DVD Configurations

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DVD-ROM (Book A) A high-capacity read-only optical disc capable of rapid data transfer that may be used as a general-purpose computer storage device. A DVD-ROM may hold any type of digital data and is readable by a DVD-ROM drive connected to a computer. This type of drive is basically an 8X CD-ROM drive with seven times the storage capacity. Files are stored in the Micro UDF/ISO 9660 Bridge format. DVD-ROM is an extension of the CD-ROM specification with a maximum file size of 1 gigabyte (GB).
DVD-Video (Book B) A high-capacity read-only optical disc capable of rapid data transfer that is used for the interactive playback of movies and games or of other video, audio, and graphic content using the MPEG-2 video compression format. The DVD-video Book B type is played on a DVD player and viewed on a television monitor. It has become one form of a set top box; These discs may also be played on a computer with a special hardware decoder and supporting software.
DVD-Audio (Book C) A high-capacity read-only optical disc capable of rapid data transfer that may be used for the playback of high-quality audio using 24-bit linear pulse code modulation (LPCM) sampled at 48 or 96 kilobytes per second (KBps). A widely agreed-upon audio standard among manufacturers had not yet been defined in 1998.
DVD-R (Book D) A new high-capacity write-once optical disc with rapid data transfer rates that can be used as a general-purpose computer storage device. It may be recorded but not erased. It is able to read and write up to 3.9 gigabytes (GB) of data.
DVD-RAM (Book E) A high-capacity read-write optical disc capable of rapid data transfer that may be used as a general-purpose computer storage device. This format allows reading, writing, and erasing. Because phase change technology is used, the capacity for data is approximately half of that of a read-only device. A DVD-RAM disc will read and write 2.6 gigabytes (GB). It is presumed that a DVD-RAM disc will be readable on both the DVD-R and DVD-ROM drives built in the future. Rewritable DVD equipment is expected to be commercially available in 1999.