A mode of operation used for an optical disk in which the rotation rate is varied according to the radius of the track accessed so that a constant data transfer rate corresponds to a constant bit density along the track. This allows an increase in capacity as compared to CAV, but the access time is also increased. CLV is used in the CD-ROM disk drive (as in the Compact Audio product on which it is based), the DVD disk drive, and in some other optical disk drives. See also MCLV.