17. Bad-quality Optical Media Shortens Battery Lifetime

It's essential to understand an important characteristic regarding the use of different optical media: Next to the usage scenarios and the various applications used, the selection of optical media also has influence on battery lifetime that shouldn't be underestimated. The laser-diodes' power consumption, which is part of the pick-up of the optical drive, varies when reading or writing. The quality of the media also impacts the pickup's and thus the optical drive's power consumption.

In this context, it is important to note that the drive's power useage varies according to the media and its quality. If, for example, you were to play an original DVD video and then a DVD-R backup copy you'd burned yourself and measured the current intake (mA) for the optical drive in each case, you would notice that the second playback consumed noticeably more power than the first. The same effect can be observed when the optical media is heavily scratched or if data was destroyed when the disc was burned.