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A shaped compact disc is a non-circular
compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a 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 released in O ...
. Examples include business card CDs, CDs in the shape of a star, a map of a country, interview material and more. These discs are usually made for marketing purposes and are properly read by most CD-ROM drives (and audio CD players, although custom-shaped CDs tend to contain less data). There are many companies that sell CDs with custom shapes. Unlike
Mini CD Mini CDs, or pocket CDs, are CDs with a smaller diameter and one-third the storage capacity of a standard 120 mm disc. Formats Amongst the various formats are the * Mini CD single, a small disc. The format is mainly used for audio CD s ...
s, which are smaller, but still circular versions of normal CDs, custom CDs can be any number of shapes, even more complicated shapes like gears with dozens of teeth, but are generally smooth and with rounded edges, such as ovals or rounded rectangles. A logo can be printed on a shaped CD, in the same way common audio CDs and CD-ROMs are labeled. Shaped CDs are produced in one of two ways. A special mold can be made and used to "stamp" CDs (or DVDs) as part of the precision injection molding process that is used to make CDs and DVDs. Because of the initial cost involved in setting up this process, it is usually used for mass production. For the same reason, this is generally restricted to the production of read-only CDs and DVDs (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM). Recordable CDs and DVDs (CD-R or DVD-R or DVD+R) are not generally available except in standard shapes including rectangular. The second method to produce a shaped CD or DVD is to produce a normal CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and cut it to the desired shape. This method works only for CD-ROM. It will not work for CD-R because the plastic used to produce CD-R tends to splinter when cut. It is important that two criteria be met for a shaped disc to function properly. First, the shape must be balanced to avoid problems when it begins to spin. Second, at least three points of the outer edge must touch either the outer 12 cm diameter rim of the player's tray where standard size discs fit or the inner rim where 8 cm diameter mini discs fit. Data can only be recorded on sections of a Shaped CD that form uninterrupted circular tracks. Other parts of the shape are purely decorative - but are still often finished to the same appearance as a CD. They appear silver and reflective on the data side of the CD, even though they contain no actual valid bytes and cannot be read.


History

The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (k ...
released a CD single entitled "
This Here Giraffe "This Here Giraffe" is a song by American Psychedelic rock group The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, k ...
" on the world's first-ever star-shaped CD. It was in the shape of an 8-pointed
star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
. The North American release of the soundtrack to the
Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...
game Yoshi's Story, titled "Music to Pound the Ground To", is also a shaped CD. In this instance, the shape is an outline of the print on the disc,
Yoshi Yoshi is a fictional dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. Yoshi debuted in ''Super Mario World'' (1990) on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Mario and Luigi's sidekick. Yoshi is the title character of the ''Yoshi' ...
's face and some fruit in the background. The North American soundtrack of
Diddy Kong Racing ''Diddy Kong Racing'' is a 1997 racing video game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The game is set on Timber's Island and revolves around Diddy Kong and his friends' attempt to defeat the intergalactic antagonist, a wizar ...
, another Nintendo 64 game, has a similarly-shaped CD, being shaped to outline
Diddy Kong is a fictional character who appears in games belonging to the ''Donkey Kong'' and ''Mario'' video game franchises, debuting in the 1994 ''Donkey Kong'' series game, ''Donkey Kong Country''. Nintendo designer Kevin Bayliss commented Diddy Kong wa ...
's head. An additional example is the live EP
Alive in Torment ''Alive in Torment'' is a live limited shape EP by the Norwegian Symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir. It was recorded in Stuttgart, Germany on 4 April 2001, during the tour supporting their fifth studio album Puritanical Euphoric Misanthr ...
released by
symphonic black metal Symphonic black metal is a subgenre of black metal that emerged in the 1990s and incorporates symphonic and orchestral elements. Notable symphonic black metal bands include Cradle Of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, and Carach Angren. History ...
band
Dimmu Borgir Dimmu Borgir () is a Norwegian symphonic black metal band from Jessheim, formed in 1993. The name is derived from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic formation in Iceland, the name of which means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, ...
. The disc is shaped like a skull. British death metal band
Carcass Carcass or Carcase (both pronounced ) may refer to: *Dressed carcass, the body of a livestock animal ready for butchery, after removal of skin, visceral organs, head, feet etc. *Carrion, the decaying dead body of an animal or human being *The str ...
released a limited edition of Swansong as a brain-shaped CD.


Compatibility

Shaped CDs are not compatible with all CD players. They work with most machines where the disc is inserted by manually clipping it onto a spindle (the mechanism in virtually all portable CD players), but may not work in drives that load the disc from a tray and they are not compatible with any slot-loading drives. They can even get stuck in these players or be rejected if the tray-loading mechanism has optical sensors to detect the disc position. Business card CDs or shaped CDs can hold any type of data and can usually store anywhere from 40MB to 100MB of information. These CDs may be used for promotional pieces for business, music or many other uses.


Asymmetric discs

Irregularly shaped, non- rotationally-symmetric discs with an offset
center of mass In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...
may also cause damaging vibration if played in computer CD drives, which can operate at a much higher
rotational velocity In physics, angular velocity or rotational velocity ( or ), also known as angular frequency vector,(UP1) is a pseudovector representation of how fast the angular position or orientation of an object changes with time (i.e. how quickly an obje ...
than stand-alone audio CD players. Some irregularly shaped discs work with tray-loading CD drives if they include a circular ridge on their underside that centers them on the part of the tray designed to hold 80 mm CDs, if the tray has such a feature.


Legal/patent

A patent exists on the production of all non-round CDs.Google Patent Database — Patent US 5844757
/ref> Often referred to as the "Rose Patent," the holder of this patent has litigated to collect royalties on the production or sale of any non-round disc. Other manufacturers of non-round discs have litigated to dispute the validity of this patent and have produced examples of non-round discs that predate the patent. The matter is currently in litigation. Observation of the aforementioned patent has determined that it is only in regards to magnetic media and further citations may be needed to verify its application to CD optical media.


See also

*
Bootable business card A bootable business card (BBC) is a CD-ROM that has been cut, pressed, or molded to the size and shape of a business card (designed to fit in a wallet or pocket). Alternative names for this form factor include "credit card", "hockey rink", and "wa ...
* Unusual types of gramophone records#Unusually shaped discs


References

{{Compact disc navbox Compact disc