Examples of Optical Storage
Computer Science: OCR A Level, topic 1.3.8
Examples of Optical Storage
There are three main types of optical storage in use today, although their use is declining:
Compact Disk (CD)
- CDs are the original optical media standard.
- A single CD can store around 700 MB of data.
- CDs are very cheap to produce.
Digital Versatile Disk (DVD)
- DVDs are often used to store games or standard-definition movies for home viewing.
- A single DVD can store around 4.7 GB of data.
Blu-Ray Disks (BD)
- Blu-Ray disks are often used to store high definition movies or games.
- A single Blu-Ray disk can store around 25 GB of data.
Test yourself on Examples of Optical Storage
How much data can a single compact disk (CD) store?
What are Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs) initially often used to store?
Why might a manufacturer distribute media on a compact disk (CD) rather than a digital versatile disk (DVD)?