Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
In addition, a similar MultiPlay standard exists for consumer DVD-Video and CD-DA
devices.
Table 11.7
shows the two levels of MultiRead capability that you can assign to drives and
the types of media guaranteed to be readable in such drives.
Table 11.7 MultiRead and MultiRead2 Compatibility Standards for CD/DVD Drives
Note that MultiRead also indicates that the drive is capable of reading discs written in
Packet Writing mode because this mode is now being used more commonly with both
CD-R and DVD rewritable media.
If you use only rewritable CD or DVD drives, you don't need to worry about compatib-
ility. However, if you still use nonrewritable drives, you should check compatibility with
othertypesofmedia.AlthoughtheMultiReadandMultiRead2logosshownin
Figure11.8
arenotwidelyusedtoday,youcandetermine aparticular drive'scompatibility withagiv-
en media type by viewing its specification sheet.
Figure 11.8
MultiRead and MultiRead2 logos. These logos can be found on some older drives meeting
these specifications.
You can obtain the MultiRead specification (revision 1.11, October 23, 1997) and
MultiRead 2 specification (revision 1.0, December 6, 1999) from the OSTA website.
DVD
DVD in simplest terms is a high-capacity CD. In fact, every DVD-ROM drive
is
a CD-
ROM drive; that is, it can read CDs as well as DVDs. (Some older standalone DVD play-
ers can't read CD-R or CD-RW discs, however.) DVD uses the same optical technology
