CD-ROM drives. Are they all just the same?

Abstract

In past two years CD-ROM drives have finally moved from a small niche market to be widely accepted as the computer commodity for the home and office. As the sales of CD-ROM drives were rising, more and more companies started to manufacture them. There are now more than 150 different models produced by more than 50 manufacturers with a price ranging from 200 to 1,000 US $. The second trend is that compatibility questions that used to be very simple since the publishing of ISO 9660 standard are not so simple anymore. The publishers are striving to put more data, more audio and more video on the single disc. There is now a range of specifications such as Kodak Photo CD, CD-ROM XA, MODE 2, MPC 2, Multisession CD, ADPCM etc. What is the plain language explanation of these specifications? Can the drive that you plan to buy meet them all? Should the drive that you plan to buy meet them all? These are some of the questions that this article will try to answer.