SWE 423: Multimedia Systems

Chapter 8: Optical Storage Media

 Preview of Optical Storage
Media
• A myriad of Optical Technology:
– CD-DA (the basis of all other CD formats)
– CD-ROM
– CD-I
– DVI
– CD-XA
– MD (Mini Disks)
– CD-WO, CD-MO, WORM (Write Once Read Many)
– DVD
 Optical Media
• Data is read and stored using laser light
• Audio CD (CD-DA): compact disc for
storing digital audio
– 601 MB
– up to 76 minutes of playing time
• CD-ROM: storing computer data
– 650 MB
 What is a CD ?
• Metal layer (usually aluminum) reflects light
from a tiny laser beam into a light sensitive
receiver
• To record data, a laser is used to burn specific
pattern into the surface
• The surface of the reflective layer alternate
between lands and pits. Lands are flat areas (0s);
pits are tiny bumps on the reflective layer (1s)
• Spiral track up to 3 miles

120 mm
 Protective Lacquer Coating

Reflective Aluminum Layer CD

Physical
Land Pit Land Pit Land Layers

Polycarbonate Substrate
 CD Characteristics
• The most important advantage of a CD is
over magnetic storage media is that 1.66
data bits / m can be stored resulting in a
storage density of 1,000,000 bits / mm 2.
– i.e. 16000 tracks/inch as compared to the floppy
disk’s 96 tracks/inch.
• Another advantage is that magnetization
can decrease over time while optical storage
is not subject to such effects.
 Video Discs and Other WORMs
• WORM: Write Once Read Many system
• LaserVision video discs were used for the
reproduction of motion picture and audio
data
– Data is stored in analog-coded format
– Excellent audio/video picture quality
– Has a diameter of  30cm
– Stores  2.6 Gbytes.
 Video Discs and Other WORMs
• Video discs were originally called Video
Long Play when introduced in 1973 in the
Philips Technical Review
– Audio signal is mixed with frequency-
modulated motion pictures
– A zero-transition, i.e. a change between a pit
and a land, can occur at any time.
• Pit length is not quantized, hence it is time-
continuous (analog)
 Video Discs and Other WORMs
• Many different WORMS, with incompatible formats,
were introduced
– Interactive Video Disc
• Operates at constant angular velocity (CAV)
– describes the motion of a body rotating at a constant velocity because as it
rotates it moves through a constant angle per unit time.
– revolution per minute (rpm).
• On each side
– Up to 36 minutes of audio and video data at 30 frames/sec
– 54,000 studio-quality images can be stored
– By 1992, many WORM systems were introduced with
capacities 600 Mbytes to 8 Gbytes.
– Jukeboxes use multiple discs to increase the capacities to up to
20 Gbytes.
• Advantage of WORMs over rewriteable mass storage is
security against alteration.
 WORM’s Characteristics
• Media Overflow
– Refers to problems occurring when a WORM
disc is almost full
• Check if data to be stored can fit on the disc
• Determine whether data can be split into 2 discs and
at what point in time
 WORM’s Characteristics
• Packaging
– Refers to problems arising from the fixed block
structure of WORMS
• E.g. if the block size is 2,048 bytes and only one
byte is written, 2,047 bytes are recorded with
“empty content”
 WORM’s Characteristics
• Revision
– Refers to the problem of subsequently making
areas as invalid.
• E.g. document edits (deleted portions are marked
invalid).
 CD-DA
• Compact Disc Digital Audio
– Developed by both Philips and Sony
– Information is stored based on:
• Length of pits is always a multiple of 0.3 m.
• A change from pit to land or from land to pit
corresponds to the coding of a 1 in the data stream.
– Therefore, it is discrete time, discrete value storage
 CD-DA
• Audio data rate:
(# quantization bits /sample) * (# channels) *
(sampling rate)
• SNR = 98 dB, compared to that of 50-60 dB for
LP records and cassette tapes.
• Capacity (storage of audio data only)
– The play time of a CD-DA is at least 74 minutes
Capacity = # minutes * Audio Data Rate (in bits/s)
 CD-DA
• Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation
– Since the resolution of the laser would not suffice to
correctly read direct pit-land-pit-land...sequences, i.e.
................, it was agreed that at least two lands and
two pits must occur consecutively.
– Since a phase-correct synchronization signal (clock)
cannot be derived from long lands and pits, the
maximum length of pits and lands was limited to ten
consecutive zeros as channel bits.
– As a result, bits written on CD-D do not correspond
directly to actual information.
– In addition, filler bits are needed to avoid situations
where the minimum/maximum limits are exceeded.
 CD-DA
• Error Handling
– Usually a result of scratches or dirt (called burst
error)
– Two levels of error handling
• 2-stage error correction based on Reed-Solomon
Algorithm
– For every 24 audio bytes, two groups, four bytes each, of
correction bytes are included.
» First group corrects single byte errors
» Second group corrects double byte errors
• Real consecutive data bytes are distributed over multiple
frames
– A frame consists of 588 channel bits corresponding to 24 audio
bytes
– Burst errors will only damage part of the data.
 Characteristics of CD-DA
• For uncompressed audio, CD-DA is very
insensitive to read errors
• All CD-DAs are identical in terms of digital
technology (leading to compatibility)
– 8-14 modulation and Cross-Interleaved Reed-
Solomon Code are always used.
• Achievable error rate is too high for general
computer data
– Necessitated CD-ROM extension.
 CD-ROM
• Compact Disc Read Only Memory
• Specified by Philips and Sony
• For general computer data as well as
uncompressed audio data
• CD-ROM tracks are divided into audio and
data types, each carrying only one type of
data
– Data tracks are usually located at the beginning
of the CD-ROM
 CD-ROM
• Blocks
– Has similar properties to sectors of other media
and file systems.
– Consists of 2,352 bytes of CD-DA block
• Audio data: 2,336 bytes
• User data: 2,048 bytes
• Two CD-ROM Modes exist
– CD-ROM Mode 1
– CD-ROM Mode 2
 CD-ROM
• CD-ROM Mode 1
– Stores computer [user] data
Sync Header User Data EDC Blanks ECC
12 4 2,048 4 8 276

Capacity: Approximately 650 Mbytes for a

playing time of 74 minutes.
• CD-ROM Mode 2
– Stores other media (error correction is left out)

Sync Header User Data

12 4 2,336
 CD-ROM
• Logical File Format
– Logical file format and directory structure are
missing from the Mode-1 specification.
– High Sierra standard served as the basis for ISO
9660 standard describing the format.
• Logical block size: a power of two of at least 512
bytes that may not exceed the size of the actual
block.
• Defacto maximum is .........
 CD-ROM
• Extensions to ISO 9660
– Rockridge Extensions
• Suitable for Unix file system with long filenames,
links and access rights
– Joliet file system
• Microsoft’s adaptation to Windows 95/NT file
systems
– El Torito
• Allows PC systems to boot directly from a CD-
ROM.
 CD-ROM Limitations
• A random access time of about a second to an
individual track is much slower than that of magnetic
disks for data ( < 6ms)
– This is ok for audio data
– It is due to
• Synchronization time (clock frequency must be in phase with the
CD signal)  few ms.
• Rotation delay: due to Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) playback
[Rotation Velocity is 530 rps on the inside and only 200rps on the
outside (locating and reaching a sector)].  300ms
• Seek time: Determining the right spiral track.  100ms
• Concurrent playback of mode 2 audio data and
retrieval of mode 1 data is not possible.
 CD ROM Extensions
• CD-I
– Announced in 1986 by Philips and Sony
– Capable of concurrent media ouptut.
– Appropriate devices that use CD-I were
available commercially in 1991
– Disappeared entirely from the market in 1997.
• CD-I Ready
– Can be played on both CD-DA and CD-I
devices
 CD ROM Extensions
• CD-ROM/XA
– Compact Disc Read Only Memory Extended
Architecture
– Established by Philips, Sony and Microsoft
– Addresses concurrent output of multiple media: Blocks
of different media can be stored on one track, unlike
CD-DA or CD-ROM.
– Many features similar to that of CD-I
– Two forms
• Form 1 mode 2: Better error correction for user data
• Form 2 mode 2: More capacity to store compressed media
including audio and video
 CD ROM Extensions
• CD Bridge Disc
– Can be played on CD-ROM/XA and CDI
devices
• Photo Compact Disc
– Developed by Kodak and Philips
– Example CD Bridge Disc for storing high
quality photos
– Allows users to write to the disc
 CD ROM Extensions
• DVI
– Digital Video Interactive
– Consists of
• Compression and decompression algorithms
• Highly integrated, dedicated h/w components for [de]compression in
real time
• User interface
• Fixed data format
– Therefore, emphasis on compression and decompression
algorithms, not CD technology.
– Uses CD-ROM mode 1 in addition to ISO 9660 as a basis for
audio/video support system interleaved fileformat.
– Uses interchange level 1.
• Filenames are limited to 8-point-3 characters from a predefined
character set
 CD ROM Extensions
• CDTV
– Commodore Dynamic Total Vision
– Uses CD-ROM mode 1 and ISO 9660
– Uses interchange level 2
• Filenames of up to 30 characters.
• None of DVI and CDTV is currently in
reasonable commercial use.
 CD-R
• A special write once CD-ROM (CD-WO)
– Has a pre-engraved track
– CD-R drive burns pits into the blank CD-ROM
• Multiple sessions
– All CD systems assume that a lead-in area precedes the
actual data and is followed by a lead-out area
• Lead in area contains a table of contents for correct positioning
– This would necessitate all data to be copied in one atomic
action, during which the cd is inaccessible.
– To solve the above problem, multiple sessions were allowed
• Specified Max: 99 sessions Achievable Max: 46 sessions

Lead in Information Lead out Lead in Information Lead out

 CD-R
– Until 1992, available devices could read only
one session.
• One-session CD-R are called regular CD-R, rest re
called hybrid CD-R
• CD recoding
– Recorders operate at 8x the player data rate.
– To produce a CD-R, the data rate must be
sustained through the write procedure
• E.g., CD-R Data is first stored on a hard disk
 CD-MO
• Compact Disc Magneto Optical
– Introduced 1988
– High storage capacity
– Can be written multiple times
– Based on the principle that at higher temperatures, a weak
magnetic field is needed to polarize the dipoles in certain
materials
• Pit: coded with a downwards facing magnetic north pole
• Land: opposite to pit.
– Changes in the polarization of the light upon application of
laser illumination enables reading the CD.
• Hence, incompatible with all other CD technologies
– Did not make it commercially
 CD-RW
• Compact disc ReWriteable
– CD-E (erasable) during development
• Cannot read CD-RW discs on every CD player
since the reflectivity is lower than that of a CD–
DA or CD-R.
Type Reflectivity
CD-DA 70%
CD-R/CD-WO 65%
CD-RW 15-20%
 DVD
• Digital Video Disk (Digital Versatile Disk)
• Backward compatible with current CDs
– Logical refinement of CD-ROM/CD-R/CD-RW technologies
• The disc can have 1 or 2 layers and one or two sides
– SLSS DVD can hold 4.38 GB
– DLSS DVD can hold 7.95 GB
– SLDS DVD can hold 8.75 GB
– DLDS DVD can hold 15.9 GB
• High capacity is achieved thru
– Smaller pits  + track density
– Larger data area
– More efficient coding of bits
– More efficient error correction
– Lower sector overhead
 CD vs. DVD
CD DVD
Media Diameter  120 mm 120 mm
Media Thickness  1.2 mm  1.2 mm
Track Pitch 1.6m 0.74m
Min Pit/Land Length 0.83 m 0.4 m
Data Layers 1 1 or 2
Sides 1 1 or 2
Capacity  650 MB 4.38, 7.95, 8.75, 15.9 GB
Video Data Rate  1.5 Mbits/s 1-10 Mbits/s
Video Compression std MPEG-1 MPEG-2
Video Capacity  1 hour  2 – 8 hours
Sound Tracks 2-channel 2-channel PCM
MPEG 5.1-channel AC-3
Optional (up to 8 streams)
Subtitles Up to 32 languages
 HD-DVD
• Standard Definition (SD) Video becomes
less acceptable for 36+ inches screen sizes.
– High Definition TV Images (HDTV) are rated
“good” for 60+ inches screen sizes.
• HD DVD satisfies the public demand for
high quality HDTV content arising from
increased availability of large screens at
affordable prices.
 HD DVD
• HD DVD shares the 12cm diameter and
1.2mm thickness of the current generation
of DVD discs, yet is able to deliver eight
hours of High Definition video on a dual-
layer, single-sided disc.
• A double-sided HD DVD-R disc can hold
up to 30GBytes of data.
Laser Wavelength
Comparison
 More Information
• HD DVD Forum (Check the references in
WebCT)