Optical disc drive beam on a smaller spot size and to read smaller pits. DVD lens supports a different focus for CD or DVD media with same laser. With the newer Blu-ray disc drives, the laser only has to penetrate 0.1 mm of material. Thus the optical assembly would normally have to have an even greater focus range. In practice, the Blu-ray optical system is separate from the DVD/CD system. During the times of CD writer drives, they are often marked with three different speed ratings. In these cases, the first speed is for write-once (R) operations, the second speed for re-write (RW)
Optical disc authoring recorders. There are, however, stand-alone devices like personal video recorders which can also author and record discs. Use of optical disc recorders require "optical disc authoring software", sometimes called "burning applications" or "burner applications". Such software is usually sold with the recorder. Some operating systems come bundled with them. Creating an optical disc usually involves first creating an optical disc image with a full file system designed for the optical disc, and then actually burning the image to the disc. Many programs create the disc image and burn in one bundled application (Quick Copy or Copy On-the-fly), such that end-users