DVD A regular CD-ROM has about 650 MB, give or take 10 MB or so, of storage capacity. Sounds like a lot. It is enough to hold the majority of stuff on my hard drive. CD-ROMs have been a boon to software and game developers. Applications on CD are a lot quicker and easier to install than their floppy-borne cousins.
Games have better graphics, sound and full motion video.
That whole 650 MB of capacity happens to be only enough for 20 minutes of full screen video. Software developers haven't yet caught up with this hardware. From what I've read on DVD technology, it sounds to me like they are still looking for something to fill up all that space. I hear tell that The Learning Company is in the process of developing a CD that includes a 29-volume encyclopedia, thesaurus, dictionary, and an atlas with two hours of video. For now, the only sector to utilize all this additional capacity is the movie industry.