Ever wondered how a DVD player works?

The DVD player (or the CD player on my computer) forms a central part of my life nowadays considering that I watch 3-4 movies atleast every week.

Took a bit of time to understand how it actually works. Here's a wonderful link that explains it:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/dvd6.htm

Some interesting points of note were:

• Data is stored in a spiral format - not in concentric circles
• As the radial head moves towards the outer of the disc, the rotation of the disc slows down to match the increase in tangential velocity of the data in the spiral tracks.