3
What is Orange Book?
The Orange Book is a collection of standards for CD-R and CD-RW,
and sometimes refers to the standards themselves. The Orange Book
Part 2 deals chiefly with CD-R discs, and the Orange Book Part 3 with
CD-RW discs. The book takes its name from its orange colored cover.
Audio CDs and CD-ROMs
Ordinary audio CDs that can be played back on a CD player contain
sounds or music data data recorded in a format called CD-DA
(Compact Disc-Digital Audio). This means that CD-R discs can also be
played on a CD player if they store audio data recorded in CD-DA
format. A 79-minute CD is capable of recording audio data of up to 79
minutes (16-bit/44.1 kHz-sampled stereo audio data).
On the other hand, CD-ROMs store computer data digitally encoded
and recorded in a format specified by the international standard
ISO9660 so that they can be recognized by many types of computers.
CDs (CD-DA) were originally developed for music, later came into use
as read-only memory (ROM) for computers, and are now widely used
as a storage medium for recording audio and graphics data, and also for
databanks and electronic publications.
Included among the CD-ROM variations are CD EXTRA and Video
CDs.
What is CD EXTRA?
This refers to CDs containing audio data, text data, graphics data, etc., recorded
in multiple sessions. Most CD EXTRA discs allow you to listen to music on an
ordinary CD player or to enjoy pictures and text information on your computer,
whereas Video CDs allow you to play back video and audio data compressed in
MPEG1 format.
