The capacities of Western Digital home entertainment hard drives for this purpose easily accommodate the average user's collection of compact discs. Home entertainment hard drives are different Hard drives used in home entertainment equipment differ in numerous ways from those used in personal computers, even though both require the same high quality and reliability. Home entertainment applications demand a reliably steady flow of data, which produces pictures and audio reproduction free of gaps, flutter or flickering. The drives must be extremely quiet, with no hum or other noise to interfere with the playback. And, they must provide for multiple streams of data so that the home entertainment device is capable of multitasking such as simultaneous recording and viewing.
Personal computers demand the fastest seek times for instant access to data.
Whereas the capacity of computer hard drives is measured in gigabytes of data, home entertainment hard drive capacity is measured in hours of playback time. A home entertainment hard drive stores about one hour of conventional video or twenty audio CDs per gigabyte of capacity. Western Digital's WD Performer Family Western Digital Corporation, which got its start in sophisticated electronics technology, has been building its reputation in hard disk drives since 1990. Western Digital desktop and enterprise hard drives are known and trusted by the world's leading producers of personal computers. The features, performance, quality and reliability of its hard drives have earned Western Digital's ranking among the top three producers in the world.