1. What's the difference between CD's (CD-ROM's) and CD-R's (CD-Recordables)?

2. What is the difference between CDR and CD-RW media?

3. When do you use CD-ROM's versus using CD-R's?

4. What is the difference between CD Replication and CD-R Duplication?

5. How much music or data can I put on CD orders?

6. What is a "One-Off", "Master CD", or "Gold Master"?

7. What does the term "Glass Mastering" mean?

8. What does the term "Authoring" mean?

9. What are all the available media formats?

10. What types of computers will Mini CDs and other Shaped CDs work on?

11. What is the difference between ¡°Cut¡± discs and ¡°Molded¡± discs?

12. What are the available physical sizes and shapes of CD and DVD?

13. What is the CD Standard?

1.What's the difference between CD's (CD-ROM's) and CD-R's (CD-Recordables)?

What¡¯s the difference between CD¡¯s (CD-ROM¡¯s) and CD-R¡¯s (CD-Recordables)?

CD-ROM¡¯s are injection molded polycarbonate plastic with the data actually molded into the surface at the point of manufacture. CD-R¡¯s are pre-manufactured blank CD¡¯s (similar to the method a Diskette is pre-manufactured and the data is duplicated onto the blank media in a process called "burning a CD".) CD-ROM¡¯s and CD-R¡¯s function the same in a drive.

CD¡¯s are not read by magnetic charges as is a Diskette, rather the laser beam inside the device is actually reading highs and lows on the surface of the CD. This is why the data can be molded into the surface and why, once the data is there it cannot be changed or modified in any way. CD-R¡¯s have a reflective surface, which can be silver/blue/green, which has the capability to be removed where necessary by the high-intensity laser in a CD-R writer. This removal of the silver reflective surface is where the term "burning a CD" came from. The CD reader then reads the highs and lows created by the "burning" process just the same as the highs and lows molded into the CD-ROM.

Fun Facts: The information on CD¡¯s actually starts at the center and is spiraled out in a single line of data from the center, very similar to the way a 45 or 33-1/3RPM record was made way back in ancient history.

2.What is the difference between CDR and CD-RW media?

Updating, please mail your questions to disc@discturnkey.com and our sales will reply you asap.

3.When do you use CD-ROM's versus using CD-R's?

As a matter of fact, CD-ROM¡¯s and CD-R¡¯s function the same in a drive.
Commonly you use CD-ROM¡¯s any time you need roughly 500 or more copies of a CD. If you need less than 500 copies, you should consider CD-R¡¯s which may be more cost effective depending on the quantity needed. For example, from a total cash outlay standpoint, the dollars spent for 100 CD-R¡¯s is considerably less than you would have to pay for a minimum order run of 1,000 CD-ROM¡¯s

4.What is the difference between CD Replication and CD-R Duplication?

Replication usually refers to the process of making CD or DVD from a glass stamper (or mold). When melted polycarbonate is injected under high pressure onto the glass stamper, the bits of information are formed. A reflective layers is then coated on the disc so the laser beam inside the CD player or DVD player can see the data.
Duplication, on the other hand, refers to making CD or DVD by burning data onto recordable media. For that reason duplication is usually limited to short-run smaller or urgent jobs. For large volume production, replication is the most cost effective and the discs produced are of higher quality.
To the laymen, replication and duplication probably mean the same. But to the people in the disc manufacturing industry, there is a subtle difference.
Replication can only be done under highly temperature and dust controlled environment. Duplication can be done in any normal environment such as in the office or at home. A replicated CD or DVD (so called pressed CD or DVD ) usually has artwork printed on the disc using silkscreen or offset printing process. For duplicated CD or DVD, you can either print a batch of recordable media using silkscreen or offset or you can apply a paper label on the disc. Some recordable media have inkjet printable surface on the disc allowing you to print the artwork directly onto the disc with special inkjet printers

5.How much music or data can I put on CD orders?

The discs have a maximum capacity of 700MB or about 80 minutes of music. Some of this space is used up with space between audio tracks on audio CDs or indexing information on data CDs.

To add up the total time of your audio tracks, add the time of all the individual tacks together and then add 2 seconds at the beginning of the disc and 2 seconds between each track, if you choose to do so, to your total.

For data CDs, a general rule of thumb is to allow about 10 to 15 MB of space for indexing. So the maximum total size for files on data discs is about 685 MB. In the event that the source files you submit to do not fit on a disc, we will contact you.

6.What is a "One-Off", "Master CD", or "Gold Master"?

All of these terms mean the same thing. It is just a difference in the terminology an individual prefers to use. They all are nothing more than a CD-Recordable which contains the final version of the information to be replicated. This is what we start the replication process from.

7.What does the term "Glass Mastering" mean?

Glass Mastering is the first part of the process needed to actually make the "metal stamper" that is actually put into the injection molding machine to produce the CD-ROM¡¯s. The first part of the process is to convert the data into the actual highs and lows. These are actually done on a piece of glass. From that point the process continues and eventually the metal stamper is made. The glass master is destroyed during the production of the nickel stamper

8.What does the term "Authoring" mean?

Authoring is the word used for taking the data and getting it into a format which is readable when you put the CD into the drive. In other words, there are programs and formats which the person who creates the CD works to make the data actually usable.

For example, if you want to search for something on the CD, someone, the "author" has to include the software to perform the search as well as the data itself. Discturnkey does not provide this service. It is normally provided by the customer from his internal resources or he hires an individual to put it together for him. We require a finished product on a CD-R ready for replication. One example is that we are often asked to take a video clip and put it on a CD. The video must be put into an MPEG-2 format by an "Author". As was mentioned before, Discturnkey does not provide that service

9.What are all the available media formats?

The available media formats include: CD-i, Video CD, Photo CD, CD-ROM XA, CD-i Bridge, DVD-5, DVD-9, DVD-10, DVD-18, etc. Unless you want to make a career in developing hardware to play all different kinds of digital media, you don't have to know too much about the technical details on all these formats. If you really want to dig deeply into the details, there are a whole set of color coded standard books (Yellow Book, Red Book, Orange Book, etc) for your enjoyment. You can find all these from Philips website at www.licensing.philips.com/information/cd/.

CD-ROM
Within the CD-ROM format you can sub-divide it into three main logical usages, i.e. audio application, video application, and data application. For Audio CD and Video CD there are formats to combine them with data capability.

Audio CD
The Rihanna and Justin Timberlake CDs you buy from Wal-Mart or HMV are Audio CDs. The official name for Audio CD is CD-DA which stands for CD-Digital Audio. Red Book is the standard book for CD-DA.
Audio CD with Data
Also known as Enhanced Music CD (or CD-Extra by others), this is essentially an Audio CD with an additional session for data to be used by computers with CD-ROM drives. When such a CD is put into a regular CD player, it will behave just like a normal music CD. When put into the CD-ROM drive of a computer, the computer can see both the audio tracks and the data track. You can use this format to design your Audio CD such that when put into a computer, it will present more information about the CD rather than simply playing the audio tracks. Blue book is the standard book for Enhanced Music CD.

Video CD (VCD) , Super VCD (SVCD)
VCD is all the rage in China and VCD player there is just as common as a VCR in America. A VCD can have up to 74 minutes of full motion video accompanied by a CD quality sound track. The video quality of a VCD is about the same as VHS but because of the compression algorithm it is not very good for fast motion actions. The resolution of VCD is 352x240 for NTSC and 352x288 for PAL. The good thing about VCD is that it not only can be played on VCD players, but DVD players and computer as well. A lot of promotional discs originally on a DVD were deliberately downgraded to VCD to take advantage of this broader coverage. White book is the standard book for VCD.
Another emerging standard is called Super VCD, or simply SVCD. SVCD was originally developed by the government-backed China Recording Standards Committee as an enhancement to VCD format. The format is now adopted by Philips, Sony, Matsushita, and JVC. SVCD can also be played on most DVD players, although there is still compatibility issue with some older players. SVCD resolution is 480x480 for NTSC and 480x576 for PAL.

Video CD with Data
Similar to the Audio CD with Data, Video CD can also be formatted in such a way to include a data session. Normal VCD players and DVD players still access the video information on the first session. Computers can access data on both sessions making it possible to include a different way to present information to the computer users. For example, you can design a CD that will play the video if it is put in a DVD player, but will provide a menu for the user to play the video or print some product catalogs in PDF when you put it into the computer.

Data CD
This is the plain old CD for software or any kind of raw data. It is the mother of all other formats including Audio and Video CDs. The book covers this format is call the Yellow book.

Hybrid CD
If you burn a CD on a PC you tend to think it will also work on a Mac. By and large this is true if the CD was burned in ISO9660 mode. A text file or an HTML file should be read the same way on both PC and Mac. With the new Mac OSX, it can even read a Joliet CD created on the PC. But certain files have to reside on an Apple file system called HFS in order to work properly. For example, if you create a Flash animation under PC and also choose to create a projector for the Mac, a file with the HQX extension will be created. If you simply do a file copy of this file onto a CD-R, a Mac will see this as a ISO9660 file and would try to unzip (or un-stuffit in Mac terminology) the file. Once the file is unstuffitted and saved on an HFS partition, then double-clicking the file will bring up the Flash projector. However, if the .HQX file resides on an HFS partition, you can just double-click the file to start the program.
A hybrid CD is such as CD that will work on both PC and Mac. It has essentially two partitions, i.e. an HFS partition and an ISO9660 partition. Files to be seen by both partitions do not need to be duplicated on both partitions. You can also turn certain files on and off. For example on a PC, the file Autorun.inf is a control file to autorun a CD but this file means nothing for a Mac. You can then choose to turn this file off on a Mac so a Mac user will never see this file. The reverse can also be true.
There are programs that will allow you to create hybrid CD. Nero, CDEverywhere, mkisofs are among the examples. Nero requires an accessible HFS partition on a PC which is really very uncommon. CDEverywhere can create an ISO file so you can burn using any CD burning software that supports image burning. Mkisofs is an open source program that is absolutely free but you have to be a little more technical in order to use it.

CD-R
CD-R is short for "CD-Recordable". It is the abbreviation for compact disc write once. It is a polycarbonate disc which consists of a pre-grooved spiral track coated with a dye polymer coating and a thin reflective layer. The dye polymer coating is ¡°burned¡± which changes the reflection characteristics of the polymer. This reflection modulation allows the player to distinguish between the areas of the polymer that have been burned and those which have not.

10.What types of computers will Mini CDs and other Shaped CDs work on?

Mini and shaped CDs will work on most horizontal CD drives. They will not work on vertical drives (where the CD-ROM drive is turned on its side) or on slot-loading players (which some computers have and are typical with car CD players).

11.What is the difference between ¡°Cut¡± discs and ¡°Molded¡± discs?

For mini and other ¡°shaped¡± CDs (basically anything other than a full-size disc), there are two different ways to create these shapes.
Disc Cutting is basically what it sounds like. The shape is cut down from a full size CD. Problems that accompany the cutting of CDs is that edges can be sharp, and in some extreme cases, small flakes of the CD can come off when the CD is run which contaminates the CD-ROM drive. Overall the finished product is less professional and less durable. We strongly recommend that you go with a molded CD rather than a cut CD.

12.What are the available physical sizes and shapes of CD and DVD?

Unknown by a lot of people, any CD-ROM drive, CD player, or DVD player always has an extra inner tray for accepting the 80mm disc. That fact that a CD or DVD reader only cares about the data, not the physical shape of the disc, creates a lot of possibilities for different sizes and shapes of CD or DVD. Let us try to explain few of the most common ones.

120mm Standard Size
The most common form. The diameter of the disc is 120mm. A DVD and a CD in this size look exactly the same. Only under microscopic examination one can tell the difference. A CD in this size has standard 650MB capacity but can be up to 700MB when defying the Philips CD standard (the Yellow book). Some people prefer to use the audio CD play time to gauge the capacity. A 74 minute CD is actually a standard 650MB CD. An 80 minute CD is the 700MB CD. 700MB CD may not play on all the CD readers, especially the old ones. DVD in this size can be DVD-5, DVD-9, DVD-10, DVD-14, and DVD-18.

80mm Mini Size
Mini disc fits right into the inner tray without the need for any adapter. Mini discs are very popular as magazine inserts or mass mailing media. A Mini CD-ROM has 185MB capacity and a Mini DVD has 1.4GB capacity. Mini CD-R usually has 210MB capacity.

Hockey Rink Disc
Essentially a mini disc with the top and bottom chopped off. There many names associated with this shape of disc. Business card Disc, Hockey Rink Disc, Oval Disc are few examples. The capacity of a hockey rink Disc varies depending upon how much of the top and bottom are cut off. Hockey Rink Disc fits into the inner tray just like the mini disc.

Rectangular Disc
Rectangular Disc has the true look of a business card Disc. It has the same functionality as the Hockey rink Disc and also fits into the inner tray. For a rectangular Disc to fit into the inner tray, different mechanisms are used. The most common one is to have a ridge on the data side of the Disc. Another way is to have the corners of the Disc thinner than the part that will seat into the tray. More or less like have a hockey rink cd glued to a rectangular plastic.

[2.3.5] Shaped Disc

13.What is the CD Standard?

There are 7 CD Standards ¨C Red Book, Orange Book, Blue Book, Green Book, Yellow Book, White Book, CD-Text.
Red Book Standard

It is the CD standard that you find in audio CDs. A red book disc will play on any audio CD player, it is perhaps the most popular compact disc format. The sample rate is 44.1 Khz and the bit depth is 16 bit.

Orange Book Standard

A writable or recordable media such as CD-R, CD-RW would be classified as the Orange Book, which defines where the data can be written.

Blue Book Standard
It is a hybrid/enhanced disc that combines Red Book and Yellow Book. A Blue Book CD sometimes is referred as CD extra or enhanced CD.

Green Book Standard
The Green Book /Compact Disc Interactive (CD-I) standard was released by Philips in 1987 to store motion video content on a compact disc. A CD-I format will not play in a regular audio CD player, it requires a dedicated CD-I player.

Yellow Book Standard
This is the CD-Rom Standard for computer data. Sometimes it will also contain compressed audio data or video/picture data.

White Book Standard
Popular in most Asian countries, White Book CDs are sometimes known as Karaoke CD. They store a combination of full motion video and audio. White Book CDs utilized MPEG 1 and 2 compression technology in order to compress audio and video down to a usable size.

CD-Text
CD Text is a standard that allows disc and track information to be embedded on audio CDs. However, not all CD players can read CD text. With a CD player or CD-Rom that is capable of reading CD-Text, artist, album and track information can be displayed. Most new car audio player can read CD text. To add CD text to a CD, you would need a capable recorder and software.