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120 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About DVD<br />
A DVD PC connected to a progressive-scan monitor or video projector,<br />
instead of a standard TV, usually looks much better than a consumer player.<br />
See “Does DVD Support HDTV (DTV)? Will HDTV Make DVD Obsolete?” in<br />
<strong>Chapter</strong> 2, “DVD’s Relationship to Other Products and Technologies.” Also<br />
see the Home Theater Computers forum at AVS (www.avsforum.com).<br />
For remote control of DVD playback on your PC, check out Animax Anir<br />
Multimedia Magic, Evation IRMan, InterAct WebRemote, Multimedia Studio<br />
Miro MediaRemote, Packard Bell RemoteMedia, RealMagic Remote Control,<br />
and X10 MouseRemote. Many remotes are supported by Visual<br />
Domain’s Remote Selector software.<br />
Can I Play DVD-Audio Discs on My Computer?<br />
Usually not. DVD-ROM drives can read DVD-Audio discs, but as of mid-<br />
2003 only the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card includes the software needed to<br />
play DVD-Audio on a computer. Part of the reason for general lack of support<br />
is that very few computers provide the high quality audio environment<br />
needed to take advantage of DVD-Audio fidelity.<br />
It’s possible that Microsoft could add DVD-Audio playback to a future<br />
version of Windows, in which case you would only need to download some<br />
inexpensive decoding software to get DVD-Audio playback.<br />
What Are the Features and Speeds of DVD-ROM Drives?<br />
Unlike CD-ROM drives, which took years to move up to 2x, 3x, and faster<br />
spin rates, faster DVD-ROM drives began appearing in the first year. A 1x<br />
DVD-ROM drive provides a data transfer rate of 1.321 MB/s (11.08 � 106 /<br />
8/220 ) with burst transfer rates of up to 12 MB/s or higher. The data transfer<br />
rate from a DVD-ROM disc at 1x speed is roughly equivalent to a 9x<br />
CD-ROM drive (1x CD-ROM data transfer rate is 150 KB/s, or 0.146 MB/s).<br />
DVD physical spin rate is about 3 times faster than CD (that is, 1x DVD<br />
spin � 3x CD spin), but most DVD-ROM drives increase motor speed when<br />
reading CD-ROMs, achieving 12x or faster performance. A drive listed as<br />
“16x/40x” reads a DVD at 16 times normal, or a CD at 40 times normal.<br />
DVD-ROM drives are available in 1x, 2x, 4x, 4.8x, 5x, 6x, 8x, 10x, and 16x<br />
speeds, although they usually don’t achieve sustained transfer at their full<br />
rating. The “max” in DVD and CD speed ratings means that the listed speed<br />
only applies when reading data at the outer edge of the disc, which moves<br />
faster. The average data rate is lower than the maximum rate. Most 1x DVD-<br />
ROM drives have a seek time of 85-200 ms and access time of 90-250 ms.<br />
Newer drives have seek times as low as 45 ms (see Table 4-1).
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