As well as being a fantastic media for the playback of movies, the DVD offers great advantages to users of computers.

The movie and computer industries both want a small disc with CD compatibility, because the CD is the global standard for music and computer software is increasingly packaged on CD-ROM. People are familiar with these convenient, space-saving discs.

Also, both industries want a disc with enough single-side capacity to handle the general run of tasks. There has to be enough capacity for interruption-free movie viewing and for fast, reliable access and retrieval of computer data.