Optical disc recording technologies
Okay kiddo, have you ever seen a CD or a DVD?
Well, those are called optical discs, and they store information like music, movies, or pictures. Optical disc recording technologies are the ways people use to make those discs so they can store all that information.
There are two primary ways to record information on an optical disc: write once or rewritable.
Write once discs (like CD-R or DVD-R) can only be recorded once, and then they permanently keep that information. These discs have a special layer that is chemically changed by a laser when it is burned, and the change makes it impossible to change the data again.
Rewritable discs (like CD-RW or DVD-RW) can be recorded and erased many times. These are more like writing on a chalkboard that you can erase and redo as many times as you want.
To record information on an optical disc, we use lasers. A laser is a special kind of light that can be very focused and precise.
The laser emits a beam that burns tiny pits into the disc's surface, and those burned pits are read by the disc reader to play the information. The recorder creates a pattern of 1's and 0's, which represent the information.
The more pits there are, the more information can be stored on the disc. So, a DVD can store more information than a CD because it has more pits since it has a smaller beam size.
That's it! Those are the basics of how optical discs are recorded.
Well, those are called optical discs, and they store information like music, movies, or pictures. Optical disc recording technologies are the ways people use to make those discs so they can store all that information.
There are two primary ways to record information on an optical disc: write once or rewritable.
Write once discs (like CD-R or DVD-R) can only be recorded once, and then they permanently keep that information. These discs have a special layer that is chemically changed by a laser when it is burned, and the change makes it impossible to change the data again.
Rewritable discs (like CD-RW or DVD-RW) can be recorded and erased many times. These are more like writing on a chalkboard that you can erase and redo as many times as you want.
To record information on an optical disc, we use lasers. A laser is a special kind of light that can be very focused and precise.
The laser emits a beam that burns tiny pits into the disc's surface, and those burned pits are read by the disc reader to play the information. The recorder creates a pattern of 1's and 0's, which represent the information.
The more pits there are, the more information can be stored on the disc. So, a DVD can store more information than a CD because it has more pits since it has a smaller beam size.
That's it! Those are the basics of how optical discs are recorded.
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