DVD
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A DVD (sometimes called a Digital Versatile Disc or a Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc capable of storing up to 4.7 GB of data as opposed to the 700 MB that a CD can hold. DVDs are often used to store movies at a higher video and sound quality than a VHS. A plus of using a DVD for a video is the ability to have interactive menus and bonus features such as deleted scenes and commentaries.
The disc can have one or two sides, and one or two layers of data per side; the number of sides and layers determines the disc capacity.
- DVD-5: single sided, single layer, 4.7 gigabytes (GB), or 4.38 gibibytes (GiB)
- DVD-9: single sided, double layer, 8.5 GB (7.92 GiB)
- DVD-10: double sided, single layer on both sides, 9.4 GB (8.75 GiB)
- DVD-14: double sided, double layer on one side, single layer on other, 13.3 GB (12.3 GiB)
- DVD-18: double sided, double layer on both sides, 17.1 GB (15.9 GiB)
There are also 8 cm DVDs (not mini-DVD, which usually refers to DVD-Video data on a CD) with a disc capacity of 1.5 GB.
The capacity of a DVD-ROM can be visually determined by noting the number of data sides, and looking at the data side(s) of the disc. Double-layered sides are usually gold-colored, while single-layered sides are usually silver-colored, like a CD. One additional way to tell if a DVD contains one or two layers is to look at the center ring on the underside of the disc. If there are two barcodes, it is a dual layer disc. If there is one barcode, there is only one layer.
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