Compact Disc Formats

During the last two decades several Compact Disc formats were developed to serve different purposes and uses. Starting with the CD-DA format in 1980, as a way to distribute high quality music in a compact and convenient format, the first compact disc standard was formulated. Then, the idea of storing computer data on the same media, more than 10 years ago, lead to a new format: the CD-ROM (along with CD-DA the most important ever invented). In the last few years, the desire to store a whole new generation of multimedia contents (audio, video, games, pictures etc.) demanded new formats: CD-I, CD-XA, Photo-CD, Video-CD, CD+ etc. were invented.