Optical Drives

With all the digital files needed in today’s world, you need the right drives to safely store and access your files. Optical drives allow you to play and write CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray discs and install software from this media onto your computer. This gives you the option of making copies of discs for file backup or to share various media, such as wedding albums or baby videos. With compatible software, you’ll also be able to create things like digital photo albums, home videos and music tracks that you can play on a DVD or Blu-ray player. Many of the thinner and lighter laptops don’t include a built-in computer optical drive, so an external Blu-ray drive or DVD USB optical drive allows you to maintain the portability of your lightweight laptop. If you find yourself creating a lot of Blu-ray discs or DVD discs for distribution, you can choose a DVD/CD duplicator that quickly copies discs. And if you are building a custom gaming desktop, you might consider adding an internal DVD drive.

Optical disc drive specifications contain a variety of symbols, letters and numbers. When you see a disc type that’s labeled as Blu-ray, you’ll know that the drive can support a double-layer DVD, since it supports a Blu-ray disc. And since it can support a double-layer disc, it can also support a DVD, which means it can support a CD. The specifications are always listed as a progression that is backward-compatible. So when you see a disc capability that’s listed as rewrite, that means it can rewrite (RW) a disc, so it can also record (R) a disc from your media of choice, including memory cards. And since it can record, that means it can also play or read (ROM). When shopping for a Blu-ray drive, consider the disc type as well as the capability in order to find your best optical drive. There are Blu-ray readers that can play Blu-ray discs, but not record on them. And there are Blu-ray recorders that can record to a CD-R/RW disc, but cannot rewrite to that disc. As far as drive speeds, you will see this specification listed as the best speed that can be achieved for each disc type and action. Read and write functions are usually about equal and the fastest speed, while rewrite capability is slower.