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DVD Last modified: Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Short for digital versatile disc or digital video disc, a type of optical disk technology similar to the CD-ROM. A DVD holds a minimum of 4.7GB of data, enough for a full-length movie. DVDs are commonly used as a medium for digital representation of movies and other multimedia presentations that combine sound with graphics. The DVD specification supports disks with capacities of from 4.7GB to 17GB and access rates of 600KBps to 1.3 MBps. One of the best features of DVD drives is that they are backward-compatible with CD-ROMs, meaning they can play old CD-ROMs, CD-I disks, and video CDs, as well as new DVD-ROMs. Newer DVD players can also read CD-R disks. DVD uses MPEG-2 to compress video data. For comparison and contrast, see DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. Also see DVD Formats Explained in the Did You Know . . . ? section of Webopedia.

DVD Overview  Outlines the technologies behind the large capacity successor to the CD, its various formats and the compatibility issues. Includes graphics, diagrams and an integrated glossary. This page is from "The PC Technology Guide." DVD resource index  This site is an impressive index of Web-based resources and information related to DVD technology. DVD technical notes Provides a comprehensive array of technical notes about DVD technology. Sections include: general, physical, applications, files, standard density CD, and other Web resources. DVD FAQ This comprehensive FAQ all about DVDs is updated regularly. DVD Forum Home page of the DVD Forum, an ad-hoc association of hardware manufacturers, software firms, and other users of the DVD format. Includes links to news items, conferences, and founding companies. O P E N L A W : OPEN DVD A Web site from Harvard University that chronicles the development of DVD law.