[thechat] Mac powerbook: combo drive vs super drive

[Chris Spruck]

-------Original Message-------
From: Joe Crawford <joe at artlung.com>
Sent: 03/18/03 02:17 PM

> 
> On Tue, 18 Mar 2003, Erika Meyer wrote:
> Is the ability to burn DVDs the only diff between the two?

DVD-ROM = DVD-ROM: DVD Read-Only-Memory
DVD-R   = DVD-R: DVD Recordable
CD-RW   = CD-RW: Compact Disk ReWritable

Combo is lower end, it simply burns DVDs, but the DVD-R is Rewritable if I understand it right.
-------Original Message-------

That last sentence is a little off. DVD-R is Recordable, which is write-once - same as CD-R. DVD-RW would be Rewritable. DVD-ROM is just capable of reading or playing a DVD.

Thus, a Combo drive reads DVDs and burns CD-R and CD-RW and a SuperDrive burns read-only/write-once DVDs, CD-R, and CD-RW. 

I think if you go to the Apple Store <http://store.apple.com>, and select a CPU that comes with either of these drives, there's a "get more info" link or something that gives you further details like the write speeds for the various formats and so on.

Chris