Movies, Blu-Ray And DVD's

CD-ROM Drives triggered a revolution in the computer industry, but the only real change we have seen since their arrival is increased speeds. And speed only matters if you're transferring large amounts of data.

If you listen to music, drive 4X will do as good a job as the others (except, perhaps, a little digital re-sampling or research between tracks). In fact, discs large speed can - due to run time - even slow the rate of transfer in the case of small files.

The only other interesting development in a CD-ROM technology is that a number of manufacturers have attempted to provide larger capacity disks, even if most writers and most the recording software does not support them anyway. The result is that there is space for a new form of media, which happens to be DVD. DVD is not supposed to be about movies and stuff? Yes, but there is much more than movies on DVD.

To begin, there is the issue of capacity. A DVD can hold 4.7 GB of data. But this is just a drop in an ocean far more important. DVD discs can also be double-layer and double sided, meaning they can store more data on one disc. In fact, you can store an impressive 17 GB of data a double layer and double-sided disc, blowing the CD-ROM average right out of the water.

Of course, you have already created large music collections and data on CD-ROM and you do not want to throw them all in the transition to DVD. Fortunately - and this is one of the main advantages of the technology DVD - all DVD players are backward compatible, so you can still play your CD and access your data on CD-ROM drive while using a DVD-ROM. This is essential for the success of the DVD, and without it, the DVD is simply another form of media. But it is not, and if you know what you might find yourself behind.

All this sounds like a change is worthwhile, but the DVD also seem to speed much slower than the speed of CD-ROM. If you can store such quantities of data, you'll probably need faster drives? The problem is that it's a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Because DVD discs have a much greater capacity, the tracks are placed more closely together so that more information is read from a space shortest through the disc.

In addition, DVD players look much faster than CD-ROM and a 1X drive runs at about the same speed as a 3X CD-ROM. With CD-ROM, the tracks are spaced so that the DVD player can increase his reading speed ... often significantly. The result is that speeds used in these two technologies are not entirely comparable, but there is obviously a relationship between the two.

For the film fanatic DVD speed is unlikely to make much difference. In fact, the only difference you're likely to notice while watching a DVD movie on a faster drive DVD-ROM does are smoother through the digitization of movies and faster research.

There are a number of other factors that deserve examined, including the player himself. Unlike a DVD player high or standalone DVD player can not, by itself, play DVD movies. To do this, you need a MPEG-2 decoder of some kind. Until recently, the most common way to proceed was to use a relief map and software DVD player.

This change, however, and many of the latest graphics cards market is now DVD support and are able to perform MPEG-2 decoding (with the help of specialized software). Thus, in May and you discover that your display card or DVD player comes with a "reader DVD soft '. Whatever the case may be, "the soft DVD players' use of system resources, then count on the need for a fair amount RAM and a reasonable processor.

More importantly, you'll need a good sound card and graphics card with good memory dedicated. At least 16MB. You may find that you can use your DVD player without a decoder card, but you miss some of the features that a decompression good card can offer.

So what's a decoder card? Well, if you do not have a compatible graphics card DVD, relief map is essential. In addition, if you do not have a graphics card that can provide high resolution graphics card ensure decompression that you can watch your movies in high resolution and full 32-bit color.

With a good DAC (digital / analog converter) on the card you can expect clear, sharp images with high refresh rates. The dedicated hardware can also release resources, taking the load off your CPU, RAM and graphics card.

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - The DVD Decision

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