Optical disc
An optical disc is a flat, usually disc-shaped object that stores information in the form of physical variations on its surface that can be read with the aid of a beam of light. Optical discs can be reflective, where the light source and detector are on the same side of the disc, or transmissive, where light shines through the disc to be detected on the other side. They may contain analog or digital information, or a mixture of the two. Their main uses are the distribution of media and data, and long-term archival storage.
Design and technology
The encoding material sits atop a thicker substrate that makes up the bulk of the disc and forms a dust defocusing layer. The encoding pattern follows a continuous, spiral path covering the entire disc surface and extending from the innermost track to the outermost track.The data are stored on the disc with a laser or stamping machine, and can be accessed when the data path is illuminated with a laser diode in an optical disc drive that spins the disc at speeds of about 200 to 4,000 RPM or more, depending on the drive type, disc format, and the distance of the read head from the center of the disc.
Most optical discs exhibit a characteristic iridescence as a result of the diffraction grating formed by their grooves. This side of the disc contains the actual data and is typically coated with a transparent material, usually lacquer.
The reverse side of an optical disc usually has a printed label, sometimes made of paper but often printed or stamped onto the disc itself. Unlike the 3-inch floppy disk, most optical discs do not have an integrated protective casing and are therefore susceptible to data transfer problems due to scratches, fingerprints, and other environmental problems. Blu-rays have a coating called durabis that mitigates these problems.
Optical discs have been offered between in diameter, with becoming the dominant size beginning 1997. The so-called program area that contains the data commonly starts 25 millimeters away from the center point. A typical disc is about thick, while the track pitch ranges from 1.6 μm to 320 nm.
Recording types
An optical disc is designed to support one of three recording types: read-only, recordable, or re-recordable. Write-once optical discs commonly have an organic dye recording layer between the substrate and the reflective layer. Rewritable discs typically contain an alloy recording layer composed of a phase change material, most often AgInSbTe, an alloy of silver, indium, antimony, and tellurium. Azo dyes were introduced in 1996 and phthalocyanine only began to see wide use in 2002. The type of dye and the material used on the reflective layer on an optical disc may be determined by shining a light through the disc, as different dye and material combinations have different colors.Blu-ray Disc recordable discs do not usually use an organic dye recording layer, instead using an inorganic recording layer. Those that do are known as low-to-high discs and can be made in existing CD and DVD production lines, but are of lower quality than traditional Blu-ray recordable discs.
File systems
File systems specifically created for optical discs are ISO9660 and the Universal Disk Format.ISO9660 can be extended using the "Joliet" extension to store longer file names than standalone ISO9660. The "Rock Ridge" extension can store even longer file names and Unix/Linux-style file permissions, but is not recognized by Windows and by DVD players and similar devices that can read data discs.
For cross-platform compatibility, multiple file systems can co-exist on one disc and reference the same files.
Usage
Optical discs are most commonly used for digital preservation, storing music, video, or data and programs for personal computers, as well as offline hard copy data distribution due to lower per-unit prices than other types of media. The Optical Storage Technology Association promoted standardized optical storage formats.Libraries and archives enact optical media preservation procedures to ensure continued usability in the computer's optical disc drive or corresponding disc player.
File operations of traditional mass storage devices such as flash drives, memory cards and hard drives can be simulated using a UDF live file system.
For computer data backup and physical data transfer, optical discs such as CDs and DVDs are gradually being replaced with faster, smaller solid-state devices, especially the USB flash drive. This trend is expected to continue as USB flash drives continue to increase in capacity and drop in price.
Additionally, music, movies, games, software and TV shows purchased, shared or streamed over the Internet has significantly reduced the number of audio CDs, video DVDs and Blu-ray discs sold annually. However, audio CDs and Blu-rays are still preferred and bought by some, as a way of supporting their favorite works while getting something tangible in return and also since audio CDs contain uncompressed audio without the artifacts introduced by lossy compression algorithms like MP3, and Blu-rays offer better image and sound quality than streaming media, without visible compression artifacts, due to higher bitrates and more available storage space. However, Blu-rays may sometimes be torrented over the internet, but torrenting may not be an option for some, due to restrictions put in place by Internet service providers on legal or copyright grounds, low download speeds or not having enough available storage space, since the content may weigh up to several dozen gigabytes. Blu-rays may be the only option for those looking to play large games without having to download them over an unreliable or slow internet connection, which is the reason why they are still widely used by gaming consoles, like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One X. As of 2020, it is unusual for PC games to be available in a physical format like Blu-ray.
Optical discs are typically stored in special cases, sometimes called jewel cases. Discs should not have any stickers and should not be stored together with paper; papers must be removed from the jewel case before storage. Discs should be handled by the edges to prevent scratching, with the thumb on the inner edge of the disc. The ISO Standard 18938:2014 is about best optical disc handling techniques. Optical disc cleaning should never be done in a circular pattern, to avoid concentric cirles from forming on the disc. Improper cleaning can scratch the disc. Recordable discs should not be exposed to light for extended periods of time. Optical discs should be stored in dry and cool conditions to increase longevity, with temperatures between -10 and 23 °C, never exceeding 32 °C, and with humidity never falling below 10%, with recommended storage at 20 to 50% of humidity without fluctuations of more than ±10%.
Durability
Although optical discs are more durable than earlier audio-visual and data storage formats, they are susceptible to environmental and daily-use damage, if handled improperly.Optical discs are not prone to uncontrollable catastrophic failures such as head crashes, power surges, or exposure to water like hard disk drives and flash storage, since optical drives' storage controllers are not tied to optical discs themselves like with hard disk drives and flash memory controllers, and a disc is usually recoverable from a defective optical drive by pushing an unsharp needle into the emergency ejection pinhole, and has no point of immediate water ingress and no integrated circuitry.
Security
As the media itself only is accessed through a laser beam and has no internal control circuitry, it cannot contain malicious hardware in the same way as so-called rubber-duckies or USB killers. Like any data storage media, optical discs can contain malicious data, they are able to contain and spread malware - as happened in the case of the Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal in 2005 where Sony misused discs by pre-loading them with malware.Many types of optical discs are factory-pressed or finalized write once read many storage devices and would therefore not be effective at spreading computer worms that are designed to spread by copying themselves onto optical media, because data on those discs can not be modified once pressed or written. However, re-writable disc technologies are able to spread this type of malware.
History
The first recorded historical use of an optical disc was in 1884 when Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter recorded sound on a glass disc using a beam of light.Optophonie is a very early example of a recording device using light for both recording and playing back sound signals on a transparent photograph.
An early analogue optical disc system existed in 1935, used on Welte's sampling organ.
An early analog optical disc used for video recording was invented by David Paul Gregg in 1958 and patented in the US in 1961 and 1969. This form of optical disc was a very early form of the DVD. It is of special interest that, filed 1989, issued 1990, generated royalty income for Pioneer Corporation's DVA until 2007 —then encompassing the CD, DVD, and Blu-ray systems. In the early 1960s, the Music Corporation of America bought Gregg's patents and his company, Gauss Electrophysics.
American inventor James T. Russell has been credited with inventing the first system to record a digital signal on an optical transparent foil that is lit from behind by a high-power halogen lamp. Russell's patent application was first filed in 1966 and he was granted a patent in 1970. Following litigation, Sony and Philips licensed Russell's patents in the 1980s.
Both Gregg's and Russell's disc are floppy media read in transparent mode, which imposes serious drawbacks, after this were developed four generations of optical drive that includes Laserdisc, WORM, Compact Discs, DVD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, more formats are currently under development.