I understand how most been confused about this issue; If they can make these "DVD's" that hold 4.7 Gigabytes of data, how come they gave us CD's all those years ago? The answer is simple, its a different laser. When CD's were created they could only create a red beam laser that small. Now they can make a infrared laser that writes to a smaller area. Because there is less space used to write information there is now more space available. Unfortunately due to the differences in the discs you will not be able to use your old CD-R's and will have to buy DVD-R's.
I thought this blog’s title was pretty funny and also true. Many people, me included, do not understand how such a small disc can hold such a large amount of memory. It’s amazing! These advancements from cassettes to CDs, to DVDs, to a little tiny flash drive that all hold tons of memory! The artistic perspective could be tied into how the small discs can also hold pictures, thousands of colors and even sound! Thousands and even millions of people use these discs daily! Shows how reliable society is on our culture’s developments!
ReplyDeleteI still remember the old floppy discs that held very little information on them. Today’s technology has enabled us to hold so much more information, especially backing up your files from the computer. The best part is that it takes up less space than the older backup files. For science to be able to design these CD’s to have more and more space available on a single CD in such a small amount of time is quite remarkable.
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered why if a disc says it holds eighty minutes of storage, why does it actually not do that. Now I understand better. Technology is changing and this is and will become the way we live and store things. This was a good topic, thanks for the information.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post. I remember the days of the audio cd's having no more than 15 songs, and if you were lucky enough to listen to the entire CD, you might have heard the secret song. Storage today is alarming in size. Where do they come up with Terabytes? Is that part of our research from many decades ago? If so, why hasn't this come about sooner. I have a ton of VHS tapes that I'm always recording onto DVD. I can compile about 8 hours of VHS onto a single DVD. I wonder what the next step is? Virtual Memory was a common name for I believe RAM, but memory should be virtual as in just seeing an icon on the screen and clicking it and not having a computer to look for it and load it.
ReplyDeleteThe advance of technology has allowed CDs and DVDs to hold more information. I think it is amazing that a laser beam is the difference between holding a lot of information or a little information. An infrared laser beam has allowed more information to be stored on CDs and DVDs. These new CDs and DVDs can hold a lot more information than the old memory devices like floppy discs. I believe that science will allow more advances in the amount of information that can be stored on CDs and DVDs. Society will benefit because we will not have to use as many storage devices in the future.
ReplyDeletePosted by Robert – The Fab Four
I find this concept to be mind boggling. I agree that is amazing the a plastic, shinny disc can hold such a large amount of memory. That once the memory is filled this disc can be holding movies, pictures, music, documentation any file you can trasfer onto the disc, seems almost impossible but so does everything else technology has to offer. And as it seems impossible, that quickly and advancement is made making is more and more harder to grasp. CD's and DvD are definetly more convient then the cassette/ VHS, and more attractive.
ReplyDelete4.7GB is only the maximum a standard DVD can hold. Between the standard DVD and Blu-ray sits the Dual Layer DVD which holds 8GB of data. This data is stored on two separate layers of medium in the same disc. This allows for many practical uses by consumers and companies alike.
ReplyDeleteThe discs are mainly used for distribution of software. I was first introduced to them while exploring software for my home studio. Software instruments with large libraries of sample audio can be easily distributed on these discs. Distributors of this software embraced these discs because using them keeps manufacturing, packing and shipping costs low.
As scientists continue to advance laser technology more products are invented that use the technology.
I agree with many of the posters above that it is mind-blowing how much information you can store on a disc. I remember the old floppy discs and I remember when flash drives first came out. It’s amazing to see how much information DVD’s can store. I can now backup all my information and keep all of my photos secure in case something happens. I think it’s great that people will be able to back up much easier than in the future.
ReplyDeletethat’s a lot of space for a cd to hold. i never thought it would hold that much memory. now i guess they can fit long movies instead of two cds. with all the room a cd can hold you can now put what ever you want on it and their will still be a lot of room.
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