An ode to the optical drive

[PCGamer]

[url]http://www.pcgamer.com/an-ode-to-the-optical-drive[/url]

[chunkymonkey]

I still remember the outcry that happened when Rockstar released San Andrea's on DVD only when most people still only had CD drives.

[Genericenemy]

Not dead for my blu-rays and DVDs, until I can buy them uncompressed and can download them and play them in VLC its not lights out. "Modern demands" is laughable as streaming can hardly replicate the experience.

[IlluminatiRex]

i mean I've got a blu-ray drive, use it to watch blu-rays and install games like GTAV, because good luck with my internet connection lol

[Durrsly]

Shit i'm still buying DVDs and CDs, let alone Blu-Rays. Though it's because I can't get something on Blu-Ray (DVDs) or for music (CDs)

[Banned?]

[QUOTE=chunkymonkey;50948190]I still remember the outcry that happened when Rockstar released San Andrea's on DVD only when most people still only had CD drives.[/QUOTE]

I still remember thinking Unreal Tournament 2004 was amazing for coming on DVD and with all those cool tutorials.

[Zolofto]

Remember having a DVD-RW and everyone asking me to burn their crappy movies to what was once a expensive shiny disk.

[Nerts]

Optical drives are still useful, how else are you going to install drivers for a new motherboard? Can't download them when windows decides you don't have an ethernet driver

[JoeMB]

[QUOTE=Nerts;50952639]Optical drives are still useful, how else are you going to install drivers for a new motherboard? Can't download them when windows decides you don't have an ethernet driver[/QUOTE]

I feel that's incredibly rare these days.

[pentium]

I still very much love my DVD-RAM drive.

[img]http://www.digistor.com/core/media/media.nl?id=3807&c=220187&h=b3231ab94aed2904f91f[/img]

[Tinn]

[QUOTE=Nerts;50952639]Optical drives are still useful, how else are you going to install drivers for a new motherboard? Can't download them when windows decides you don't have an ethernet driver[/QUOTE]
I ran into that problem. My desktop doesn't even have a 5" outfacing bay. I solved it using a crappy usb dvd drive.

The most useful aspect of DVD drives are for boot and repair disks when you don't have a preloaded USB stick ready. That and necessary drivers packaged with the mobo.

[Lyokanthrope]

[QUOTE=Nerts;50952639]Optical drives are still useful, how else are you going to install drivers for a new motherboard? Can't download them when windows decides you don't have an ethernet driver[/QUOTE]

I have a smartphone with USB-OTG. I just dump the drivers onto a flash drive through that and I'm good. v:v:v

[Billy]

[QUOTE=Nerts;50952639]Optical drives are still useful, how else are you going to install drivers for a new motherboard? Can't download them when windows decides you don't have an ethernet driver[/QUOTE]

I was almost fucked here but Windows has a neat feature where you can just select your manufacturer and the install drivers through there. Lucky for me it was the first driver on the list and I was able to remember my network adapter's manufacturer.

[Crest]

[QUOTE=Genericenemy;50948357]Not dead for my blu-rays and DVDs, until I can buy them uncompressed and can download them and play them in VLC its not lights out. "Modern demands" is laughable as streaming can hardly replicate the experience.[/QUOTE]

But no purchasable media, really, is uncompressed. BluRay's range from 25-40Mbps for 1080p24. That's like 1/20th the size of an uncompressed format.

[editline]27th August 2016[/editline]

[QUOTE=Nerts;50952639]Optical drives are still useful, how else are you going to install drivers for a new motherboard? Can't download them when windows decides you don't have an ethernet driver[/QUOTE]

Windows has drivers ranging back like a decade. The chance of that happening is basically impossible.

Especially since Ethernet controllers are almost commodity at this point.

[chipsnapper]

USB-A disk drives will be around for a while. Mine (Samsung) refuses to install programs unless plugged into a back USB port :v:

[Flak]

I still have my DVD-drive.
Can't write to disks, but it can still read.
It wasn't in use for a couple of months until I got another SATA port free, but it's back in action now.

[ph:lxyz]

I have an optical drive for one reason: M-Disc.

Write-only BD-R discs that have a rock like surface. The inventors claim 1000 year data storage without degradation.

[video=youtube;bQENbP8npsw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQENbP8npsw[/video]

I've backed up family photos / videos offline with those since I don't trust hard drive bit-flippage. My hard drive is currently failing and I've verified that my last two backups have had a few files that differed. Rather than switching to ZFS with a triple mirror, I opted to use long term offline storage for the valuable stuff and just keep backups of intermediate-timeframe data. For the long term, BD-R M-Disc fits the bill (for me). I hope the drives will exist in the future, though.

[gk99]

[QUOTE=Sivics;50954334]I feel that's incredibly rare these days.[/QUOTE]

You know what isn't though? Finding retail copies of old games and going "oh shit this is neat"

[Patrick]

i only put an optical drive in my pc because i thought i would need it to install an OS.

i ended up putting the windows 10 beta thing on a usb and installing it that way. but i have since started a cd collection so it gets used quite a bit to chuck music on itunes and my phone.