Some drives could play DVDs formatted + but not those formatted –, for example. Today, you should look for a DVD drive that is specified as +/– so that it can deal with any DVD you throw at it. Blu-ray discs: If you want to be able to play the latest optical discs, get a laptop with a Blu-ray player. Blu-ray is a great medium for storing. Make Offer - HL GA50N 12.7mm SATA Slot Load Optical Drive CDRW DVD±RW DVD-RAM Burner Drive USB 3.0 External Slot in Load CD DVD RW Optical Drive Burner For Laptop PC JS $31.57.
In the recent past, most computers came with an optical drive where you could insert a DVD and play a movie or music. If you buy a software program, it may come on a DVD, so you can use a built-in or external drive to install it.
Today, many new computers and laptops don’t include an optical drive for reading DVDs, partially because you can so easily stream video from an online source without ever handling a DVD. Most computers today do have USB ports. USB ports accommodate a USB stick, which is a small plastic coated gadget that can hold a lot of data.
If you want to play the latest optical discs, get a computer with a Blu-ray player. Blu-ray is a great medium for storing and playing back feature-length movies because it can store 50GB or more, about ten times as much as the average DVD.
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Recent computers come without DVD capabilities because you can download and install software or play videos and music from the cloud (that is, via the Internet), so it’s possible to get along just fine without the capability to play DVDs. However, some software products still only come on a disc. You can connect an external optical drive to a USB port to load the software on your computer.
An optical drive is a piece of equipment that uses a laser to read or write information on a disc. Though this type of equipment is often associated with computers, it can stand alone as an appliance. For instance, a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) player, Blu-ray disc (BD) player, and Compact Disc (CD) players are considered optical drives even though they may not be in a computer system. Many video games also use this type of device to read the game’s disc. Despite what type of disc they read or write, all these applications have the same basic workings.
The optical path makes an optical drive work. The optical path is composed of three components: a laser, a lens, and a photodiode. The laser writes and reads the data. The lens guides the laser across the surface of the disc. Lastly, the photodiode detects light reflected off the disc’s surface. The drive also uses two servomechanisms, or servos — one to maintain the proper distance between the disc and laser and the other to make sure the laser is moving in a continuous spiral path.
Lasers of different wavelengths are used to read different types of media. A CD player uses a laser with a wavelength of 780 nm. This is in the infrared light range. DVD players use wavelengths in the 650 nm range. This is why you will see a red light when the player is working. Blu-Ray® players use a much lower wavelength—450nm. This puts it in the violet range and explains the bluish light.
The discs an optical drive reads and writes vary. Read only media (ROM), such as in CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs, do not write media, only read it. These are the type of discs that software is written on. The manufacturer will create the disc by embedding pits, called grooves, on the disc’s flat surface. Then, when a user inserts the disc into an optical drive, a reading laser shines on the disc. The light is reflected and detected by the photodiode which then translates the data into a form that the computer or player can understand and display.
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An optical drive can also record media. This type of recording must be done on specific recordable (R) discs like CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and BD-Rs. When writing, the recording laser melts organic dyes on the surface of the disc and embeds grooves into the surface. As with ROMs, the reading laser, which is at a much lower wavelength than the recording laser, shines on the disc and reflects light. The reflection is then detected by the photodiode and information is displayed.
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Rewriteable media are able to be write media on rewriteable (RW or RE, in the case of Blu-Ray®) discs, such as CD-RWs, DVD-RWs, and BD-REs, again and again. The surface of these discs is made of a special crystalline alloy that enables data to be written on its surface over and over. Individual data is embedded onto the disc on grooves that reflect the laser differently. The photodiode is then able to distinguish between the different reflections and display the correct information.