linguistic:voice_change, structural:expansion
Recordable and writable optical discs

There are numerous formats of optical direct to disk recording devices on the market, all of which are based on using a laser to change the reflectivity of the digital recording medium in order to duplicate the effects of the pits and lands created when a commercial optical disc is pressed. Formats such as CD-R and DVD-R are " Write once read many " or write-once, while CD-RW and DVD-RW are rewritable, more like a magnetic recording hard disk drive (HDD).

Media technologies vary, for example, M-DISC media uses a rock-like layer to retain data for longer than conventional recordable media. While being read-only compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray drives, M-DISC media can only be written to using a stronger laser specifically made for this purpose, which is built into fewer optical drive models.