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From: tat@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Help please on CD-ROM
Message-ID: <820@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com>
Date: 22 Sep 89 17:44:56 GMT
References: <1783@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <3999@phri.UUCP>
Reply-To: tat@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale  CA
Lines: 25

In article <3999@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
 >In <1783@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> morris@jade.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Mike Morris) writes:
 >> Who makes the CD-ROM drives these days?  (And is there any brand that
 >> is good or to avoid or whatever...)  Is there a standard format?
 >
 >	I can't help on the first part, but for the second, there are 3
 >standard formats that I know of; ISO 9660, High Sierra, and something
 >called (why am I not surprised) Microsoft extended format.  From what I can

There are, in fact, numerous logical formats for data on CD-ROMs.
At the moment, 3 of them are "standards".  ISO 9660, which replaces High
Sierra, defines the directory format of the disc, but does NOT define the
internal structure of a file, leaving that up to the application.  CD-ROM/XA,
which is the Microsoft extended format referred to above, is an extension
to the ISO 9660 which allows interleaved audio and video and specifies
the format of the audio and video data.

All the CD-ROM drives I know about read any of these formats, however, the
host software to decode ISO 9660, High Sierra or CD-ROM/XA may or may not
be available for your computer.  In addition, CD-ROM/XA requires a special
drive or additional hardware to interpret the interleaved audio/video.

Many of the currently available drives provide the ability to read CD-AUDIO
discs and play the audio to a headphone or speaker jack on the drive.  This
allows you to make your $3000 computer act like a $150 CD player.