Q: i just bought a nice dell online, & haven't recieved it yet, i'm assuming strictly because it's 2008 & not 1998 that if i'm sure it BURNS both cds and dvds, it will play both too, right? :] it's also got "8x dual layer" what does that mean? thanks in advance!
A: Absolutely! Any optical drive that will record, will play the same media also. CD-RW means Compact Disc Read/Write. It will 'Read'->Play, and 'Write'->Record or 'burn'. Same thing with a DVD-R/RW. A DVD combo drive will play and burn CD's, plus play and burn DVD's. Burns as low as 8 times the speed, and will play and burn a dual layer disk. More information on Dual Layer disks, and Optical Drives. 1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_drive Scroll down the page to the 'Laser and Optics' heading in particular. read under the sub-heading 'Double layer' Also you might click on the blue links for more info. Like CD-R, DVD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW, etc. 2.http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/69572 (Watch it! Tried to put a 'pop-up' on me! Turns out, it was just telling me that this was a duplicate answer, to a question!)