Most optical drives today are combo CD/DVD drives that support DVDs and all the CD formats: CD audio, CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW. The speeds of the drives are rated by their CD-ROM and DVD transfer rates.

A cable used to send audio CD sound to the computer's sound card. When playing audio CDs, CD-ROM drives output analog sound to both a headphone jack and external connector just like a CD player. This ...

Seeing as how just about every CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, etc. drive has a headphone jack...I'd like to know just how to put it to use! Is it as simple as starting it up with WMP or just the plain ol' CD ...

I?ve been around PC hardware for quite a while and have used just about every ?speed? CD-ROM since my trusty ol? Creative Labs 1X. Having used all these different drives I?ve learned a couple things: ...

In 1994, multimedia discs—from encyclopedias to magazines—flooded the market, and felt like the future. It was fun while it lasted. At the time, it was the CD-ROM that had captured the imagination of ...

Meghan is an associate editor with EdTech. She enjoys coffee, cats and science fiction TV. For students attending a university in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the experience was vastly different ...

Sometimes in the never-ending progression of technology, people take wrong turns. They pursue dead-ends they believe represent a bright future, often in spite of obvious indications to the contrary.

October 19, 1992: Apple launches the Mac IIvx, the first Macintosh computer to ship with a metal case and, more importantly, an internal CD-ROM drive. The last of the Macintosh II series, the Mac IIvx ...