CD is abbreviation of Compact Disk; a CD player is an electronic device, which can play both video and audio Compact Discs. CD players are highly portable and they can be used in personal computers, car audio systems, and home stereo systems.
History of CD Player
The Sony Corporation produced the first CD player, CDP-101. Basically, CD Players read only Compact Discs. Over time, DVD & DVD players were invented that were superior to the CD players. And, currently, it is the era of Blu-ray and HD video players and DVRs
Types of CD players
CD Players for Computers
CD Players for Computers, often referred to as CD-ROMs, were developed in 1985. They allowed the customers to play CDs in their computers.
CD Players for Cars
CD Players for Cars were produced in 1984. These are commercially sold for automobiles, and facilitate users to listen to music on-the-move.
Discman
This is just like a walkman that was produced in 1983. And, this unit was called as the CD Walkman. In 2000, it was nicknamed as Discman and the name was initially used by Sony.
Writable Compact Discs
In 1988, recordable CDs were released in the market. They were released with CD recording components that allowed customers to create their own mixed Compact Discs.
Trivia
Since MP3 players gained much popularity from 2000, the fame of CD players started dropping from that year. And, gradually they’ve literally lost their stronghold in the market, as everybody wants to use the latest Blu-ray players, and DVD players in the worse case. Same is the case with PC CD-drives, which have been replaced by DVD reader cum writer units.
Working of CD player
Every CD has thickness of about 1.2 mm; a CD works by using laserdisc technology. Coming to structure of a CD, its bottom is coated with polycarbonate plastic along with bumps in it. On other side, tiny bumps are covered by a thin aluminum foil. Aluminum foil is used to reflect the laser light while rotating the CD. To protect the CD, a thin acrylic layer is placed on the CD.
The small bumps are organized in spiral fashion and these contain data; the spiral is very long, and the periphery depends upon the amount of data that the CD can actually store.
Coming to working of CD player, its working is just similar as working of DVD player. After inserting the CD into player, it revolves. When it revolves, a laser (specific to CD player) focuses its monochromatic light on CD to decode the information. Then, the data is collected by laser according to hit ratio. These are also called bumps, which have data in them.
Whenever the CD is revolving, light from laser will hit the CD. Since the CD is revolving, with the help of magnetic and electronic fields, audio and video signals will go to the player and output will shown by the means of speakers and video displays.
Nowadays, DVD players and Blu-ray players have largely substituted CD players, and are ruling the global market.