CD-R CD-R CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most plain CD readers, i.e., CD readers manufactured prior to the introduction of CD-R. This is an advantage over CD-RW, which can be re-written but cannot be played on many plain CD readers. Originally named CD Write-Once (WO), the CD-R specification was first published in 1988 by Philips and Sony in the 'Orange Book'. The Orange Book consists of several parts, furnishing details of the CD-WO,
Philips PM5544 the most commonly used test cards, with only the SMPTE bars, the BBC Test Card F and the Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate coming close to its usage. The Philips Pattern was later incorporated into other test pattern generators from Philips themselves, as well as test pattern generators from various other manufacturers. The BBC occasionally used a slightly modified version called Test Card G from 1971 until the late-1990s in conjunction with Test Card F, and although it was also used by the IBA in the 1970s it eventually abandoned the Test Card G and developed its own test card