Les CD-RW
Défini dans la troisième partie du livre orange, les CD-RW (ReWritable) permettent des réécritures multiples.
De nombreux constructeurs garantissent un millier de réécriture pour le même secteur, et une persistance des données de 30 ans. Ici la technique utilisée est le changement de phase, utilisée depuis quelques années sur des disques optiques amovibles. Cette technologie est décrite en détail dans les pages relatives aux lecteurs magnéto-optiques.
Certains pensent que les lecteurs CD-RW vont définitivement supplanter les CD-R, à mon humble avis, cela se discute. En effet, les coûts sont nettement différents, le prix d’un disque CD-RW et quand même 4 à 6x supérieur à celui d’un CD-R. D’autres part, les données écrites sur un CD n’ont pas forcément besoin d’être mise à jour. Enfin, on verra…
Le mode d’écriture générant de très faibles différences de réflexion, de nombreux lecteurs CD standard des années 1998-1999 sont incapables de relire un CD-RW. Si cela s’avère indispensable, vérifiez que le lecteur CD soit bien conforme à la norme MultiRead. D’autres part, il doit être compatible multisession, ce qui est une évidence au vu des possibilités de réécriture des CD-RW.
These book colors are sometimes colloquially used to refer to the various standards; they can be a bit confusing, so I have included them in a table below for easy reference:
« Book » Color |
CD Format Referenced |
Red |
Digital Audio (CD-DA) |
Yellow |
Digital Data (CD-ROM): ISO 9660 / High Sierra, and extensions such as CD-ROM Extended Architecture (CD-ROM XA) |
Green |
CD-Interactive (CD-I) |
Orange |
Magneto-Optical (MO), CD-Recordable (CD-R), CD-Rewriteable (CD-RW) |
White |
« Bridge » CDs (Photo CD, Video CD and others) |
Some of these books, especially yellow, refer to multiple formats, and also have format extensions associated with them. These are described in more detail in their individual sections; there can sometimes be some confusion in terminology because so many formats are extensions to and derivations of earlier ones.
CD Format Compatibility Reference
The table below is a basic compatibility reference chart for the various CD formats. Each column in the chart is a CD format, and each row in the chart is for a specific type of CD drive. The table should be read by looking at the left-most column for a type of drive, and then looking across the row to see which formats the drive will usually support. This table is a guideline only, since any specific drive can have differing capabilities depending on what the manufacturer decides to allow it to support.
Notes:
- CD-R and CD-RW are included in the table, although they technically aren’t « formats » of course–they write disks using the other formats listed. CD-R disks are supported by most drives as long as the CD-R created is in a format that the drive would read if it were a pressed CD. Some drives can be finicky about some types of CD-R disks, however. Each drive is rated as either « Single » or « Multi », with the former meaning only single-session disks are supported and the latter meaning multi-session disks are supported (which of course implies single-session is also supported).
- For CD-DA, each drive is specified as to whether it can play CD-DA or extract it in digital form.
- « Some » means that some of these drives support the format, and some don’t.
Type of Drive |
CD-DA |
CD- |
CD- |
Bridge CD |
CD-I |
Video CD |
Photo CD |
CD-R |
CD-RW |
Audio CD Player |
Play |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Single |
No |
Standard (Older) CD-ROM Drive |
Play, some extract |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Single |
No |
(Newer) CD-ROM XA Drive |
Play, some extract |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Some |
Some |
Single |
No |
Multi- |
Play, Extract |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Multi |
Some |
CD-I Player |
Play |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Single? |
No |
CD-R Drive |
Play, Extract |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Multi |
Some |
CD-RW Drive |
Play, Extract |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Multi |
Yes |