optical disc

or optical diskn. A plastic-coated disk on which data, such as text, music, or video, is digitally stored as microscopic regions of varying reflectivity and is read by scanning the surface with a laser. Also called laser disc.

optical disc

n (Computer Science) computing an inflexible disc on which information is stored in digital form by laser technology. Also called: video disc

op′tical disc′

n. 1. Also called laser disc. a grooveless disk on which digital data, as text, music, or pictures, are stored as tiny pits in the surface and read or replayed by a laser beam scanning the surface. 2. videodisc. Compare compact disc.

Thesaurus

Noun

optical disc - a disk coated with plastic that can store digital data as tiny pits etched in the surface; is read with a laser that scans the surfaceoptical diskcompact disc, compact disk, CD - a digitally encoded recording on an optical disk that is smaller than a phonograph record; played back by a lasermemory device, storage device - a device that preserves information for retrievalDVD, videodisc, videodisk - a digital recording (as of a movie) on an optical disk that can be played on a computer or a television set

Translations

disco ottico

optical disc

A direct access storage device that is written and read by light. The most common types are CD, DVD and Blu-ray. As removable media, optical discs superseded the earlier magnetic disk cartridges because they weigh less, have higher capacities and are not subject to head crashes or corruption from stray magnetic fields. Optical media also have a 30-year life and are less vulnerable to extreme hot or cold.

However, as a transportable storage medium, they have mostly been superseded by USB-based flash drives and external hard drives. Following are the major categories of optical discs in order of writability.

Read-Only (Factory Pressed)
Read-only discs are pressed from a master at the time of manufacture and cannot be erased. They include the music CD, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-Video and BD-ROM (Blu-ray). See CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

Write-Once (Burnable)
Write-once discs are recorded in the user's environment but cannot be erased. They include CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, BD-R (Blu-ray) and WORM discs, as well as magneto-optic (MO) and ultra density optical (UDO) discs in WORM mode. See magneto-optic disk and UDO.

Rewritable (Phase Change and Magneto Optic)
Rewritable discs can be written and re-written numerous times. Employing phase change technology, consumer-oriented products include CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and BD-RE (Blu-ray) as well as ultra density optical (UDO). See phase change disc.

Magneto-optic (MO) disks combine optical and magnetic technologies (see magneto-optic disk). See ISO/IEC 13346, multilevel optical disc, holographic storage, WORM and legality of optical storage.

Writability Optical Disc Types Read only CD, CD-ROM DVD-ROM, DVD-Video BD-ROM Write once CR-R DVD-R, DVD+R BD-R, WORM Rewritable CD-RW DVD-RW, DVD+RW DVD-RAM BD-RE

optical disc

optical disc

optical disc

op′tical disc′

optical disc

optical disc

optical disc

Synonyms for optical disc

noun a disk coated with plastic that can store digital data as tiny pits etched in the surface

Synonyms

Related Words