Cyber Tech Help Support Forums - Is There A Dvd/cd Format Name?

Hmmm...

Well, the general format name of CDs and DVDs is just that, they are CD and DVD formats. It's the type of disc, and is comparable to the Blu-Ray or HD DVD "formats". Beyond those, there are several types and levels of sub-formats, describing both the structure, standard, and type of disc, and also the contents.

Disc Standards
DVD has the "plus" (+) formats - DVD+R, DVD+RW. There is also the "dash" (-) format, DVD-R, DVD-RW. There's also the DVD-RAM format. Finally, you can't forget about the primary format, DVD-ROM - this are considered separate from plus, dash, or RAM formats.

CD has CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW.

Blu-Ray and HD DVD will likely have similar types - BD-ROM/BD-R/BD-RW, and HD DVD-ROM/HD DVD-R/HD DVD-RW.

Disc Structure
Only DVDs have various, what I'll call, "disc structures". I don't know about BD or HD DVD in this regards.
These describe the layered structure of the disc, and thus, the capacity. Eg DVD-9 (the most common type for commercial discs) is a single-sided, dual-layer disc. The rest are:

Quote:

DVD-5, holds around 4 700 000 000 bytes and that is 4.37 computer GB where 1 kbyte is 1024 bytes* . DVD+R/DVD+RW and DVD-R/DVD-RW supports this format. Also called Single Sided Single Layered. This is the most common DVD Media, often called 4.7 GB Media.

DVD-10, holds around 9 400 000 000 bytes and that is 8.75 computer GB. DVD+R/DVD+RW and DVD-R/DVD-RW supports this format. Also called Double Sided Single Layered.

DVD-9, holds around 8 540 000 000 bytes and that is 7.95 computer GB. DVD+R supports this format. Also called Single Sided Dual Layered. This media is called DVD-R9, DVD-R DL, DVD+R9, DVD+R DL or 8.5 GB Media.

DVD-18, holds around 17 080 000 000 bytes and that is 15.9 computer GB. DVD+R supports this format. Also called Double Sided Dual Layered.

From http://www.videohelp.com/dvd

Content Standard
CD has several what are called "Rainbow Books", specifications for the different contents of the discs. Eg. Red Book is the standard used for audio. More detail here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Books

The closest thing I can think of that DVD has in terms of disc contents, is the specification of the file structure a DVD Video or DVD Audio disc should have in order to be played by a standalone player.

File System
The various discs also have various file systems CD has ISO 9660, its Microsft-created extension Joliet, ISO 13490, and UDF. The bootable CD spec is called El Torito.

From what I can gather, DVD has UDF and ISO 9660 (aka ECMA-119) - Specs (PDF). Additionally, the Nintendo GameCube discs uses a proprietry file system on an 8cm DVD. The Wii uses a 12cm disc, which is probably, like the GameCube, just a regular DVD with a proprietry file system.

No idea what BD or HDDVD file systems will be, but probably not much different.

NTSC vs PAL
NTSC and PAL are completely separate from optical disc formats - these are the standards used for video (usually, television). Specifically, they define things such as the video resolution, frequency, color encoding scheme, frame rate, CRT scanning pattern etc. Different countries employ one format or the other. Wikipedia has all the details you'll need:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL