DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
and
Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
authoring, is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded ("burned") onto an
optical disc
In computing and optical disc recording technologies, an optical disc (OD) is a flat, usually circular disc that encodes binary data (bits) in the form of pits and lands on a special material, often aluminum, on one of its flat surfaces. ...
(typically a
compact disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...
or
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
).
Process
To burn an optical disc, one usually first creates an
optical disc image
An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. ...
with a full
file system
In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
, of a type designed for the optical disc, in temporary storage such as a file in another file system on a disk drive. One may test the image on target devices using rewriteable media such as
CD-RW
CD-RW (Compact Disc-Rewritable) is a digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, storage format introduced in 1997. A CD-RW compact disc (CD-RWs) can be written, read, erased, and re-written.
CD-RWs, as opposed to CDs, require ...
BD-RE
Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R) refers to two direct to disc optical disc recording technologies that can be recorded on to a Blu-ray-based optical disc with an optical disc recorder. BD-R discs can be written to once, whereas Blu-ray Disc Recorda ...
. Then, one copies the image to the disc (usually write-once media for hard distribution).
Most optical disc authoring utilities create a disc image and copy it to the disc in one bundled operation, so that end-users often do not know the distinction between creating and burning. However, it is useful to know because creating the disc image is a time-consuming process, while copying the image is much faster. Most disc burning applications silently delete the image from the
Temporary folder
In computing, a temporary folder or temporary directory is a directory used to hold temporary files. Many operating systems and some software automatically delete the contents of this directory at bootup or at regular intervals, leaving the direct ...
after making one copy. If users override this default, telling the application to preserve the image, they can reuse the image to create more copies. Otherwise, they must rebuild the image each time they want a copy.
Some
packet-writing
Packet writing (or incremental packet writing, IPW) is an optical disc recording technology used to allow write-once and rewritable CD and DVD media to be used in a similar manner to a floppy disk from within the operating system.
Details
P ...
applications do not require writing the entire disc at once, but allow writing of different parts at different times. This allows a user to construct a disc incrementally, as it could be on a rewritable medium like a
floppy disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
or rewritable CD. However, if the disc is non-rewritable, a given bit can be written only once. Due to this limitation, a non-rewritable disc whose burn failed for any reason cannot be repaired. (Such a disc is colloquially termed a "coaster", a reference to a
beverage coaster
A coaster, drink coaster, beverage coaster, or beermat is an item used to rest drinks upon. Coasters protect the surface of a table or any other surface where the user might place a glass. Coasters on top of a beverage can also be used to show th ...
.)
There are many
optical disc authoring technologies
Optical disc authoring requires a number of different optical disc recorder technologies working in tandem, from the optical disc media to the firmware to the control electronics of the optical disc drive.
Types of recordable optical disc
T ...
for optimizing the authoring process and preventing errors. Some programs can mount a disc image as a
file system
In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
type, so these images appear as mounted discs. The disc image can then be tested after it is assembled but before writing to a physical disc.
Sessions
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
(sequential) discs also allow the use of multiple sessions.
Tracks
Tracks contain the information to be stored on the disc. A track is a consecutive set of sectors on the disc containing a block of data. One session may contain one or more tracks of the same or different types. Tracks can be audio information or data, which use the same format, or video information. Data can include album information and low-resolution graphics such as karaoke lyrics; however, these tracks are not compliant with the Red Book of CD audio standards.
Hardware
Authoring is commonly done in software on computers with
optical disc recorder
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...
s. There are, however, stand-alone devices like
personal video recorder
A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...
s which can also author and record discs.
Software
Use of optical disc recorders require ''optical disc authoring software'', sometimes called "burning applications" or "burner applications". Such software is usually sold with the recorder. Some
operating systems
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also inc ...
come bundled with them.
Creating an optical disc usually involves first creating an
optical disc image
An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. ...
with a full
file system
In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
designed for the optical disc, and then actually burning the image to the disc. Many programs create the disc image and burn in one bundled application (Quick Copy or Copy On-the-fly), such that end-users do not even know the distinction.
Disc file systems include
ISO 9660
ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119) is a file system for optical disc media. Being sold by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) the file system is considered an international technical standard. Since the specification is av ...
(often known simply as “ISO”) and
Universal Disk Format
Universal Disk Format (UDF) is an open, vendor-neutral file system for computer data storage for a broad range of media. In practice, it has been most widely used for DVDs and newer optical disc formats, supplanting ISO 9660. Due to its design, ...
(UDF). ISO is most common for CDs and UDF is most common for DVDs.
There are also
packet writing
Packet writing (or incremental packet writing, IPW) is an optical disc recording technology used to allow write-once and rewritable CD and DVD media to be used in a similar manner to a floppy disk from within the operating system.
Details
P ...
applications that do not require writing the entire disc at once, but allow writing parts at a time, allowing the disc to be used as a random access removable medium (somewhat like a very large floppy, though with unique constraints).
Sometimes, disc images are made to make the authoring process more straightforward. Sometimes disc images are even used to emulate the presence of a CD-ROM or DVD drive with the data entirely resident on the hard disc.
For the
command-line
A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...
tool ''
cdrdao
cdrdao (''“CD recorder disc-at-once”'') is a free utility software product for authoring and ripping of CD-ROMs. The program is released under the GPL. Cdrdao records audio or data CD-Rs in disk-at-once mode based on a textual description ...
'', a so-called '' TOC file'' that can be authored inside a
text editor
A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be us ...
is used to specify the details of the desired disc record.
File systems
Optical disc file system types include
ISO 9660
ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119) is a file system for optical disc media. Being sold by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) the file system is considered an international technical standard. Since the specification is av ...
(often known simply as "ISO") and
Universal Disk Format
Universal Disk Format (UDF) is an open, vendor-neutral file system for computer data storage for a broad range of media. In practice, it has been most widely used for DVDs and newer optical disc formats, supplanting ISO 9660. Due to its design, ...
(UDF). ISO is most common for CDs and UDF is most common for DVDs and BDs.
ISO 9660
ISO 9660 is a format mainly used on CDs. The ISO 9660 can be extended with
El Torito
El Torito (Spanish for "the little bull") is an American chain that serves Mexican food. El Torito operates 69 restaurants primarily in California.Joliet,
Rock Ridge
ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119) is a file system for optical disc media. Being sold by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) the file system is considered an international technical standard. Since the specification is ava ...
, or the
Apple ISO 9660 Extensions
ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119) is a file system for optical disc media. Being sold by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) the file system is considered an international technical standard. Since the specification is ava ...
.
El Torito makes it possible to boot from a CD. The Joliet extension by Microsoft makes it possible to have long file names encoded in
UCS-2
The Universal Coded Character Set (UCS, Unicode) is a standard set of characters defined by the international standard ISO/IEC 10646, ''Information technology — Universal Coded Character Set (UCS)'' (plus amendments to that standard), whi ...
, among other things. Rock Ridge is a system providing file-ownership, fewer restrictions on the file names, and more. Amiga extensions allow use of Amiga-specific attribute bits and comments. The Apple Extensions enables Macintosh-specific creator codes, file type, and so on.
Universal Disk Format
Universal Disk Format (UDF) is a newer filesystem that comes with additional features such as Unicode support, packet writing (UDF 1.50), and defect management on rewritable formats. Packet writing can alternatively be implemented with UDF 1.02 and
Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...
extensions. It allows one to use the disc like a
floppy disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
, that is to easily delete, create, and modify files, without having to write the whole disc again.
DVD-Video uses UDF 1.02, however Blu-Ray Disc uses UDF 2.50.
HighMAT
A compatibility technology called
HighMAT HighMAT (High Performance Media Access Technologies) is a media format jointly developed by Panasonic Corporation (Matsushita) and Microsoft for personal CD authoring with music and photo content.
Support
Software to author HighMAT CDs transpare ...
allows visual material on the disc to be recognised, interpreted and supported by electronic play devices more efficiently.
See also
*
List of optical disc authoring software
This is a list of optical disc authoring software.
Open source
Multi-platform
* cdrtools, a comprehensive command line-based set of tools for creating and burning CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays
* cdrkit, a fork of cdrtools by the Debian project
* cdrd ...
*
Rainbow Books
The Rainbow Books are a collection of CD format specifications.
''Red Book'' (1980)
*CD-DA (''Digital Audio'') – standardized as IEC 60908
**CD-Text—a 1996 extension to CD-DA
** CD-MIDI—part of the original red-book standard
**CD+G (' ...
(optical disc data standards)
*
Optical disc recording technologies
Optical disc authoring requires a number of different optical disc recorder technologies working in tandem, from the optical disc media to the firmware to the control electronics of the optical disc drive.
Types of recordable optical disc
The ...