CD-ROM player
Also called a CD-ROM drive, a device that can read information from a CD-ROM. CD-ROM players can be either internal, in which case they fit in a bay, or external, in which case they generally connect to the computer’s SCSI interface or parallel port. Parallel CD-ROM players are easier to install, but they have several disadvantages: They’re somewhat more expensive than internal players, they use up the parallel port which means that you can’t use that port for another device such as a printer, and the parallel port itself may not be fast enough to handle all the data pouring through it.
There are a number of features that distinguish CD-ROM players, the most important of which is probably their speed. CD-ROM players are generally classified as single-speed or some multiple of single-speed. For example, a 4X player access data at four times the speed of a single-speed player (also see Understanding CD Burner Speeds in the Did You Know . . . ? section of
Read Also:
- CD-RW
See CD-RW disk.
- CD-RW Disk
Short for CD-ReWritable disk, a type of CD disk that enables you to write onto it in multiple sessions. One of the problems with CD-R disks is that you can only write to them once. With CD-RW drives and disks, you can treat the optical disk just like a floppy or hard disk, writing data […]
- CD-R drive
Short for Compact Disk-Recordable drive, a type of disk drive that can create CD-ROMs and audio CDs. This allows users to “master” a CD-ROM or audio CD for publishing. Until recently, CD-R drives were quite expensive, but prices have dropped dramatically. A feature of many CD-R drives, called multisession recording, enables you to keep adding […]
- CD+G
Short for Compact disc plus graphics. CD+G is an audio compact disc that contains graphics data in addition to audio data. These CDs can be played on a regular audio player but when played on a CD+G player, it outputs a graphics signal as well. This allows video pictures to be displayed as music is […]
- CE
Short for consumer electronics.