July 2003
Beginner to intermediate
874 pages
38h 13m
English
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Choosing a DVD-ROM Drive
In the past, DVD-ROM drives differed sharply in price and performance according to the generation to which they belonged. But DVD-ROM drives have rapidly become commoditized, much as CD-ROM drives did. Nowadays, even $60 entry-level ATAPI drives provide 16X read performance for DVDs and 40X or greater for CDs. You’re unlikely to go wrong with a current-model DVD-ROM drive from any of the major Japanese producers including Hitachi, NEC, Panasonic, Sony, and Toshiba.
Use the following guidelines when choosing a DVD-ROM drive:
Make certain the drive will read at least DVD-ROM (DVD-5, -9, -10, -18); DVD-R; and the following CD formats: CD-DA; CD-ROM; CD-ROM XA; CD+(E)G; CD-Midi; CD-Text; CD-I; CD-I Bridge (Photo-CD and Video-CD); CD-R; CD-RW; and multisession (Photo-CD; CD-Extra; CD-R; CD-RW). If possible, get a drive that will also read DVD-RAM (2.6 GB and 4.7 GB formats) and DVD+RW discs.
In the past, we recommended getting a DVD hardware decoder card to watch DVD-Video on a PC. That advice is now obsolete. Even the slowest recent systems can display high-quality DVD-Video using the software decoders that are bundled with DVD drives and video cards. If for some reason you must watch DVD-Video on a slow system (< 400 MHz), rather than installing a dedicated DVD decoder card, we recommend installing an upgraded video card that supplies DVD acceleration in hardware. The video quality will likely be higher than with a DVD decoder card, and the newer video card ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.