DVD-ROM and CD-R: The Compatibility Question Answered

As the first generation of DVD-ROM drives ushered in a brand-new day in high-density optical media storage, the same drives seemed to spell doom for die-hard CD-R users, who harbored a well-founded fear that they might have to abandon their investments in CD-R hardware and media and migrate to the new technology.

Gateway 2000’s P5-200XL: CD-R Gets Branded

The new $3899 PS-200XL from direct-marketing powerhouse Gateway 2000 of North Sioux City, South Dakota is a state-of-the-art 200MHz Pentium system and the first PC from a major vendor to incorporate a CD recorder.

DVD: A Problem Ignored

Now just a darned minute! Wasn’t the new high-density DVD/DVD-ROM specification supposed to be backwards compatible? Wasn’t it implied that DVD drives could play existing CD-Recordable discs?