Guide to DVD Drives

A Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) drive reads, plays, and records data from DVDs. It may be installed in the computer’s drive bay or plugged externally through the USB or FireWire port. Depending on the type, it can read recordable, rewritable, and read-only discs. It is also backward compatible, which means that it can play older disc formats such as CDs. 

Read-Only DVD drives (DVD-ROM)

A DVD-ROM only reads information from DVDs, but cannot record on them. It allows users to watch movies, play music, or transfer files from DVDs to a computer. It can read all DVD formats including DVD-video, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW, except DVD-RAM. Most models require special software to play DVD-video files since these files use MPEG-2 compression.

Random Access DVD drives (DVD-RAM)

A random access DVD drive can read all DVD formats and write on DVD-RAM media. It provides an additional storage unit for data. It cannot burn DVD-audio and DVD-video formats.

Recordable DVD drives (DVD-R)

A recordable DVD drive can read, play, and write data on DVD-R discs. It can only be written on once; the recorded data cannot be erased or overwritten. It can read CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, DVD-ROM, and DVD-R/RW media.

Rewritable DVD drives (DVD-RW)

A rewritable DVD drive can write and rewrite data on DVDs. It can erase the data currently stored in a DVD disc and rewrite new data several times. It can read CD and DVD media in all formats, except DVD-RAM. It writes data in continuous streams, making it ideal for recording content from televisions and other video devices just like a VCR.