How CD Burner Works | |||
CD Basics
To read this information, the CD player passes a laser beam over the track. When the laser passes over a flat area in the track, the beam is reflected directly to an optical sensor on the laser assembly. The CD player interprets this as a 1 . When the beam passes over a bump , the light is bounced away from the optical sensor. The CD player recognizes this as a 0 .
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The bumps are arranged in a spiral path, starting at the center of the disc. The CD player spins the disc while the laser assembly moves outward from the center of the CD. At a steady speed, the bumps move past any point at the outer edge of the CD more rapidly than they move past any point nearer the CD's center. In order to keep the bumps moving past the laser at a constant rate , the player must slow the spinning speed of the disc as the laser assembly moves outward.
At its heart, this is all there is to a CD player. The execution of this idea is fairly complicated, because the pattern of the spiral must be encoded and read with incredible precision, but the basic process is pretty simple. In the next section, you'll find out how data is recorded on CDs, both by professional equipment and the home CD burner.
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Table of Contents: › Introduction to How CD Burners Work › CD Basics › Reading & Writing CDs › Burning CDs › Erasing CDs › CD Formats › Creating Your Own CDs |