for installation. After a while, the computer restarts with Setup identifying the existing partitions and unpartitioned space on the PC. Partitioning and formatting your hard drive Proceed as … [Read More...]

How to Start a Business in Computer Engineering

Did you know that there are 66,200 computer engineers in the United States? This can be a very lucrative career path. However, you may have an easier … [Read More...]

Best Techniques for Defragmenting a Hard Drive

We recently published a post on the importance of defragmenting a hard drive. We wanted to cover the actual process in more depth. The first thing … [Read More...]

Why You Need to Regularly Defragment Your Hard Drive

Your computer's hard disk of is one of the most vital parts of your machine. It needs to operate reliably and quickly for your computer to function … [Read More...]

Container vs VM: What Is the Difference and Which One to Pick?

VMs and containers are two implementations of virtualization technology. This means that both VMs and  containers help to optimize how resources … [Read More...]

Privacy Considerations with Photos and Videos on Your Smartphone

New technology makes it easier than ever to capture images and videos. This technology is getting smaller and easier to use. As a result, the quality … [Read More...]

Tips on How to Land a Remote Job in Cyber Security

The demand for skilled cyber security professionals is growing as well as a number of threats and risks. Any company needs an expert or team to … [Read More...]

Guides

  • Computer Communications
  • Mobile Computing
  • PC Components
  • PC Data Storage
  • PC Input-Output
  • PC Multimedia
  • Processors (CPUs)

Recent Posts

Dot Trio Monitors

The vast majority of computer monitors use circular blobs of phosphor and arrange them in triangular … [Read More...]

PCI Bus Interfaces

Intel's original work on the PCI standard was published as revision 1.0 and handed over to a separate organisation, the PCI … [Read More...]

How to Remove Security Solution 2011

How to Remove Security Solution 2011 Security Solution 2011 can be a hard threat to remove. This fake security client is related to several other … [Read More...]

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2022 About | Privacy | Contact Information | Wrtie For Us | Disclaimer | Copyright License | Authors