Who is still heavily using optical media ?

Who is still heavily using optical media ?


  • Total voters
    72

kensiko

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Messages
136
I still love optical media for their long term durability in comparison to hard drives/flash memory. I still have a bunch of CD/DVDs that read just fine, they were copied to blu-rays. I also like the fact that it's read only. If you connect an old hard drive to your computer to restore a backup and have a virus, you could infect all files on your backup.

I hope one day they will get a new technology out for higher data density, but I'm afraid it's not going to happen anytime soon.
 
Where is the option for people who don't have an optical drive? A lot of modern cases don't even have bays for them anymore.

I use the one in my work laptop pretty much exclusively for burning OS ISOs and even then only a couple times a year.
 
Where is the option for people who don't even have an optical drive? A lot of modern cases don't even have bays for them anymore.

I use the one in my work laptop pretty much exclusively for burning OS ISOs and even then only a couple times a year.
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These threads are super interesting. I thought about it, I don't own anything on optical media beyond what's in some motherboard boxes nor do I have anything that would play them.. outside of maybe my car, I guess. I honestly have no idea.

Been dead for me for at least a decade.
 
DVD/Blu-ray heavily used (no vote option for that). Why? I still believe in compensating artists rather than stealing their stuff. And owning tangible media means you won't fall victim to business failure rendering "purchased" digital content null and void.
 
None of the poll choices seem fit so will explain. Recently bought a 100 stack of CD-r since my SO is old school and she still prefers CDs, which I often fill with music from my vast MP3 and FLAC collection. Additionally, many of our friends are musicians and ask me to burn CDs from their shows to give as gifts. Plus I fully utilize my local Library's DVD and BD selections. No cost, convenient drive-thru, my taxes pay for it, recent titles, many full seasons/series available, and they allow three weeks per with two additional renewals on non heavily requested titles. Three months to view entire seasons. Breaking Bad was a good one since they included many many extras. None of which are seen on broadcast. Provides good insight into cinematography, sound, and writing watching second time around.

As for longevity. Quality disks are a must of course. Made silly mistake saving most of my data, screenshots, and drivers from 1998-2005 era on generic no name CD-r that when re-visited in 2017 had become unreadable even though impeccably stored. If not for one 20gb Maxtor drive with Win98 I would have lost everything.
 
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DVD/Blu-ray heavily used (no vote option for that). Why? I still believe in compensating artists rather than stealing their stuff. And owning tangible media means you won't fall victim to business failure rendering "purchased" digital content null and void.
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I agonized over not having one in my recent build, and finally accepted that I can just get an external one to read those in my collection. It was a tough decision, but I ended up with a case without a drive hole for the first time.
 
I have an Apple Super Drive that I hook to my PC when I need to rip something.

IMG_0559.JPEG
 
At home I have hundreds of DVDs and CDs but I don't have a computer with a drive that is connected. I do have a few drives in machines at work since software licensing distributes licensed software via physical media that they burn themselves (we are a university). With that said my main desktop at work lacks even a bay for a drive. No external bays at all.
 
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Whenever parts are available for a new build I wont have one anymore outside of my HTPC.
 
I've been buying lots of movies and shows on disc lately. Movies disappear from streaming services, but discs don't disappear from my shelves (usually). And when the internet is out, I can still watch stuff. I've got a blu-ray drive in one of the computers; one day I'll rip all the discs, but that day is not today. (And it'll probably be more than a day)
 
DVD/Blu-ray heavily used (no vote option for that). Why? I still believe in compensating artists rather than stealing their stuff. And owning tangible media means you won't fall victim to business failure rendering "purchased" digital content null and void.
Agree %100. I don't think most people realize digital content is on loan and can be deleted at any time. At least you can sell/trade/lend physical media.
 
I've been buying lots of movies and shows on disc lately. Movies disappear from streaming services, but discs don't disappear from my shelves (usually). And when the internet is out, I can still watch stuff. I've got a blu-ray drive in one of the computers; one day I'll rip all the discs, but that day is not today. (And it'll probably be more than a day)

Of course that is why everything is instead ripped on my hard drive.
 
I still keep a DVD-RW drive in my main computer. It's actually an old IDE drive, using a small IDE to USB adapter inside my case which feeds from a spare USB header on the motherboard. I don't use it that often, but often enough to be worth keeping. I burned a lot of stuff to DVD years ago (TV show episodes, etc), and it's nice to be able to still access that content. I like to be able to rip a CD to FLAC using my main computer. Sometimes I need to make a Windows 7 or Windows 10 DVD for certain computers I'm working on. Sometimes I like to burn an MP3 DVD for the car stereo for long trips where I might not have cell coverage the entire time or simply don't want to use a lot of data for streaming music. Sometimes people give me old hard drives to see if I can retrieve content off it, and when I do, I usually give it to them on a DVD unless they request a flash drive.

I used to use an external slim USB DVD-RW drive, but there were some reliability issues and it was picky about USB ports (any port that didn't supply enough power, the drive would shut off randomly).
 
I have 2 BluRay drives (1 BluRay recorder, and 1 BluRay/HD-DVD reader, both externally connected via USB 3) on the PC for processing my DVD and BluRay videos. I have a very large collection and have gradually been going through it for several years. Rip, run through MeGUI x264 compression, deinterlace if necessary using QTGMC SLOWER profile on my Ryzen R9-3900X.

Deinterlacing material is slow, in particular, but the resultant output is almost always better than straight off the DVD.

This has been a thing ever since my kids were big enough to start destroying disks, and I got sick of buying 2 or 3 copies of the same damned movies. My kids are older now, but I got hooked on the convenience of being able to stream my video anywhere in the house (or out of the house using Plex when I am away) whenever I want.
 
Now... with regards to burning a CD/DVD/Blu-ray, I like most have a dusty collection of unused blank media. But there was a day....

(I found an old box of crunchy disks the other day)
 
I haven't had a built in optical drive in... I actually don't remember. Before Blu-Rays.
 
I have a DVD drive / burner in the case, and I probably use it maybe twice a year at most. If I had to do the build over, I wouldn't have bothered, I would have just relied on an outboard USB drive. When I do need optical drive capability, though, I really need it -- typically to get at some archival data.
 
I frequently burn CDs and DVDs for work on older PCs (games, driver disks, OS disks) in my collection. Plus my roommate has me rip DVDs (soon to be Blu-Rays) all the time for reencoding into formats his smart TV can play. I forsee having optical drives in my main PC for years to come.
 
I used to be very adamant about keep a disc drive for a long time. I always even bought a new drive for every build up til like 5 years ago when I accepted that I never used it anymore.
 
I have a 3 Blu-ray drives in use!
One slot load in my main PC (slim line in a Dell adapter for their OptiPlex line but the mounting is standard and cheaper and better quality then others) it also has a 3.5" bay for my card reader/USB 3 hub
I have an LG WH16NS40 that I flashed to the WH16NS60 (Same hardware) it can now rip/read UHD discs! Yay!

I have a Panasonic UJ-??? that was pulled from a dead Toshiba note book a few years ago.
I bought a Lenovo case made for their slim PC's (again better quality and cheaper then other slim-line SATA optical drive cases) this is my go to for things that don't have any or a broken optical drive.

My peeve is why is it easier (cost wise?) to rip a Blu-ray to the hard drive then to just play it from the disc itself? I use MakeMKV sometimes when I don't have the time or HDD space why cann't I just play it for free MakeMKV is free (for now at least)

I still buy music CD's also I can rip those to Flac or MP3 (for my Zune HD, don't laugh I love it plus the HD Radio tuner is neat when traveling)
 
Ive only got an external blu-ray drive that i just knew i would need. I actually burned a few discs right after i bought it to be sure it worked. Now i only keep it around for installing my old games. Still have a couple stacks of discs on top of my hutch. Tbh im not sure why. They just collect dust but i know as soon as i pack them away ill need one. So there they sit, all dusty and lonely. I used to back everything up to disc. Now? Im pretty sure my test copies were the last ones ive done.

Ah im mistaken. Forgot that i have a dvd burner in my retro rig ;D
 
I'm curious about some of your other items (sorry I'm nosy)
#1 Weather station
#2 both cases (left & right ones)
#3 other black thing with 28° 03 Fri, Jan 29
La Cross weather station
Corsair Air 740 and Intel SC5650
Amazon Echo Show 5"
 
Thanks I like that Intel case weather station model?
I have one also but I like yours better.
Where can I get a case like that Intel one?
 

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Thanks I like that Intel case weather station model?
I have one also but I like yours better.
Where can I get a case like that Intel one?
This is the one next to my PC,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PKU3LEW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I also have one like yours upstairs
zune-remotes.jpg

You can find the case on ebay and server supply stores, Intel discontinued it a few years ago.

the front panel cable is non standard for ATX boards, it uses a ribbon cable the plugs into an Intel workstation board.
I made my own adapter using a Front Panel Connector from a dead motherboard.
IMG_0860.JPG IMG_0863.JPG IMG_0862.JPG
 
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I've got a usb bluray drive recently been re-copying old CDs and DVDs I used to archive old stuff back to my pc. Besides that use them sometimes for dvds or blurays since I'me too lazy to rip them.
 
I burn MP3 CDs for my car once and a while. I even made a program that automated the process with an mp3 playlist. But I haven't done that in over a year because I rarely drive now.

I bought a bluray drive thinking I would use it to watch movies, but only ever did once.
 
La Cross weather station
Corsair Air 740 and Intel SC5650
Amazon Echo Show 5"

This is the one next to my PC,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PKU3LEW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I also have one like yours upstairs
View attachment 331372

You can find the case on ebay and server supply stores, Intel discontinued it a few years ago.

the front panel cable is non standard for ATX boards, it uses a ribbon cable the plugs into an Intel workstation board.
I made my own adapter using a Front Panel Connector from a dead motherboard.
View attachment 331373 View attachment 331374 View attachment 331375


Ah thanks. I got a mis-order that I got to keep (got my $ back eBay China) I ordered female - female Dupoint (how they got that term is beyond me but that is what they call them) anyway I got male pin - female so I can make my own jumpers without destroying anything just put them in the proper pins on the Intel header and plug into the motherboard headers
PS: You keep you house hot I like it cold as you can see from my weather station
PPS: Sorry for being nosy but I like all things tech like most people [h]ere LoL!
 
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