Do you use your computer's optical drive anymore?

[Ken g6]

I'd use mine more if I had a burning program of quality equivalent to ImgBurn in Linux. The programs I have almost always burn coasters. :'(

 

[vi edit]

Yes, and in the ultraportable market that makes sense. Beyond that optical isn't going anywhere until we get a better media for distribution. High-enough speed internet isn't anywhere near universal enough and no other current media is cost efficient enough to optical media price points. Eventually we'll develop something better and optical will die, but I imagine it'll take at least another decade, and Apple will have little to do with it if they remain the same company (more about user interaction/experience than hardware development).

You give Apple far too little credit. Some of the first Macbook Airs shipped with USB drives as a recovery tool. Now you can backup and recover from time machine network storage. You can recover straight from apples website (the system can boot to a network accessible state if the OS craps out) and stream a recovery right back. So they are quite innovative in that regard vs. other manfs.

And as far as other mediums go, they have a little thing called iTunes that turned the music industry on its side as the first wide spread, easy to use music download site and first viable and legal threat to physical media. And they are continuously beefing up their video library. They are a licensing agreement(s) away from being the next Netflix if they can iron out a subscription service and they already have a couple hundred million devices already out in the wild that can pull down from it.

It'll be very interesting to see where Apple ends up in the streaming video service in 5 years.

The need for optical won't die for years to come. Simply because it's so engrained into what we already own and use. But that's not to say it won't be greatly diminished in production and shipments 5 years from now.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

I've got a DVD business to run at the local traffic lights

I will write on a huge cement block 'BY ACCEPTING THIS BRICK THROUGH YOUR WINDOW, YOU ACCEPT IT AS IS AND AGREE TO MY DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS WELL AS DISCLAIMERS OF ALL LIABILITY, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL, THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE INSTALLATION OF THIS BRICK INTO YOUR BUILDING.' And then hurl it through the window of a Sony officer and run like hell.

 

[Possessed Freak]

It has the same disc in it that it has for months now... my HoMM3 disc.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Loading software and occassionally for watching movies.

 

[irishScott]

You give Apple far too little credit. Some of the first Macbook Airs shipped with USB drives as a recovery tool. Now you can backup and recover from time machine network storage. You can recover straight from apples website (the system can boot to a network accessible state if the OS craps out) and stream a recovery right back. So they are quite innovative in that regard vs. other manfs.

And as far as other mediums go, they have a little thing called iTunes that turned the music industry on its side as the first wide spread, easy to use music download site and first viable and legal threat to physical media. And they are continuously beefing up their video library. They are a licensing agreement(s) away from being the next Netflix if they can iron out a subscription service and they already have a couple hundred million devices already out in the wild that can pull down from it.

It'll be very interesting to see where Apple ends up in the streaming video service in 5 years.

The need for optical won't die for years to come. Simply because it's so engrained into what we already own and use. But that's not to say it won't be greatly diminished in production and shipments 5 years from now.

Thing is, music sales via the web and imaging a drive over a network were hardly Apple originals, Apple just did what they do best, streamlined the process and made it attractive to the average consumer. Not saying they don't innovate, but they largely innovate on a relatively high level. It'll take a completely different base hardware or universal high quality high speed Internet to kill optical, and while Apple certainly can influence these areas with their products they don't directly control much of either. They are neither an ISP nor a storage manufacturer.

Don't get me wrong I'm sure they'll contribute, but any killing of optical will be done first and foremost by hardware innovation, the most Apple will do is help push it out to the public. Saying Apple is killing optical is like saying EA developed Mass Effect.

 

[zebano]

I back up a few things and install OSs from optical drives but that's about it.

 

[Aikouka]

Personally, I would prefer more poll options, but I selected "no" since I use mine fairly sparingly, but I still do use it from time to time. In fact, I used it last night to import an actual music CD that I forgot was in my car into iTunes to put onto my phone.

I do find it amusing, because I paid a bunch of a Blu-Ray burner, and I've never burned a Blu-Ray disc before.

EDIT:

I back up a few things and install OSs from optical drives but that's about it.

I actually kind of like installing OSs from thumb drives now. The last laptop I worked on didn't have an optical drive, and it was actually pretty easy to install using a thumb drive. I just made the mistake of using a USB 3.0 port at first, which doesn't work with the Windows 7 install.

 

[smakme7757]

I still use mine every now and again. I usually use it if i can't find a USB to install windows from which forces me to use a DVD.

Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

 

[ViviTheMage]

rarely, enough to keep them around though.

 

[KeithTalent]

Yeah, on occasion I do and I just bought a Blu-ray read/write drive too for some reason.

KT

 

[KMFJD]

Shitty WIsp and 20gb a month limit means i buy most of my games on DVD

 

[Golgatha]

Use mine for ripping DVD and Bluray mostly. Burn an occasional DVD for taking movies in the car with us. Outside of that I only use it to install a handful of programs for the first time (e.g. Win7, Office 2007, etc.). Most of my files reside on HDDs however and I rarely use optical media for much of anything ever since memory stick drives became large and cheap.

 

[lothar]

Another die-hard BenQ fan eh?
I've still got a DW1620, DW1625 (cross-flashed Phillips), DW1640 and DW1650 running in my systems.

Yup.
It's a complete shame that BenQ gave up and left the optical market in the US. Their Nexperia chipset was the best. It's even more a shame that they adopted Mediatek chipsets and essentially became a Lite-On re-badger before they left the market.

My BenQ DW1620 is the only reason I haven't completely migrated from PATA to SATA.
If I were to build a new computer today, I'd still make sure the motherboard had PATA on-board support for my BenQ.

Crossflashing firmwares, posting jitter/error scans, changing bitsetting to make drive region free, ala42's Media Code Speed edit, etc...
Ahh...those were the glory days.
I'm ashamed that I haven't been to CDFreaks in probably 5-6 years.

 

[Aikouka]

I just bought a Blu-ray read/write drive too for some reason.

At least I don't feel alone anymore!

 

[CZroe]

Bought a Dreamcast today. Plan to contribute to Sega's demise in the console industry.

 

[TheVrolok]

I've probably used my optical drive once in the last 2 years for an OS install. I feel the same way about it as I did about floppies a decade ago .. have it "just in case."

 

[KeithTalent]

At least I don't feel alone anymore!

Brother!

KT

 

[StrangerGuy]

I don't get it, the market had already moved past discs for data storage/transfer and yet laptop vendors other than Apple are still so in love with internal ODDs. They are deadweight and occupy needless space. Heck, just bundle an external ODD for fvck's sake if they really think the customer might actually use a disc once over the machine's lifetime.

 

[MotionMan]

I don't get it, the market had already moved past discs for data storage/transfer and yet laptop vendors other than Apple are still so in love with internal ODDs. They are deadweight and occupy needless space. Heck, just bundle an external ODD for fvck's sake if they really think the customer might actually use a disc once over the machine's lifetime.

Optical storage is in a sort of middle zone right now. Some files are too big to e-mail, but not everyone has flash drives to give away. For example, I use CDs/DVDs to give photos to my kids' school/other parents/grandparents.

MotionMan

 

[Golgatha]

Optical storage is in a sort of middle zone right now. Some files are too big to e-mail, but not everyone has flash drives to give away. For example, I use CDs/DVDs to give photos to my kids' school/other parents/grandparents.

MotionMan

Meh, that's what USB 2.0, 2.5in external HDDs are for.

 

[lxskllr]

Meh, that's what USB 2.0, 2.5in external HDDs are for.

I like having the option of using optical. I rarely do, and prefer not to, but sometimes it's convenient. I don't see me not installing one in the foreseeable future. They're too cheap to omit.

 

[MotionMan]

Meh, that's what USB 2.0, 2.5in external HDDs are for.

You give those away like burned CDs/DVDs?

MotionMan

 

[cheezy321]

Haven't had an optical drive in my main computer for over a year. (Macbook Air). Haven't used the optical drive in my media PC for over 2 years.

never use em.

 

[SlitheryDee]

My HTPC optical drive is a blu ray drive, and I get blu rays from netflix. I use it 3 times a week on average.