Originally named CD Write-Once (WO), the CD-R specification was first published in 1988[citation needed] by Philips and Sony in the Orange Book, which consists of several parts that provide details of the CD-WO, CD-MO (Magneto-Optic), and later CD-RW (Re Writable).

The Yellow Book standard for CD-ROM only specifies a high-level data format and refers to the Red Book for all physical format and low-level code details, such as track pitch, linear bit density, and bitstream encoding.

Properly written CD-R discs on blanks of less than 80 minutes in length are fully compatible with the audio CD and CD-ROM standards in all details including physical specifications.

CD-RW discs have lower reflectivity than CD-R or pressed (non-writable) CDs and for this reason cannot meet the Red Book standard.

Some hardware compatible with Red Book CDs may have difficulty reading CD-Rs and, because of their lower reflectivity, especially CD-RWs.

[citation needed] CD-R recording systems available in 1990 were similar to the washing machine-sized Meridian CD Publisher, based on the two-piece rack mount Yamaha PDS audio recorder costing $35,000,[citation needed] not including the required external ECC circuitry for data encoding, SCSI hard drive subsystem, and MS-DOS control computer.

The two types of discs are functionally and physically identical other than this, and computer CD burners can record data and/or music to either.

[7] Tandy's announcement was surprising enough to "catch half a dozen industries off guard",[9] claiming availability of consumer-level audio and video products below $500 by the end of 1990,[6] and inviting other organisations to license the technology.

The 120 mm (5") disc has a storage capacity of 74 minutes of audio or 650 Megabytes (MBs) of data.

CD-R/RWs are available with capacities of 80 minutes of audio or 737,280,000 bytes (703.125 MiB), which they achieve by molding the disc at the tightest allowable tolerances specified in the Orange Book CD-R/CD-RW standards.

As the ATIP is part of the Orange Book standard, its design does not support some nonstandard disc configurations.

In order to use the additional capacity, these discs have to be burned using overburn options in the CD recording software.

The greatest risk in using such a proprietary data storage format, assuming that it works reliably as designed, is that it may be difficult or impossible to repair or replace the hardware used to read the media if it fails, is damaged, or is lost after its original vendor discontinues it.

Finally, a protective coating of a photo-polymerizable lacquer is applied on top of the metal reflector and cured with UV light.

Maintaining a constant rate is essential to ensure the proper size and spacing of the pits and lands burned into the dye layer.

The pre-groove track, which also contains timing information, ensures that the recorder follows the same spiral path as a conventional CD.

A CD recorder writes data to a CD-R disc by pulsing its laser to heat areas of the organic dye layer.

Using a low power laser, so as not to further alter the dye, the disc is read back in the same way as a CD-ROM.

[14] The change of the intensity of the reflected laser radiation is transformed into an electrical signal, from which the digital information is recovered ("decoded").

A CD recorder can write to a CD-R using several methods including: With careful examination, the written and unwritten areas can be distinguished by the naked eye.

Real-life (not accelerated aging) tests have revealed that some CD-Rs degrade quickly even if stored normally.

Gold, on the other hand, although more expensive and no longer widely used, is an inert material, so gold-based CD-Rs do not suffer from this problem.

Heating the disc in a microwave oven for 10–15 seconds effectively destroys the data layer by causing arcing in the metal reflective layer, but this same arcing may cause damage or excessive wear to the microwave oven.

The polycarbonate material and possible gold or silver in the reflective layer would make CD-Rs highly recyclable.