Query: What is a DVD?

[emet_sulk]

Type: Text
Sender ID: emet-sulk (Emet-Selch)
To: Public
Subject: Query: What is a DVD?
Warnings: None

As the title states, I would like to understand what exactly a 'dvd' is. I'm led to understand that it is similar to a vinyl record but attempts to clarify further (particularly on the material used and how it records data) were...futile.

If someone with a greater understanding of the technology could enlighten me, I would very much appreciate it.

Comments

[emet_sulk]

Unfortunately the person in question is extremely insistent I find a way to play their discs.

Do you know aught about how, exactly, they record data? Even the method and material may help me identify the level of technology they are referencing.

[telepathicignorance]

The pictures are encoded into a series of microscopic pits on the DVD disc and you need a laser to read them. Sort of like vinyl but way, way smaller.

Pretty sure you need a device capable of assembling the data back into pictures for display too.

[emet_sulk]

I suspected as much per the device. Designing the laser will be troublesome.

[ He doesn't think there are lasers that fine in this world let alone one with the precision to read off a disc smaller even than a vinyl record. Ugh, more work. Maybe he should just give up... ]

It seems I really will need a sample of that boy's native media.

[telepathicignorance]

Probably. It might be easier to just find a way to get a DVD player from his homeworld and make a power source and screen for it.

(Since they can get items from their worlds...)

[emet_sulk]

Machines break, frequently and often. What will the boy do if his hardware fails? He will be left with a useless piece of scrap.

[telepathicignorance]

Maybe, but that could also be the case if the one you make breaks and another can't be easily made.

[emet_sulk]

Aye, but you see: if I build the machine myself, I will know how to fix it. Or make another.

[telepathicignorance]

That requires you or someone you've taught to still be around to fix it.

(They've nearly died or been imprisoned or had something else horrible happen to them... a lot. It's worse than back when they ran with the Rangers.

Even if he's alive, whose to say he won't have the memory of how to build it erased?)

[emet_sulk]

There is such a thing as leaving written instructions. I'm not so thoughtless.

[telepathicignorance]

Not a lot of people smart enough to follow written instructions.

(Now they're just being an ass because they think they're funny.

People are, as a whole, really fucking stupid. They've seen the way even something simple like "do not put metal in the microwave" can be ignored because "it's a spoon" as though somehow the designation as a piece of silverware changes the material.)

[emet_sulk]

Then that is their problem, not mine.

[ Emet-Selch has a very low threshold for bullshit tolerance unfortunately. ]

[telepathicignorance]

Fair enough.

Good luck with figuring out how to make DVDs work. You're going to need it.