
MiniDVD or 8 cm DVD (also "3
inch
The inch (symbol: in or prime (symbol), ) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British Imperial and the United States customary units, United States customary System of measurement, systems of measurement. It is eq ...
DVD") is a
DVD disc with a reduced diameter of . It has been most commonly used in
camcorders due to its compact size.
The most common MiniDVDs are single layered and hold 1.4
GB of data, but there are variants that can offer up to 5.2 GB of storage space, through a combination of dual layers and dual sides.
8 cm DVDs were originally used for
music video
A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
s and as such became known as
DVD single, similarly to how 8 cm optical discs were previously used for music
singles on
compact disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...
s (i.e.
CD single
A CD single is a single (music), music single in the form of a compact disc (CD). Originally the ''CD single'' standard (as defined in the Rainbow Books, Red Book) was an 8 cm (3-inch) "mini CD" (''CD3''); later on the term referred to any si ...
and
miniCD). However the MiniDVD format has been mostly used as recordable discs in DVD-based camcorders during the 2000s; a single layer disc can record up to 30 minutes of standard definition video. A number of movies and TV shows have also been released on the format in the mid-2000s, usually targeting children using low-cost small players.
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
used a
very similar disc-based format for the
GameCube
The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...
.
MiniDVD capacities
The most common MiniDVDs are single layered, which can hold 1.46 GB of data, however, there also exists dual layered 2.6 GB versions, dual sided single layer 2.8 GB versions,
and dual sided dual layer 5.2 GB versions. A double sided MiniDVD can hold 2.8 GB of data (1.4 GB x 2), however, a dual-layer MiniDVD can only hold 2.6 GB of data due to the limitations when manufacturing dual layered discs. A double sided dual layered disc can hold 5.2 GB of data (2.6 GB x 2), with the MiniDVD-RAM version of the double sided, dual layer disc being able to hold 5.6 GB of data (2.8GB x 2).
Mini DVDs are also available in +R, +R DS, +R DL, +R DL DS, +RW, +RW DS, -R, -R DS, -R DL, -R DL DS, -RW, and -RW DS variants, just like their full sized counterparts. (DL=Double Layer, DS=Double Sided).
See also
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Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...
*
CD Video
CD Video (also known as CDV, CD-V, or CD+V) was a format of Optical disc, optical media disc that was introduced in 1987 that combines the technologies of standard compact disc and LaserDisc. CD-V discs are the same size as a standard audio CD, ...
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DVD
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DVD card
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HD DVD
HD DVD (short for High Density Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video.
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LaserDisc
LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
*
Nintendo optical discs
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GD-ROM
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Universal Media Disc (UMD)
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Video CD
Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video), (not to be confused with CD Video which is a type of Laserdisc) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The f ...
(VCD)
*
VideoNow
The VideoNow is a portable video player produced by Hasbro and released by their subsidiary Tiger Electronics in 2003 as part of Tiger's line of Now (brand), Now consumer products. The systems use discs called PVDs (which stands for Personal Vi ...
References
External links
''miniDVD'' definition on AfterDawn.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minidvd
80 mm discs
Video storage
DVD
Optical computer storage media