Consumer Media Introduction
Today's consumer electronics primarily use four types of media to
store audio and video information.
(1) optical disc
(2) solid state memory
(3) magnetic tape
(4) magnetic disk
(Older media includes magnetic tape in a reel to reel format,
8-track, vinyl
records, capacitance electronic disc (CED), U-matic videotape,
MD-view disc and more.)
Optical disc includes such formats as the
audio CD and the DVD.
Solid state memory is used with digital
cameras and camcorders to store images and on music players such as MP3.
Magnetic
tape is used with video recorders ,
camcorders and
cassette audio recorders, although video recorders, including
camcorders, are slowly moving to optical disc.
Some devices use magnetic
disk, such as video recorders and smaller sized, such as
portable music players to store digital data.
Media characteristics:
Magnetic tape has been around since the 1930's. The same basic
design is in use today although refinements and improvements in both
the tape composition and the recording technology have given us much
better performance. Remember that a magnetic tape, such
as is used on MiniDV camcorders and VHS VCR's, is subject to
alteration or destruction of information on the tape if exposed to
strong magnetic fields.
Optical discs do not have this problem as
their information is recorded with a laser. Improvements in optical
disc technology and solid state memory design will continue to show
the strongest potential for future advances.
Media Guide
Optical Disc
CD - Compact
Disc
DVD
- Digital Versatile Disc
MiniDisc
Laserdisc
Solid State
- Memory Stick
- Compact Flash
- Smart Media
- XD Flash
- Secure Digital
Magnetic Tape
Audio cassette
DAT - Digital Audio Tape
Video cassette
Magnetic Disk
o Microdrive
o HDD MP3 players
o HDD Video recorders
o Floppy disk
Media
Optical Discs
Audio CD
CDs were designed to store over an hour of stereo audio in a digital format so that noise is virtually
non-existent. Under normal use CDs do not wear out. The Compact
Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard was developed by Philips and
Sony and introduced into the market in the USA and Europe in early 1983. The 12cm disc is compact and is
read by a laser but is not recordable by the consumer. Typically a
CD has 10 to 30 songs recorded on it and is purchased much like the
33 1/3 vinyl record albums of the 1960s-1970s were, with a specific artist or
group contained on the single sided compact disc. It has been one of the
most successful formats in recording history.
CD Introduction
CD Guide
CD-R (audio and data)
CD-Rs are
recordable CDs that can be recorded on only once (cannot
be written over). When the
recording laser burns the information on the disc, nothing else can
be recorded into this area. It is a write once operation. Because of their low cost, these discs are
popular for a variety of uses:
Audio recordings,
storing compressed music files (like MP3 and WMA), and
archiving other types of data.
When an
audio CD-R has been recorded and finalized, the disc can
be played like a regular CD in almost all home, car, and
portable players, and computer drives. However, a
CD-R can never be re-recorded.
CD-Rs commonly hold up to 74
minutes of music (650 megabytes of data), and 80-minute
(700-megabyte) discs are also available.
CD-Rs
are designated for either audio or data. Blank
discs labeled AUDIO can be used with home CD recording
decks as well as computer CD-R/W drives, and cost more
than data-grade CD-Rs. Blank CD-Rs designated as DATA tend to cost less than audio CD-Rs, but can only be
recorded to using a computer CD-R/W drive.
CD-RW (audio and data)
Unlike
CD-Rs, CD-RWs are rewritable over and over again. When
you make a recording on an audio CD-RW and finalize it,
you can play it like a regular CD in many types of
players. You can erase
it and re-write it.
CD-RWs hold up to 74 minutes of music (650 megabytes of
data); 80-minute (700-megabyte) discs are also
available. However, CD-RW discs are not as widely
compatible with home, car, and portable players as CD-Rs, and tend to cost more.
CD-RWs are
designated for either audio or data use
like CD-Rs. CD-RW and CD-R can store digital photo files such
as JPEG images for read back on a DVD player.
DVD-R
DVD-R is a write-once
recording format that allows you to record your own DVD
video discs, using a compatible DVD recorder or computer
DVD-writing drive. Once finalized, DVD-R discs can be
played back in many DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives.
DVD-R discs cannot be re-recorded.
A single-sided DVD-R disc holds 4.7 GB of
storage, allowing you to record up to 120 minutes of
studio-quality MPEG2 video in SP mode or using SLP mode,
up to six hours. Double-sided DVD-Rs, which
can hold 9.4 GB per disc, are also available.
DVD-R media: There are two different versions of the DVD-R format: a
"general" version, sometimes referred to as DVD-R(G)
and an "authoring" version, sometimes called DVD-R(A).
The general version is used in all DVD home recording
decks and computer DVD-RW drives, while the authoring
version is intended for professional applications.
DVD-R(A) discs are not compatible with DVD-R(G) recorders.
DVD-RAM
DVD-RAM
is a format for creating your own DVD video discs.
However, unlike DVD-R, it's a rewritable format — DVD-RAM discs can be erased and re-recorded up to
100,000 times. DVD-RAM recorders feature a high data transfer rate (22.16 Mbps), and employ random
access storage and retrieval, like a computer's hard
disk drive.
Once you've recorded a
series of scenes or programs onto a DVD-RAM disc, you
can rearrange the playback order, or remove unwanted
segments altogether.
DVD-RAM discs are
not compatible with most standard DVD players and
DVD-ROM drives. Panasonic has been the most supportive of DVD-RAM.
Their DVD players and recorders should all be capable of using
DVD-RAM.
DVD-RW
Just as CD-RW is a
rewritable counterpart to CD-R, the DVD-RW format is an
erasable, re-recordable version of DVD-R. A single-sided
DVD-RW disc offers 4.7 GB of storage, allowing you to
record up to 120 minutes of studio-quality MPEG2 video
in SP mode. DVD-RW discs can be erased and re-recorded up to 1,000 times.
Once a DVD-RW disc has
been recorded and finalized, it can be played back in
some regular home DVD players and computer DVD-ROM
drives.
DVD+RW
DVD+RW shares several
similarities with DVD-RW: single-sided discs offer a
capacity of 4.7 GB (about 2 hours of studio-quality
video); they can be erased and re-recorded upon up to
1,000 times; and once a disc has been recorded and
finalized, it can be played back in some standard home
DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives.
DVD+RW recorders and drives
feature a special recording mode known as CAV, or
constant angular velocity which allows video sequences
to be edited and rearranged after recording.
A write-once version of
this kind of disc — known as DVD+R, is also
available. DVD+R discs have the same storage capacity as their rewritable counterparts, but the
write-once version may have a slightly higher incidence
of compatibility with home players and computer DVD-ROM
drives.
More... DVD formats
Floppy disk
The 3-1/2"
"double-sided/high-density" Floppy can be
used with some digital cameras, such as Sony's Mavica, to store
photos.
Floppies hold much less information than most
types of flash memory (only 1.44 MB); plus, floppy
drives read and write information more slowly than flash
memory drives.
Mini CD-R, CD-RW
Some digital
cameras store photos by saving them directly to compact
3" (8cm) recordable (or rewritable) CDs. With 156 MB to 210MB of
storage per disc, mini CD media are an inexpensive
alternative to the various forms of removable flash
memory often used in digital cameras.
Just
like standard CD-Rs, mini CD-Rs can be written to
one time only, and cannot be
erased. Mini CD-RWs, like standard CD-RWs, can be
re-recorded again and again.
Mini CD media can
be read by just about any computer CD drive, which makes
image transfer from the digital camera easy and fast.
MiniDisc
These
small re-recordable 2-1/2" discs were developed by Sony. Most MDs hold up to 74 minutes of music —
though new long-play discs provide up to 80 minutes, and
some recording features can extend recording time to 160
minutes.
MiniDisc's advantages are its
high capacity, sturdiness, small size, and
the fact that it can be recorded and re-recorded on
almost infinitely. Another advantage is the flexibility
to rearrange the song playback order without
re-recording the entire MD. Also, you can record from a
wide variety of sources like radio, audio cassette, CD player (you
can rip CD tracks without using a PC), home stereo, even voice.
MD Introduction
MD Media
Hi-MD
Tapes
Audio
cassette
The audio cassette
records an analog audio signal as a series of electrical
impulses on a miniature spool of 1/8" magnetic tape
(attached to a pair of hubs inside the cassette's
plastic shell). The cassette deck uses a mechanical,
motor-driven transport to rotate the hubs, passing the
tape across the deck's playback / record heads.
Blank cassettes are available in a range of
capacities, with total recording time usually between
60 and 100 minutes.
Blank tapes feature three
possible tape formulations (in order of increasing audio
quality): Type I (Normal), Type II (CrO2),
and Type IV (Metal). Not all cassette decks allow
recording with metal type tapes; see your owner's manual
for compatibility.
Digital8® Video
Digital8 is not a media format. Digital8
camcorders actually use Hi8 cassettes for recording and playback. A
120-minute Hi8/8mm tape yields one hour of recording
when used with a Digital8 camcorder.
Digital VHS
(D-VHS)
Digital VHS is a VCR format
— the first type of recorder capable of recording HDTV
programs at full resolution. To capture HDTV
signals, D-VHS VCRs use
specially formulated D-VHS tapes. These tapes are
backwards-compatible; that is, they can also be used to
make Super VHS and standard VHS recordings.
As
with regular VHS and Super VHS cassettes, D-VHS tapes
come in a variety of recording capacities. The maximum
available capacity for a single tape is up to 4 hours of
digital recording in highest-quality mode, 8 hours in
"standard" mode, 24 hours in the lower-res "LS3" mode,
or up to 40 hours of S-VHS-quality analog video.
MICROMV™ Video
The
MICROMV cassette is the smallest type of camcorder tape
to date — nearly 70% smaller than already tiny MiniDV
tapes. MICROMV
cassettes feature a built-in memory chip for
conveniences like custom title storage and index
thumbnails for easy access to specific scenes. Sony has
all but discontinued this format.
MiniDV
MiniDV
is a video cassette designed for MiniDV digital
camcorders. The picture quality of digital video (DV)
recorded on a MiniDV cassette is basically identical to
the quality of DV recorded on a Hi8 or 8mm cassette by a
Digital8
camcorder.
MiniDV tapes are tiny — literally
pocket-sized — which allows for greater portability.
MiniDV tapes are available in lengths of 30 and
60 minutes (plus, recording in LP mode lets you extend
total recording time with a 60-minute tape to 90
minutes). MiniDV tapes usually cost a little more than 8mm
or Hi8 tapes.
Super VHS
Super
VHS cassettes look like standard VHS cassettes, but they feature a special
high-density tape formulation which allows the S-VHS
format to deliver 400+ lines of video resolution —
compared to VHS's 240 lines. Recording at this higher
resolution requires a Super VHS VCR.
VHS
VHS is the most widely used video format — both
for pre-recorded titles and home recordings. It's
capable of delivering 240 lines of video resolution,
along with stereo sound.
VHS
cassettes are roughly the size of a paperback book.
Blank tapes usually feature either 120 minutes or 160
minutes of recording time at the highest recording speed
(6 hours or 8 hours at the slowest speed).
Memory Cards
CompactFlash™ card
An
extremely popular form of re-recordable flash memory
originally developed by SanDisk. CompactFlash cards are
used in some digital cameras, PDAs, and other
small portable digital devices. They are available in a
range of capacities from 16 MB to as much as 4 GB.
Like other flash memory cards, they provide portable,
durable, solid-state memory, have fast read/write
speeds, and are supported by many manufacturers.
There are two versions of the CompactFlash card,
which have slightly different physical thicknesses:
Type I cards are thinner, Type II are
thicker. Type I cards will operate in either Type I
or Type II CF card slots, but not vice versa.
Memory Stick®
Originally developed by Sony, Memory Stick is a
form of flash memory used in digital cameras, digital
camcorders, PDAs, printers, and more. Like other
forms of flash memory, Memory Sticks are ultra-compact,
durable, solid-state, and have fast read/write speeds.
Sony
makes a special form of SDMI-compliant Memory Stick for
use with digital music players, called MagicGate Memory
Stick; these also work in devices that use
"original" Memory Sticks.
MagicGate
Memory Stick
Sony's proprietary form of SDMI-compliant
flash memory, the MagicGate Memory Stick is based on the
"original" Memory Stick but has an extra chip built-in
to recognize and deal with the requirements imposed on
copyright-protected materials.
MagicGate Memory
Sticks are used primarily in digital audio players. They
can also be used with devices that use "original" Memory
Stick; however, an original Memory Stick can not be used
in devices that require a MagicGate Memory Stick. Like
other flash memory formats, they are small, durable,
solid-state, have fast read/write speeds, and are
available in a variety of capacities.
MultiMediaCard®
A
form of removable flash memory, MultiMediaCards (or MMCs) were developed by SanDisk and are supported by
several A/V manufacturers for a variety of uses. Like
other flash memory cards, they are small (about the size
of a postage stamp), durable, provide solid-state memory
and fast read/write speeds, and are available in a range
of capacities.
MMCs may be
gradually supplanted by another form of digital storage
called SD (Secure
Digital) memory, which features SDMI compliance for
copyright protection. SD devices have backward
compatibility, so you will be able to use your existing
MMC media in a player that accepts SD cards and does not
have copy protection requirements.
Secure Digital® card
A
Secure Digital (SD) card is an SDMI-compliant flash
memory card used in some digital cameras, memory
players, and other portable digital devices. Like other
SDMI-compliant cards, an SD card uses an extra chip to
recognize and deal with the requirements imposed on
copyright-protected materials.
Secure digital
cards are similar to MultiMediaCards
in size and shape — similar to a postage stamp. Just
like other kinds of flash memory cards, they're
extremely portable, offer fast read/write speeds, have a
somewhat higher price than disc- and tape-based media,
and are available in a range of capacities.
SmartMedia™ card
SmartMedia is a form of flash memory
originally developed by Toshiba, and used in some
digital cameras, portable digital music players, and
other devices.
xD-Picture
Cards™
One of the smallest, and fastest
available forms of flash memory is the xD Picture Card.
These cards are used primarily for
picture storage with some brands of digital cameras.
They're extremely portable — roughly thumbnail-sized —
and are available in a range of capacities.
xD
Picture Cards boast speedier read/write access than many
other forms of flash memory. They're also economical in
terms of power consumption, allowing you to read from or
write to the card more often between battery charges.
Terms
Embedded memory
Embedded memory
is a non-removable form of digital storage, built
directly into a device. When it comes to audio/video
gear, embedded memory is most commonly used in portable
MP3 players, but is also used with other devices
(such as lower-end digital cameras).
With this
kind of memory, you have no memory cards or disks to
carry around; plus, it can be less expensive to buy an
item with embedded memory rather than buying a player
and some removable media. On the other hand, a
player that only uses embedded memory is limited in
terms of total music or photo storage.
Flash memory
A form of digital
storage developed in 1988 for use in personal computers
and PC peripherals, flash memory gets its name because
sections of memory cells within the microchip are erased
in one simultaneous action, or flash.
The basic technology has been adopted by many
manufacturers and there are a number of removable flash
memory cards available, including CompactFlash, Memory
Stick, and Secure Digital cards. It is also available
as embedded memory. Removable flash memory usually
offers the following characteristics: a sturdy case, the
skip-free stability of solid-state memory, small size,
high memory capacity, very fast read/write speeds.
Removable media
Any kind of media which isn't built into a
device. Most audio or A/V recorder/players use removable
media, such as CD-Rs, VHS tapes, or some type of flash
memory card.
Examples of devices that use
non-removable, built-in media are portable MP3 players
with embedded
memory and some digital
video recorders.
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Media
Technology:
Optical Disc- HD-DVD
The next generation DVD recording...
In
Feb. 2002, nine
leading companies announced that they have jointly
established the basic specifications for a next generation
large capacity optical disc video recording format called
"Blu-ray Disc". The Blu-ray Disc enables the
recording, rewriting and play back of up to 27 gigabytes (GB)
of data on a single sided single layer 12cm CD/DVD size disc
using a 405nm blue-violet laser.
Blu-ray technology as
compared to traditional red-laser:
Blu-ray
increases the recording capacity to 27 Gbytes (13 hours of
standard definition TV or two to three hours of HDTV) compared
to 4.7 Gbytes recordable with DVD+RW/DVD-RW while still being
backward compatible with DVD movies.
The companies that
established the basic specifications for the Blu-ray Disc are:
Hitachi Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co., Ltd., Pioneer Corporation, Royal Philips
Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation,
Sony Corporation, and Thomson Multimedia.
Blu-Ray information
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