Compressed audio optical disc

Discs are written in the "Yellow Book" standard data format (used for CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs), as opposed to the Red Book standard audio format (used for CD-DA audio CDs).

Sometimes, pressed CDs containing MP3s can be used, since some CD-ROM video games can act as an "MP3 CD" for some users.

Most disadvantages with compressed audio optical discs are present with CDs, and DVDs in general.

In some cases 1000 write/erase cycles (including entire volume erasure per re-write) on RW optical discs vs. 100,000+ write/erase cycles on flash memory (while retaining old data) can be somewhat of a moot point with applications that have less demand for usage.

[citation needed] Yellow Book optical disc ROMs with compressed audio may free up as many as five Red Book audio CDs, but they still demand much shelf space, compared to external hard drives and solid-state flash memory.

Repeated insertion and removal of optical discs may be required in the case of multi-gigabyte collections.