An Audio CD is a music CD like that you buy in a music store.

It can be played on any standard CD player (such as a CD deck, or

your car CD player, or a portable CD player). Music is stored on Audio CDs as uncompressed digital data, no
data is lost and quality is very high, exactly as in WAV digitally encoded files.
EVOLUTION
a six-times Grammy Award winner with hits spanning almost five decades, Billy Joel needs little introduction.
While the composer, pianist and singer-songwriter may have been introduced to the Songwriters Hall of Fame
back in 1992, the American songsmith lays claim to another remarkable and unique accolade.
On October 1 1982, Joels sixth studio album, 52nd Street, was the first commercially released CD
albumwhich means CDs are 30-years-old today. Its worth noting here that 52nd Street wasnt a new album
it was launched initially in 1978, but it was selected for relaunch on the new digital audio disc, rolling out
alongside the first CD player the Sony CDP-101 in Japan.
But of course, the CD didnt spring up overnight the road to launch started long before 1982.
The rise of the CD
It was way back in 1974 when a project kickstarted from within the audio industry group at Philips in the
Netherlands. The premise was to develop an optical audio disc with superior sound to that of the incumbent
vinyl format, and coming in at 20cm, the initial dabblings were far chunkier than the products that eventually
went to market.
Fast forward three years to 1977, and the group established a lab with the sole mission of building CDs and
players they opted for the name Compact Disc because it was in line with another Philips offering, the
compact cassette. Oh, and it was also sheared by 8.5cm in diameter, with the new discs offering awesome audio
packed in to a mere 11.5cm.
Simultaneously (and independently) Sony had also been working on CDs, first demoing its efforts in September
1976. However, both Sony and Phillips would eventually partner for the commercial launch in 1982, which saw
the final diameter come in at a still-small 12cm. And the rest, as they say, is history.
As with most new technological innovations, skepticism was rife around this new revolutionary format. But it
goes without saying that the CD helped drag the music industry into the modern digital era. A lot has happened
since then too audio cassettes have more-or-less died out, the short-lived MiniDisc (MD) proved a very
enjoyable distraction (I LOVED them), and today were very much in the middle of a digital music revolution.
Indeed, things are progressing at breakneck speed were already hearing whispers of Death to the Download,
with streaming accounting for 89% of digital music sales in Sweden alone.
advantages -
they are very cheap, postable, fairly robust /cd can hold lots of media / easy to carry/smaller and fragile.
disadvantages -
can only be used once, they can get scratched, they can only store upto around 700mb of data, if you need
more consider dvd's they are are actually cheaper per mb ,fragile
CD has a limit to it's storage/Slower to access than the hard disk

Speakers are one of the most common output devicesused with computer systems. Some speakers are designed to work specifically
with computers, while others can be hooked up to any type of sound system. Regardless of their design, the purpose of speakers is to
produce audio output that can be heard by the listener.
Speakers are transducers that convert electromagnetic waves into sound waves. The speakers receive audioinput from a device such as
a computer or an audio receiver. This input may be either in analog or digitalform. Analog speakers simply amplify the analog
electromagnetic waves into sound waves. Since sound waves are produced in analog form, digital speakers must first convert the
digital input to an analog signal, then generate the sound waves.
EVOLUTION
1861 - A simple type of electronic loudspeaker was developed by Johann Philipp Reis - a teacher at Friedrichsdorf, Germany. The
speaker was crudely able to reproduce sound and just an experiment.
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell also tried to produce a speaker based on Reis's work.
1877 - The idea of the electromagnetic coil driven speaker is formulated by Werner Von Siemens, he used it with input signals of DC
transients and telegraphic signals. He had no way to amplify sound to cReate a useful speaker, but he theorized that this could
eventually be done.
1877-1921 - Various inventors and engineers played with the idea of the electrodynamic loudspeaker but could only create rough
distorted sounds. There was no way to electrically amplify the signal to create very loud sounds. The industry continued to rely on
more advanced horns to create amplification.
In 1925 they filed for patents and made a speech in St. Louis to the AIEE. After several years of work they perfected it as the first
commercial product of it's kind called the Radiola Loudspeaker #104. It sold in 1926 for $ 250 (about $3000 today (US dollars)). The
speaker was produced under the company name of RCA.
Advantages: Very reliable, good sound reproduction, long lasting and pretty durable if operated within their intended power levels./
the only way to listen to certain music is LOUD.
Disadvantages: Limited in frequency response and requires multiple speakers to produce full sound.
feedback must be compensated for at the amplifier and easily destroyed if over powered.
If not charged, you cant use it.
DVD PLAYER
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different
and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to watch the
DVD content, which could be a movie, a recorded TV show, or other content.
The first DVD player was created by Tatung Company in Taiwan in collaboration with Pacific Digital Company from the United
States in 1994. Some manufacturers originally announced that DVD players would be available as early as the middle of 1996. These
predictions were too optimistic. Delivery was initially held up for "political" reasons of copy protection demanded by movie studios,
but was later delayed by lack of movie titles. The first players appeared in Japan in November, 1996, followed by U.S. players in
March, 1997, with distribution limited to only 7 major cities for the first 6 months.
EVOLUTION
In the early 1990s two high density optical storage standards were being developed: one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD),
backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density Disc (SD), supported by Toshiba, Time-Warner, Matsushita Electric,
Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson, and JVC. IBMs president, Lou Gerstner, acting as a matchmaker, led an effort to
unite the two camps behind a single standard, anticipating a repeat of the costly format war between VHS and Betamax in the 1980s.
The first DVD players and discs were available in November 1996 in Japan, March 1997 in the United States, 1998 in Europe and in
1999 in Australia. By 2003 DVD sales and rentals topped those of VHS; during the week of June 15, 2003 (27.7M rentals DVD vs.
27.3M rentals VHS in the U.S.). Major U.S. retailers Circuit City and Best Buy stopped selling VHS tapes in 2002 and 2003,
respectively. In June 2005, Wal-Mart and several other retailers announced plans to phase out the VHS format entirely, in favor of the
more popular DVD format.
In 2000, Sony released its PlayStation 2 console in Japan. In addition to playing video games developed for the system it was also able
to play DVD movies. This proved to be a huge selling point because the PS2 cost about the same as DVD player but it could do a
whole lot more. As a result, many electronic stores that normally did not carry video game consoles carried PS2s.
Following on with this tradition Sony has decided to implement one of DVDs possible successors, Blu-ray, into its next PlayStation
console currently known as the PlayStation 3. Microsofts Xbox, released a year after the PlayStation 2, also had the capability to play
DVD discs with an add-on kit, cementing the DVDs place in video game consoles.
Until 2003 consumers would have to choose a preferred DVD format and purchase the DVD media that was compatible with the
specific DVD burner. In 2003 Sony introduced a multi-format DVD burner (also called a combo drive or DVD-Multi) and today many
manufacturers offer multi-format DVD burners which are compatible with multiple DVD formats.
Advantages
Allow both audio and video communications. Video technologies can provide the visual and audio realism of a face-to-face class. It is
generally considered the "next best thing to being there."
Facilitate personal feelings. Video technologies enable students and instructors to see facial expressions and body language, adding
personalities to communication.
Enable high levels of interaction. Most video communications are synchronous, allowing high degrees of interactions, questions and
answers, etc.
Language choice (for automatic selection of video scenes, audio tracks, subtitle tracks, and menus) which must be supported by
additional content on the disc. Some players include additional features:
Special effects playback: freeze, step, slow, fast, and scan (no reverse play or reverse step).
Parental lock (for denying playback of discs or scenes with objectionable material) which again must be supported by additional
content on the disc. Some players include additional features
Programmability (playback of selected sections in a desired sequence).
Random play and repeat play.
Digital audio output (PCM stereo and Dolby-Digital).
Compatibility with audio CDs.
Component (YUV or RGB) output for highest-quality picture.
Compatibility with Video CDs.
Six-channel analog output from internal audio decoder.
Compatibility with laserdiscs and CDVs.
Reverse single frame stepping.
RF output (for TVs with no direct video input).
Multilingual on-screen display.
DISADVANTAGES
It will take years for movies and software to become widely available./It can't record (yet)./It has built-in copy protection and regional
lockout./It uses digital compression. Poorly compressed audio or video may be blocky, fuzzy, harsh,
or vague.
The audio downmix process for stereo/Dolby Surround can reduce dynamic range./It doesn't fully support HDTV.
Some DVD players and drives may not be able to read CD-Rs.
First-generation DVD players and drives can't read DVD-RAM discs.
Current players can't play in reverse at normal speed.