What is an optical drive and a drive. Optical drives for all CD and DVD drives information

Optical drive or CD discs are an optical-mechanical device designed to read information from the CDs of 8 and 12 cm. Modern CDs CDs are universal, except for reading, they can also record different types of information on discs of various formats : Disposable and reusable CDs (CD-R and CD-RW), disposable and reusable DVDs (DVD-R and DVD-RW).

Principle of operation of the optical drive

The main element of the drive is an optical system that generates a laser beam, which reads information from the rotating media. Information on the CD is recorded in the form of a spiral track, on which microscopic recesses are burned by a laser beam. With the mass production of discs with data, the information on them is entered by stamping with a special matrix.

If you look at the surface of the disk in the microscope, then you can see alternating tubercles and pits, from which the laser beam is reflected with different intensity - from the tubercle more, from the hole less. And given the fact that the computer processes information in binary number (encoded by a sequence of zeros and units), then in alternating the pits and tubercles, you can define the data in a certain way. Here, the tubercle acts as units, and the recess represents a binary zero.

CD Disk CD Device

The most common CD drives for today are devices for installation in the inner compartment, the so-called optical actuators of the form factor of 5.25 inches. Here is 5.25 inches - this is the size of the large compartment in the computer case for installing devices.

Inside the iron case are e-board, engines for rotating disk and optical system, the optical system for reading and writing to a CD. On the back of the drive, connections are placed to connect to the motherboard and power. On the front panel there are a traveling tray for installing a CD, the extension / closing button and the read / write indicator.

In your computer, most likely, there will be at least one drive for optical disks, in the receiving tray of which you can insert a DVD or CD disc.

Alternative to optical drives

Recently, the popularity of computer CDs has fallen sharply due to the mass distribution of other types of media, primarily flash memory or other "flash drives". The popularity of flash drives is associated with their low cost, sufficient memory and performance of read / write. In addition, external hard drives connected to the storage of large amounts of information are widely used.

Optical drive is a storage device with optical reading and recording principle. As carriers, optical drive uses flat multilayer discs with a diameter of 8 or 12 mm. Among the "Optics" you can select several basic types of these devices: CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, CD-RW-DVD, DVD-RW. These are not all the above types of optical drives, there is still a Blu-ray and so on, however, we do not set our goals to tell about all devices of this type, and we only want to affect the main of them, which are present on the market and are relevant and not very relevant to date. Again, to affect the topic of Blu-ray, etc. It is pointless, on the Internet a huge amount of information dedicated to this type of devices. Blu-ray's best acts are quite expensive and are not in great demand today. When these optical drives become available for the average consumer, we will definitely consider them as a potential purchase option.

Start your story We want with the story about the types of optical drives.

Types of optical drives

CD-ROM

The simplest of the devices of this type. This drive is capable of reading only ordinary CDs. The speed of most "modern" CD-ROM reaches 52x, less often for this type of devices 56x. We will talk more about speed below. To date, the CD-ROM drive is morally outdated and is of interest in the most exceptional cases. Take, for example, the same office and a limited budget. Even here CD-ROM is hard to write somehow. Usually in offices there is a local network, and buy one DVD-ROM drive to one of the personal computers is more than real. There is no attractiveness in CD-ROM, CD CDs are not much cheaper than conventional DVDs, and their capacity is significantly less.

CD-RW.

The next stage of development of optical drives. CD-RW allows not only to read information from conventional CDs, but also to record it on matrices CD-R and CD-RW. The relevance of CD-RW is also under a big question, only an office - and then in exceptional cases.

DVD-ROM.

Another stage of the evolution of optical drives is now at your disposal a device capable of reading not only the usual CDs, but also DVD CDs. The speed formula is as follows: 16x for DVD and 52x for CD. The prospect for the purchase of a DVD-ROM is much more rainbow compared to its progenitor represented by CD-ROM: Examples of using this device to download any information or software from DVD and CD media are obvious.

DVD-CD-RW Combo

The so-called Combo Drive, which combines the functions of devices such as DVD-ROM and CD-RW and, accordingly, can record CD-R and CD-RW discs, read both conventional CDs and DVD.

Some time ago, DVD-CD-RW was the most popular optical drive, but his prospects are dubious. These devices are practically not produced, although there is a very small offer on the market. No matter what kind of application of the DVD-CD-RW is seen in the office or educational institution when you need to record CD-R and CD-RW discs and download information from CD and DVD carriers, but the budget is very limited, and I want to save at least a minor amount money.

DVD-RW.

DVD-RW is the undoubted leader of the optical drive market today. These devices are most popular on the Russian information technology market. DVD-RW allows not only to read CD / DVD discs, but also record both conventional CD-R / CD-RW carriers and much more capacious DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD + R / DVD + RW. And in the case of Super-Multi-actuator, the DVD-RAM will also be added to the support of a significant list of formats.

The prospect and the relevance of this type of devices do not cause doubts. For the price of about 40-55 USD, you get an optical drive that is sufficient for most consumers functionality. Without DVD-RW, it is difficult to imagine a modern home personal computer.

DVD-RW in terms of supporting formats, opportunities and prices - the most attractive device today. If you are going to purchase an optical drive, then this is undoubtedly a DVD-RW must be.

From type, we smoothly go to the optical drive form factor.

Form factor

Optical drives are available in several form factor. On the Russian market you can find data from both internal design and external.

Internal actuators are most common, which are installed in the 5.25-inch compartment of the usual desktop case. Such devices are most popular and in demand by the market at the moment.

5,25-inch DVD-RW-drive

Among such devices, two so-called subtypes can be distinguished, which are characterized by loading options: tray and slit. In the first case, the CD lays into a traveling tray; In the second, it is simply shoved in the gap, and the device takes it.

There are on sale and optical drives intended for laptops. Their form factor can also be described as internal, but they are implemented in the so-called SLIM version, which, in general, is not surprising, given the size of modern mobile personal computers.

Loading DVD-RW-drive

As in the case of 5.25-inch devices, "SLIM optics" has several options for loading media into drive: slit and tray. The principle is the same one, it is necessary to make a reservation that the tray in SLIM drives does not leave automatically, but only shutdown and is subsequently advanced manually.

Interface

Internal drives are equipped with two interfaces: Parallel ATA and Serial ATA. If you have enough SERIAL ATA ports, you can buy the appropriate optical drive, but you will not notice a special difference in the speed of the device. And yet pleasant bonuses in the case of using the serial interface are: SERIAL ATA thin loop it is more convenient to lay in the housing, rather than 40 or 80-core IDEs, and the prospect of the upgrade does not scare: it is very unpleasant that one day, changing the system fee, you will have to buy a new drive. The trends towards a decrease in IDE connector in modern motherboards are evident, the manufacturers of chipsets are no longer supported by Parallel ATA, this makes the manufacturers of the motherboard themselves, equipping their products with third-party chips.

In addition to internal optical drives there are external. These devices are connected to a personal computer via USB or FireWire interface. The design of such devices is quite diverse - there are large, angular models in the style of the "quadrath-practical-gut" style with an external power supply that require additional nutrition from the network, there are also very stylish slim models that are capable of working without additional nutrition, while contenting that There are USB 2.0.

SLIM model DVD-RW-drive

The share of the market of external optical drives is small. As a rule, these devices are used to be associated with single-spindle laptops, in which the drive is generally absent. However, it is worth a reservation that such laptops are a bit.

Having considered the types and form factor of optical drives, it is worth a little talk about the formats.

A little about formats and speed

You could have noticed that the speed of read / write optical drives is measured in the so-called ixes: 1x, 16x, 48x. It is worth making a little clarity and tie the so-called X to a more specific parameter measuring speed. So, for conventional CD carriers, the speed of one ix is \u200b\u200b150 KB / C, and for DVDs, this parameter is already 1.385 MB / s. You can note another feature in reading CD and DVD CDs. Thus, the latter rotate at speed, three times the superior read speed of ordinary CD carriers. Resorting in arithmetic, it is easy to see that 16x for DVD are similar to 48x for CD.

Speed \u200b\u200bmore or less figured out, now let's consider the main formats that read / write modern optical drives.

CD - The most that neither there is ordinary stamped CDs that are used exclusively for reading. Music, software and other information - all these CDs you could repeatedly see in various stores. The maximum container of this type of media is 700 MB. High-speed characteristics range from 40x to 56x. It is worth noting that for most CDs this parameter is 40x, 40x small; 52x and 56x are rarity. At such high speeds, optical drives simply overeat, especially if the carrier itself is alone.

CD-R. -Compact disks for one-time recording of information. By high-speed characteristics for the reading parameter are similar to CD-biases. As for the record, the maximum speed on which the standard 700-megabyte CD-R can be written is about 40x and 48x, in practice it is 3-4 minutes. Intermediate speed values \u200b\u200bare available. That is, if your optical drive does not support such high recording speeds or you yourself no longer want to record matrices on the maximum possible ICs, you can limit 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32x.

CD-RW. -Pripped CDs with a resource about 1000 times. The container is the same as CD and CD-R, however, the read speed is slightly lower: most carriers are read at 32x and 24x. CD-RW are clearly tied to a certain recording speed / overwriting: CD-RW (1-4X), Hi-Speed \u200b\u200bCD-RW (4-12x), Ultra Hi-Speed \u200b\u200bCD-RW (12-24X) and Ultra Hi-Speed \u200b\u200b+ CD-RW (24-32X). As we see, the high-speed flexibility of CD-R is not here, but it is not worth upset about this, modern optical drives support the maximum recording / overwriting speeds for CD-RW and back are compatible with slower matrices.

DVD-ROM. -Wened DVDs. Such media can be found in any video shop selling movies. On sale are found both single-layer and two-layer media, which differ in capacity: 4.7 GB (single-layer) and 8.5 GB (two-layer). The maximum read speed is 16x.

DVD-R and DVD + R -DVD matrix for one-time recording of information with a capacity of 4.7 GB. By the speed of reading, such CDs are similar to the stamped collections, 16x is the maximum if the optical drive is old, it can read DVD-R and DVD + R at lower speeds: 8x, 10x. There are practically no differences between plus disks and minus disks, these designations remained from the time of the war of formats, today it is all irrelevant, and modern optical drives support and positive, and minus blanks.

The maximum recording speed of the carrier data is about 16x, which corresponds to the seasons of 6.5 minutes. However, the high-speed flexibility of CD-R is inherent and DVD-R, and DVD + R, so you can record these boys at speeds, below the maximum 16x: 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x.

DVD-R DL and DVD + R DL - etikompacts are similar to DVD-R and DVD + R, but have not one layer, but two, and, as a result, their container is about 8.5 GB. The speed of reading and speed of recording is largely inferior to their one-layer progenitors: reading - 8x, and in most cases it is 4-6x, recording - 8x for DVD + R DL and 4X for DVD-R DL.

Optical drives DVD-RW.undoubtedly occupy a leading position in the market at the moment. It is not the exceptions and the Russian market of computer components. DVD-RW not only reads CD and DVDs, but also writes both CD-R / RW carriers and more capacious DVD-R / RW and DVD + R / + RW. And if you still have a super-multi, then the DVD-RAM format is added here. These devices today, no doubt, are relevant, and promising.

For 20-30 dollars you can purchase an optical drive, the functional set of which will satisfy the needs of the average consumer. Today it is difficult to imagine a modern PC without a DVD-RW. After all, it is the most attractive device in terms of the price ratio and its capabilities.

Blu-ray - Modern optical drive standard

In addition to the above devices, you should mention such a modern high-tech format as Blu-ray.. This format is used to record and storing with an increased density of digital data. The name it was received by using the use of a short-wave laser in the process of writing / reading blue (Blue-from what and the name) of the shortwave laser.

Throughout 2006-2008, Blu-Ray competed with an existing HD DVD alternative format. But still, as a result of this "Format War", Blu-ray came out the winner. He was predicted a great future and widespread distribution, but this did not happen. First of all, due to the high cost of the device itself. In the second - due to the high cost of the disks. Even today, such drives are installed in a new system unit rarely. And preference is given to the older DVD fellow.

Details of this format have from one to ten layers with a capacity of 25 to 320 gigabytes, respectively. Among them there are disks for a disposable record of BD-R, as well as reusable BD-Re-carriers.

The optical drive application zone is not only computers familiar to us, but also the automagnets used by us, DVD players, some types of optical disks use tape recorders. Even with all this, many people questioned the need for such devices to read optical disks. But in order to know how much the right statement is correct, you must first know what optical drive is and what kind of possibilities it has.

Period Development Drive for reading optical disks has one generation. Its work is based on a laser beam reflecting layer precisely directed on the reflective disk. This is necessary just to read information from the recesses visible only under a microscope on optical disks, in fact, to recognize the information from which it is needed. Therefore, such information carriers as optical discs are often called laser.

The optical reader is referred not only to the hardware of the computer, but also multimedia, and all due to the fact that the prevailing information stored on the disks is multimedia directed.

What is optical drive

Optical drive, what is it necessary for? Independence from the fact that this device has long been used by people, do not everyone know that this is for such a drive. Let us turn by the decoding of the current term.
Optical disk drive or optical drive is a device that combines both mechanical and electronic component, all operation is based on the use of a laser, its function is to read information from optical disks, while some representatives are also endowed with the ability to record data.

To refer to the optical disk drive, synonyms are used for frequent, it can be called an optical drive, just a drive, a drive, and sometimes you have to hear the names common names. The term drive, like many other terms associated with computers, occurred from the English. Disk Drive (disk drive), which means, with coarse wording - driven in motion, and it spins, as it was said before the discs. The optical drive is not the only representative of the disk drive devices, but the only one used to this day in current computer configurations.

What does the standard optical drive look like

Optical drives are not monotonous, which there may be to have the presence of their representatives not only in an ordinary system unit with the familiar dimensions, but also thinner in the monoblock or laptop, moreover, the drive can be portable.

The main interfaces for connecting to the computer is SATA and USB, to outdated computers such drives are connected using IDE loops. There are other ways to connect the drive to a computer, but they are not popular.

Portable, it is also an external one, with a USB connection interface, it is a USB drive, it will be suitable for lovers to use the disk, even if such an opportunity is not provided in the device. In addition, such optical drives can be used on several personal computers, which is also convenient.

Different modifications of drives, for example, with a tray, usually manageable using the Lee button and on the program level or with the introductory hole with the possibility of automatic disc fear there are quite a lot. It is worth paying attention to a small hole, which is usually next to the tray removal button, which will help remove the drive from the drive using a needle immersion and thereby using the removal mechanism, which is relevant when the computer is turned off or when the mechanism is turned off or when the mechanism is turned off. There is nothing strange here, while the perfect technical solution most likely does not exist.

Types of optical drives and their functionality:

An important functional feature of the optical drive is determined by its type that characterizes the operation with the drive used in the future, and with this the possible capacity of the disk, the speed of the records and the readings from it. For a more complete understanding of what optical drive is, and what it has a functional diversity, consider the possibilities of each type.

CD drives

CD - the drive is considered to be the most ordinary device for reading optical disks, it is divided:

CD-ROM - device for reading CD discs.

CD-RW - just like the CD-ROM has the ability to read information from the disk, but besides reading, such devices can also be recorded.

DVD drives

DVD - the main function of such optical drives is the use of DVDs:

DVD-ROM - can only read information, DVD-RW and reads, and record, but here you need to pay attention to the fact that DVD drives can do the read and write operations with CD carriers.
Such a drive as a DVD - RW DL, performs all the feature of previous DVD drives with a small bonus, which is the ability to write on two-layer discs with a greater capacity.
Among the DVD devices there is one exception to which the combined DVD / CD-RW drive relates, which is other than reading all CD and DVD formats, to record can only be recorded on CDs.

Blu-ray drive

BD-RE is an optical drive designed to read information with Blu-ray discs with a layer size of 23.3 GB. His work in comparison with DVD devices is based on a smaller wavelength of the laser and the blue emission spectrum, as well as an enlarged protective layer of discs. This layer provides high reliability when reading and writing.

Blu-ray technology is mainly used to store high-resolution video on such disks and along with previous types of drives, has the ability to use CD and DVD.

HD DVD Drive

There are also such types of drives like HD DVD, to read information from all types of discs other than Blu-Ray and its more advanced relative HD DVD / DVDRW, which not only reads, but also writes. The main functionality of the device is represented by reading HD DVDs and reading, and recording in the case of HD DVD / DVDRW. Single-layer discs have a capacity of 15 gigabytes, and two-layer 2 times more.

The value of the optical disk drive in the modern computer

If the average computer, mid-90s, well, simply could not exist without such a device as an optical drive, now it is not quite so. At least such a reader and is able to expand the capabilities of a personal computer, it is impossible to call it in the mandatory configuration of the computer.

The popularity of drives began to dramatically fall with the introduction of other sources of obtaining information: such as flash memory, which occupies a much less place in his pocket, and at the same time, every year, increased its spaces to accommodate information and, probably, the most popular way to get something The Internet and the development of piracy in it became on the computer. Why buy something, if it is much more convenient to download on the Internet and bring familiar on the flash drive.

Distribution of software, music music and other diversity on disks is far from the only way to distribute these information products. Even if you exclude piracy on the Internet, almost everything can be purchased in online stores and store let's say on the hard disk, and not on optical.

For someone use, disks This is a deal of habit, for someone - this is an opportunity to use the information previously saved on them, may someone have a radio tape recorder in the car, it does not have read with USB media, but in turn copes with reading MP3 disks That had a huge collection already accumulated. Of course, it is too needed to throw out such devices.

Many, we are more familiar to buy a collector's game edition or a music album on an optical disk with a beautiful packaging for your collection. Someone has old, but not forgotten photos, video shooting from the wedding, and it is not always clear where the information will continue longer.

For example, when assembling a computer, not everyone has the opportunity to download drivers from the official site, but if you have a drive, then it will undoubtedly help in this situation, equipment manufacturers are equipped with their technical products on the disk.

Summing up the article: What is an optical drive and a drive, it becomes clear that it is too early to discount such devices. Those who do not know about them, rather, it is not necessary to start to start, because they have done so before. Those who know the value for themselves to get rid of them soon. Here for each your version will be the best, and new formats of such devices are presented and new features.

Most likely that the most relevant for consideration in an article dedicated to optical drives would be testing DVD drives, but not everything is so unambiguous. It is unlikely that in our time the rapid dissemination of drives capable of working with DVD, one of the users will refuse their acquisition in the presence of a sufficient number of funds. The only reasonable reason can be only the lack of a functional need for similar drives. In the current article, we will look at three CD-RW drives - devices that are not capable of working with DVD carriers, but allow you to exercise in addition to reading data on CDs.

Overview drives

Mitsumi CR-488TE

The design of the drive is peculiar to all products of Mitsumi this category - there are practically no elements of "decorations". The tray has a device type symbol. In addition, on the front panel, we see the load / unloading control button, the mode of operation mode and output to connect headphones with the rounded edges, and the output of the headphone regulator. On the back of the drive is the power and interface connectors, analog and digital audio outputs, a set of pins with jumper to position the drive in the system.

The drive provides read speed and recording CDs up to 52x. For CD-RW there is a rewrite mode up to 32x. The volume of buffer is 2 MB. The declared average access time is 100 ms. The drive supports the E-IDE interface (ATAPI). The drive can work with CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-RM, CD-R, CD-I, VIDEO-CD, PHOTO-CD, CD-EXTRA, CD-UDF, CD-TEXT. The drive supports MT.Rainier technology and Buffer Underrun Prevention. The overall dimensions of the drive are 148.6 x 41.8 x 193.3 mm, and the weight is 1 kg.

The estimated retail cost of the drive is 39 cu

SAMSUNG SW-252FF

The SAMSUNG drive can be easily distinguished from similar products from other manufacturers due to the characteristic facial panel design. The end of the tray has rounded edges, and a closed loop is also highlighted on it using embossed "grooves". Although the manufacturer's name on the front panel is missing, it has a conditional symbol of the type of device and its high-speed characteristics that make it clear that you are dealing with the CD-RW drive. Under the tray is in a small recess, the round button of loading / unloading media and the miniature LED indicator of the operation mode. On the back of the case there are power and interface connectors, analog and digital audio outputs, a set of pins with jumper to position the drive in the system.

The drive can read and write CD media at speeds up to 52x. To overwrite the CD-RW there is a mode to 32x. By the way, it is over this parameter that a modification of 252F from 252b is distinguished, which supports the speed of rewriting 24x. So, for whom it is important - do not make a mistake when buying. The volume of buffer is 2 MB. The declared average access time is 100 ms. The drive supports Ultra DMA MODE 2 mode and meets the requirements of the MT specification. Rainier. The drive can work with CD-R / RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM / XA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM / XA, CD-ROM, VIDEO-CD, CD-I, Photo CD, CD-EXTRA, CD-TEXT. The disk drive has implemented a buffer protection technology from emptying, and reduced the noise level and vibrations due to the innovation of DVA (DYNAMIC VIBRATION ABSORBER). The overall dimensions of the drive are 148.2 x 42 x 184 mm, and the weight is 0.77 kg.

The estimated retail cost of the drive is 25 USD

TEAC CD-W552G

TEAC's drive does not make any problems to distinguish from other models, thanks to the title of the manufacturer on the tray, there is also a conditional symbol of belonging to the class of writing drives. Under the tray there is a rectangular loading / unloading control button, a light mode of operation mode and output to connect headphones along with the volume regulator. On the back of the case there is power and interface connectors, analog and digital audio outputs, a set of pins with jumper to position the drive in the system. Traditionally, TEAC optical drives can be noted the reduced length of the case of this model, simplifying the life of the user when installing the drive in the "close" system blocks.

The drive provides read speed and recording CDs up to 52x. For CD-RW supports overwrite mode up to 32x. The volume of buffer is 2 MB. The declared average access time is 100 ms. The drive supports the IDE interface (ATAPI). The drive can work with CD-ROM MODE-1/650 MB / 700 MB, CD-DA / 74 MIN / 79 MIN, CD-DA / 74 MIN / 79 MIN, CD-RW, CD-ROM XA MODE-2 (Form-1) / 650 MB / 700 MB , CD-MRW, CD-ROM XA MODE-2 (Form-2) / 738 MB / 795 MB, CD-I, VIDEO-CD, Photo-CD (Multisession), CD-Extra. The drive supports MT.rainier and Burn Proof technology. The speed of extraction of audio tracks from audio parts reaches 52x. The overall dimensions of the drive are 148.4 x 42.8 x 170.0 mm, and the weight is 0.86 kg.

The estimated retail cost of the drive is 33 cu

Testing technique

In order to determine the performance of the drive, the following programs and utilities were used:

Nero CD-DVD Speed \u200b\u200bversion 3.12;
Nero Info Tool version 2.11;
Nero CD DAE version 0.4b;
Andre Wiethoff EXACT Audio Copy (EAC) version 0.95 Prebeta 5;
Nic Wilson DvdinfoPro version 2.35;
SLYSOFT CloneCD version 4.3.2.2;
ZIFF Davis Media CD WINBENCH 99.

The configuration of the test computer was as follows:
System board - Intel Bonanza D875PBZ;

Central processor - Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz;

Hard disk - IBM DTLA-307015 15 GB;

Graphic adapter - GeForce2 MX400 64 MB;

RAM - 512 MB;

Operating system - Microsoft Windows XP Professional with installed Service Pack 1 and DirectX 9.0b.

The drives were connected to the second IDE channel in Master mode.

Nero Info Tool and DvdinfoPro

Mitsumi CR-488Ete

SAMSUNG SW-252F

TEAC CD-W552G

On the above screenshots, you see the information that test drives reported. The Mitsumi CR-488ETE drive was unable to work with graphics on CDs (CD + G). The Samsung SW-252F device cannot do anything with C2 errors. Only the TEAC CD-W552G drive "stated" about the presence of a complete set of useful functions.

In terms of CD Winmark, the TEAC CD-W552G drive is noticeably ahead of two other devices that have demonstrated about the same results on all types of discs. Its superiority reaches approximately half-breasted size.

Other indicators, it can be noted that the minimum access time is generally in the Mitsumi CR-488Ete drive, and the maximum of Samsung SW-252F.

Nero CD-DVD Speed: Basic Tests (CD)

For a group of basic tests on a spent scheme, the following CDs were used: "Stamped" CD, which is used as an application with a magazine about computers, seven-megabbit CD-R and CD-RW with data recorded using the utility itself, eight-hundred-month CD R, prepared in a similar way, and licensed audio.