Although DVDs and CDs normally come in the standard 12cm size (on the left in our picture), you may also have come across “mini” versions that are only 8cm across (on the right).

Technology-wise, there’s very little difference between them and their full-size cousins. In fact, the only major difference is the physical size and data capacity- they’re 8cm wide instead of 12cm and have a lower data capacity of 1.4GB (for DVDs) or 210MB (for CDs).

These smaller discs can be read and used as normal in almost any standard DVD/CD drive or player, including tray loaders and “flip-top/clamshell” style drives. However, they’re unsuitable for use in some slot-loading drives; check compatibility first if you have one of those.

8cm DVDs are also commonly used in camcorders. This is convenient because your holiday videos can then be played back directly on the family DVD player.

History

The 8cm format was first used for early audio CD singles (they could hold up to 24 minutes of music). However, as almost all audio CD players- including portable ones- were designed around the full-size 12cm discs anyway, there was no real advantage to the smaller 8cm format and it became increasingly rare.

(One of the few players designed around the format, Sony’s D-88, required full-size discs to stick out from the player in use. A surefire way to damage your expensive early CDs- particularly on a portable unit- and probably not worth the hassle.)

However, as CD-ROMs, writable CDs and then DVDs came onto the scene, the 8cm disc format enjoyed a resurgence in portable devices.