Difference between revisions of "Optical drive"
(One intermediate revision by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
An '''optical drive''' is a computer component that reads [[optical media]] such as [[CD|CDs]], [[DVD|DVDs]], or [[Blu-ray]] discs. | An '''optical drive''' is a computer component that reads [[optical media]] such as [[CD|CDs]], [[DVD|DVDs]], or [[Blu-ray]] discs. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Optical drives are specific to the types of disc formats they can read. For example, the earlier CD drives are unable to read [[DVD]] and [[Blu-ray]] discs. However, the newer the drive, the more formats it is likely to read. Thus, most [[Blu-ray]] drives can also read a number of [[DVD]] and [[CD]] formats in addition to the [[Blu-ray]] discs. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Earlier optical drives are generally connected directly to the motherboard via IDE cable. This has changed to the faster and more efficient SATA cable standard. | ||
{{stub}} | {{stub}} | ||
[[Category:Hardware]] | [[Category:Hardware]] |
Latest revision as of 16:12, 22 June 2009
An optical drive is a computer component that reads optical media such as CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs.
Optical drives are specific to the types of disc formats they can read. For example, the earlier CD drives are unable to read DVD and Blu-ray discs. However, the newer the drive, the more formats it is likely to read. Thus, most Blu-ray drives can also read a number of DVD and CD formats in addition to the Blu-ray discs.
Earlier optical drives are generally connected directly to the motherboard via IDE cable. This has changed to the faster and more efficient SATA cable standard.