Click here

DVD

Short for digital versatile disc or digital video disc, a type of optical disk technology similar to the CD-ROM. A DVD holds a minimum of 4.7GB of data, enough for a full-length movie. DVDs are commonly used as a medium for digital representation of movies and other multimedia presentations that combine sound with graphics.

The DVD specification supports disks with capacities of from 4.7GB to 17GB and access rates of 600KBps to 1.3 MBps. One of the best features of DVD drives is that they are backward-compatible with CD-ROMs, meaning they can play old CD-ROMs, CD-I disks, and video CDs, as well as new DVD-ROMs. Newer DVD players can also read CD-R disks.

DVD uses MPEG-2 to compress video data.

For comparison and contrast, see DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM.

Also see DVD Formats Explained in the Did You Know . . . ? section of Webopedia.



Top Terms
  • 1

    private cloud project

    Companies initiate private cloud projects to enable their IT infrastructure to become more capable of quickly adapting to continually evolving...

    Read more »

  • 2

    cloud backup

    A cloud backup (cloud computer backup) refers to backing up data to a remote, cloud-based server. As a form of cloud storage, cloud backup data is...

    Read more »

  • Click Here!

Connect with Webopedia

  • Android Apps for Remote Computer Access

    Remote access is useful when you need to collaborate with co-workers, help a friend with PC problems or grab files from your desktop.

    Read More »

Did You Know? Archive »

  • Quick Reference Archive »