The LightScribe CD/DVD has a special color/thermal layer between the top and bottom layers; this layer can be heated by the laser in the recorder so that pictures and text can be burned on the CD/DVD.

A multisession disc can contain several sessions that are not fixed. This way, more data can be added in new sessions at a later point in time, and the disc is not closed until it is full.

Booting refers to loading the operating system when a computer is started. This is normally done from the hard drive. However, if you do not want to boot or cannot boot your computer from your hard drive for whatever reason, you can load an operating environment from the drive with a boot CD.

LightScribe is a technology with which pictures or texts can be burned on the label side of discs with a laser.

An image refers to a single file on the hard drive that contains the image for a complete disc. A disk image can be used to create exact copies on media at a later point in time if problems occur during the write process or if no recorder is connected to your PC. The image requires as much free space on the hard drive as the contents of the original disc.

A label refers to a label on a disc. Some drives, e.g. drives that use LightScribe or Labelflash™ technology, can transfer labels directly to special media.

A multisession refers to completing a disc in multiple cycles. After a first session has been written to the disc, information can then be added in another record because the disc has not been finalized.

The International Organization for Standardization defined the Universal Standard 9660 which determines the features of the CD. This format is platform-independent and can thus be read by computers with different operating systems. In order to ensure universal readability, the file names used should be as short as possible. (In a DOS environment no more than eight characters may be used).

The WAV audio format, also called WAVE or Waveform audio format, is an audio format from Microsoft and uses no data compression. WAV is the counterpart to the AIF format from Apple.

CD Text consists of additional information on a CD that can store e.g. music track titles and artists. CD Text is stored in the so-called lead-in area of the CD before the audio data starts. The display on the CD player shows the additional data. You must have a CD burner which supports CD Text to enable the CD Text to be written to a CD. In particular, CD Text can only be written in disc-at-once mode.

Joliet refers to an extension of the ISO-9660 standard for file names. Joliet was designed by Microsoft in order to represent more characters. The file name can be up to 64 characters long and contain the letters A-Z, a-z, umlauts and the ß.

The session-at-once method is mainly used for recording on CD EXTRA. A first session with various audio files is recorded in a single process without switching off the laser. However, the CD is not closed, which means you can still write more data to it. Afterwards a second (data) session is written and then the disc is closed.

Disc-At-Once refers to a method in which the laser in your recorder burns straight through in one session without turning off and on between each track. This method is best when recording Audio CDs you would like to play on your home or car stereo.

The MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 audio format is used to reduce the size of audio files to a fraction of their original size (factor 1:10) with little loss of quality. You can estimate about 1 MB per minute as opposed to 10 MB for the original files. This value and the quality can vary depending on the complexity of the audio signal. The bit rate used can be used as a measure of quality. The higher the bit rate, the better the quality, but also the more memory required.

A Super Video CD, abbreviated SVCD, is a CD format for movie files that uses the MPEG-2
video code to save. As a result, this disc format saves video files in a quality similar to an SVHS
video and can save up to 30 or 40 minutes of video with stereo sound on a 650 or 700
MB CD. SVCDs can be played back on an increasing number of DVD players and on the
PC, if your PC has the appropriate software and a drive that can read CD-R/RW discs.

The advanced SCCI programming interface is the interface between the software, the SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) card and the operating system of a PC. This permits communication between the SCSI device (e.g. a SCSI scanner) and the SCSI card. However, ASPI drivers are also required for ATA, ATAPI, USB and FireWire interfaces.

Digital Versatile Disc Random Access Memory is the first rewritable data carrier format developed. It is characterized by a distribution of sectors that makes it possible to achieve increased data integrity, quicker formatting, and improved error management in comparison to DVD+/-RW.

Disc format defines the the format in which the data is organized on a disc. For example, the disc format DVD-VR is only supported by and can only be used with DVD-RW and DVD-RAM discs. For example, Video CD (VCD), Super Video CD (SVCD), miniDVD and (if supported) HD-BURN can be burned to CD-R and CD-RW disc formats. The technical optionsavailable, such as subtitle or multiple sound tracks, are a factor of the disc format.

Jitter refers to an abrupt and undesired change in the signal characteristics. Small gaps occur in the data stream as a result. Audio correction synchronizes the data by overlapping the sectors. This way, the gaps are not audible.

Labelflash is a technology with which pictures and texts can be burned on the label side of a disc with a laser.

On-the-fly refers to a method for copying to a disc. The data is transferred directly from the original storage location to the disc to be burned. To do this, Nero uses a compilation, a small file that simply refers to the transferred data.

An Audio CD can contain up to 74 minutes of audio sequences and individual tracks in hi-fi quality.
The storage capacity is 747 MB at a sample depth of 16 bit and a scan rate of 44.1 kHz.

Ripping refers to the process of extracting audio or video data from an optical storage medium onto a computer's hard drive in order to process it.

The compressor/decompressor encodes the data for recording or saving digitally and then decodes it for playback. Various software codecs are available such as Cinapak, Indeo, Quicktime, Video for Windows, etc. Hardware codecs include MPEG, H.261, Motion JPEG, etc.

Archive bits are used to identify files that have been edited. A file is only resaved during the next backup process if it was edited (and an archive bit is thus reset).