DVD (Digital Video Disk)

Digital medium consisting of two bonded 120 millimeter (4.75 inch) diameter and 0.66 MM thick polycarbonate substrates, each with reflective metalized layer and protective lacquer coating. Unlike a CD, a DVD is available in two versions: single-sided DVD can store from 4.7 to 17 gigabytes of data, and offers a data transfer rate of 4.7 megabits per second; a double-sided DVD can store 133 minutes (or longer with compression or at lower resolution) of full-motion video or a full length Hollywood movie at high resolution with 8 sound tracks, or 592 minutes of music on 6 audio channels. The term 'Digital Video Disk' is now archaic and the medium is referred to only as 'DVD.' All DVD drives can read CDs. Also called DVD-Audio, DVD-ROM, or DVD-Video.