PCs: The Missing Manual

Chapter 10. CD and DVD Drives

PCs treat compact discs and DVDs as data suitcases, letting you store and transport mammoth amounts of large files: digital camera photos, audio books, home movies, and digital music, to name a few.

Yet compact discs and DVDs also let your PC pull extra shifts as both a stereo and home theater, which presents new problems: PCs, CD players, and DVD players all speak slightly different languages. That forces you to create the discs slightly differently depending on their ultimate destination: PC, CD player, or DVD player.

This chapter explains how to create data CDs for your computer, music CDs for your CD player, and video CDs for your DVD player. You’ll also learn how to create DVDs for your PC and DVD player, should your PC be lucky enough to have a DVD burner (recorder). And to start you on the right path, you’ll find out how to choose the right type of blank discs for your particular need. Finally, you’ll get detailed instructions on buying and installing a new or replacement CD or DVD burner for your PC.

CDs: An Introduction

CDs, the miraculous shiny discs that migrated from the stereo to the PC (to the everlasting dismay of the record industry), hold about 700 MB of information, which translates to about 80 minutes of music—plenty of room for In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and the extended live version.

Every PC sold in the last decade includes a CD drive for playing CDs; PCs sold in the last five years include CD burners that let you save files to a CD as well. ...