DVDs use the same technology as CDs. The huge disparity in their potential comes from their size difference.

DVDs have a potential capacity of about 4.5 GB (gigabytes) per layer. A disc can hold up to four layers (two per side). But a DVD is identical in appearance to a CD, which can only hold about 650 MB (megabytes), or about 1/25 a DVDs capacity. This vast size difference obviously comes from more than just having four layers.    

The microscopic pits (as described in the July 1997 issue of the now defunct MacUser magazine), from which the laser reads all those digital ones and zeros, are much smaller in DVDs than in CDs. This allows more information to squeeze onto the same cramped surface.

Sections

DVD Intro

So what?
 

Oh! The chaos!
 

Pay per view
 

What's the damage?
 

DVD links 

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