Isn't it time we say goodbye to the CD/DVD drive?

I never use mine I have in my laptop and it's just there occupying unnecessary space. I have a netbook and like many other you have bought an external DVD drive in order to install programs for example. Another thing that is even harmful is that when using CD-ROM in the drive it vibrates so much it could potentially damage the computer. Because of this I tend to use the external drive even if my laptop has an internal one, the vibration is just too annoying and dangerous.

The DVD drive takes up a lot space and I think it could be used for something more useful instead.

 

I think opinions may vary. If you don't like it, then you might want to look at a model that gives you options. For instance, the Clevo x7200 can turn the optical bay into another SATA drive!

 

all models can do that, search ODD caddy on ebay and you will see

 

Correct. However I don't see much of a use for me, I'd rather have a removable GPU with an additional fan.

 

Until Blu-ray is replaced with an equal or better medium, absolutely not. I like having multi-media in one package and use external HDD's for storage when I need it. Don't want an ODD? Buy one without or swap it.

lol... I've also never had an ODD cause any type of failure on any of my computers in the last 20+ years.

 

Id rather have the envy 15 design, eliminating that part gave it a slim profile, with 2 fans for the cpu and one large fan for the gpu, quite beautiful to look at it.

Although I had briefly the 1st gen (and that was a hot pc), I was torn that I didnt keep it.

 

Yes you are RIGHT
The Compact disc or plastic disc will go to R.I.P. soon
I do not use it at all what I use is Flash Drive
Even blu-ray could go somewhere
Best thing is to have files on flash drive
Disc is slow

 

wont go rip any time soon, not a while to come, why? Cheap to manufacture, it's about money.

 

DVD/CD will not instantly die but should reside as an external drive. The drive is so rarely used anyway. With netbooks, people seem to get along nicely without it.

I got a blue ray drive but honestly, BD was dead before it became common because of other digital media such as flash memory + downloadable content.

 

Too many problems with downloadable HD. Bandwidth and provider caps, quality not as good and access to name a few.

Everything I've read about Blu-ray troubles points to people's ignorance of the fact that Blu-ray players are backwards compatible as the main concern. It's far from a dead tech... although it could be if someone comes up with something as a real, viable alternative.

 

The playstation 4 will comes out and that is NOT gonna be fitted with any Optical drive anymore
X-box 720p - I dont know i they gonna implement optic drive again
Sony says everything will be downloaded from their online store ...
Tablets,mobiles,netbooks,no drive
I have my self Obtical Bay in laptop for any SSD

 

I think they will run off of NAND flash (aka flash drives/cards), much easier, smaller, and costs, unlike Optical (which has reached rock bottom) will decrease over time, even as capacity increases.

 

I stopped using ODD a long time ago really.
I've only ever used it for OS installations, and those I've mainly switched over to the USB option and external storage for everything.

Keeping ODD in the laptop is not really necessary.
It should have died out some time ago, but capitalism keeps old tech on the market for long periods of time because it's 'cheap'... and as others in other threads mentioned, it's not about what they can do, it's about how much money they can make off with giving you bits and pieces and calling them 'revolutionary' and whatnot.

Ick.
My current laptop has an ODD, but I'll be using a caddy to put a second HDD into it and put the ODD on the side (probably sell it).
And a new laptop won't have the ODD.
I just see no point in it for my uses.

 

With all the Ultrabooks and very thin form factor computers that are going to start coming out next year, the majority of consumers will no longer have computers with optical disc drives.

I think we can fairly predict at this point that we can look back at 2011 as the year the optical disc drive died on consumer computers.

 

They are very needed to install os and etc.
I will always have one all though not very used great to have just in case

 

Same. Externally, though, going forward. Heck, many externals are better than the internal drives.

 

I'm just waiting until MS also start distributing their OS over the internet, and via USB drives, too

 

Microsoft Store Online - Windows 7 Home Premium - Buy and download from Microsoft Store

There it is. Has been for a while already

 

No, it isn't. Just because you don't use your ODD doesn't mean others don't. I still use mine quite a bit, for installing games, and watching DVDs. I'm a strong proponent of switching to better, alternative formats if one existed. I've been thinking a long time someone needs to find a way to merge old ROM cartridge technology with USB thumb drives, to make a read-only, permanent format to store digital media, such as movies. Think of something like this.



merged with


ROM cartridges have the advantage of not only being read-only and being permanent, they last a long time, plus they have "instant" availability. Merge that with thumb drives and modern production processes, and that would be a great way to distribute movies and games, even operating systems. That is something I would definitely ditch optical drives for.

 

If anything, I wish laptop manufacturers would let you choose what you wanted in that space. DVD, Blu-ray, extra hard drive and my personal favorite; a battery bay.

 

We've been saying "bye" too DVD drives for a long time. They're being weeded out of netbooks and even some larger laptops and everyone is moving to streaming.

 

You can already do that with thinkpads.

 

Everyone mentions streaming streaming streaming. Streaming is NOT the answer, at least the direction we're at or heading.

While I agree for computer software a DVD drive is a bit moot, it's still a great way to inexpensively share media between people. I frequently put media on DVD's for my parents or to mail to friends. I'd rather ship a ten cent DVD than send them a $5 USB flash drive.

And back to streaming. Not everyone has fast internet and even if they do, caps prevent users from getting too much data. And streaming movies is a joke still. Best they stream is at 720p, and a compressed 720p. If you ever watch a Blu-ray movie at 1080p vs a streamed 720p movie it's no better than DVD quality. It's going backwards visually.

I just find it funny how supporters of HD are also proponents of streaming media. It's a complete contradiction, at least with the limits we have today and foreseeable future.

I think for general computing, an ODD is not required. But if you have a decent laptop with a decent screen and/or use it as your media device, a blu-ray drive is crucial.

 

Exactly what I was about to say. With all the zealousness of the computer techies here, most have forgotten about mass distribution. Would you rather purchase discs or thousands of flash drives?

Disc are by far the most economical and practical way to get media from one place to another, especially in large quantities. They also makes an excellent and cost efficient media for back up.

Something I can't understand why people keep ignoring.

Blu-ray provides by far the best picture available. At present, no streaming content can match it.

They're not going away anytime soon.

As is in my case. Without the capacity for discs and blu-ray, I don't know how it would be possible to deliver content in a convenient and economical package.

You say that as if it's as easy as sliding one module out and the other in. In fact, that's far from the standard. And until it is, it's a hassle and not something the average computer user would attempt.

 

I think there will and should never be a conclusive answer to this question, because people still like them and feel they are important. Choice is the best option.

 

Krane, I agree with most of your points except for using optical disks for backup. They are by far the most sure way to experience data loss - right up there with tape backup systems ime.

 

While both HT and Krane make good points about streaming, I like streaming because of the convenience.

Yes, streaming is not the answer right now, but at least it has started, found good support, and will keep going. To me, that means that in the future (read: not now)....in the future, we might have blu-ray quality streaming movies from a provider.

That, of course, depends on a multitude of factors like the aforementioned internet data caps (which I think is....really really bad, to put it mildly) and the response of various movie production companies and such. But I really do think that we have something going here in the streaming tech.

And yes, you are right. I am very much a supporter of HD, and in fact, I don't think we need much more than 1080p for a while. Human eyes are organic, and therefore have physical limitations to how much detail they can accurately see. For me, I know I have hit my limit with 1080p.

If there were two discs available tomorrow, at the same price, the same movie everything exactly the same. Except one was 1080p and the other was 1600p....I'd still get the 1080p, every time.

But back on topic: Do we need CD/DVD drives? I've heard of this old discussion/debate on NBR many times and each time, it stagnates. Bottom line: There will always be some people who like, want and need an optical drive. And there will always be some people who don't. Respect the differences, and we can always get along.

As for me: I don't =need= an optical drive, but I like having the additional functionality. Which is why on my Sager I have removed it and put in a HDD caddy, and on my new toshiba, I don't plan on removing the DVD drive.

edit: One last point...I backup both with an external HDD and DVD copies

Mr. Mysterious

 

I always thought the ODD bay should be modular to meet everyone's needs though, as brought up already. You can use it for extra battery, additional HDD/SSD, or optical drive. Choice is always good.

Back to streaming, sounds great, but even so, there's always the issue of portability. Want to go on a plane, go somewhere with crappy internet or no wireless connectivity at all? I do this frequently. Yes I can put movies on an external hard drive, but technically this is illegal and if we go full streaming, then you will have no option to take your movies with you.

Until we have 100% wireless internet coverage at reasonable speeds, or they offer users a way to keep their digital video, optical drives are not going away.

 

^I miss those days when they almost always offer optical drive as modular bay.. but then, did the floppy drive also go this way before being (almost) obsolete?

 

I think for laptops, ODD can go on the smaller ones. I mean, I bought my last 6 laptops (all 10"-->13") specifically for portability, but the larger ones (14" and 15") were bought for workstation capability, so portability didn't mean as much.

So for my Sony SC, while I'm impressed Sony fit a bluray drive in there, and I do buy a few more bluray movies now as a direct result (since watching them on desktop isn't convinient), I would of MUCH rather that space was used for better cooling, or a bigger battery, or maybe enough space so one stick of RAM didn't have to be soldered on...

On the streaming thing, I think I put up with lower res on the big screen, since I cannot easily tell the difference at 10ft or so, anyways. But between Netflix (xbox) and Steam sales, my monthly bandwidth useage is getting insane

 

I agree that DVD is still the cheapest and most convenient way for mass distribution. However, I think that will soon change and solid state memory will be more and more used.

For your information, I'm installing Windows 7 right now on one of my laptop. It has an internal DVD drive but I'm not using it becuase it vibrates so much and that makes me a bit weary to use it. Instead I use an USB optical drive. I think this is a better way to do it and use the extra space for other HW.

Making a disc that can potentially damage your computer is a failure if you ask me.

 

Nope. I'm firmly against losing the optical drive.

Try watching a movie on a trip w/out one. (remember, most "normal" people have no clue how to rip a movie or acquire it otherwise)

Plus, there's plenty of people who prefer you hand in assignments and such on CD.

 

No, it is just a poorly designed DVDRW drive. It isn't designed to break your machine. It's faulty if it's doing that. Same reasoning if something on your car can break it why have it? We'd have to lose the engine and wheels for starters!

I personally use flash media as much as I can, but for distribution, optical is the way to go. Even somewhat tech savvy friends I have I tell them to download something from my home server, instead they'd rather I send them a disc. 10% nerds is not greater than 90% rest of world.

 

Actually you would be surprised just how many people who aren't experts with computers have external HDD's.
Plus they ARE familiar with the concept that you can store movies, media and files there and have been using it for a while now.
So your argument about trying to watch a movie on a trip without a CD is moot.

As for those who prefer you hand in assignments and similar aspects on a CD...
That's just plain idiotic.
Depending on what type of assignments you get, not to mention how large the project file is... messing around with extra CD's or DVD's is pointless.
It's easier to send a few MB assignment over email, or if you need to go in person, stick a large 6GB project onto a USB and take it to the person in question for copying.
Why waste a CD and in some cases let all that other empty space go unused?
My father (who isn't proficient with computers) did this on a regular basis about a decade ago when he was backing up some finances that took a few MB on a CD.
He did it daily.
Needless to say, it was a waste of resources.
He got himself a USB stick and backed up all of his data with plenty of room to spare there (which to this day still works without a problem).

 

Totally agree but I wonder how long the life span for a USB stick can actually last?

I have a huge collection of movies, songs and pictures on a DVD support, I know that even if I drop it will hold my data for many years, but how about USB flash support?

This is the only concern for me, durability.

Besides a DVD is way much cheaper and a DVDR-DL can storage around 8GB of data, while a 8GB usb drive will cost me around 15 Euro (I am in EU).

Since I have too many DVDs now I am planning to buy a portable HDD of 2TB, but still, what would happen to my data if for mistake I would dropped it?

If the future will give me cheap external SSD which they would last years, then I will spend all my money, for now I think DVD are still needed.

 

I currently have an external 2.5" 1TB HDD.
Gonna have to get a larger capacity one when they come out though (because while I have majority of things I have on it, it still needs some extra room... and I prefer 2.5" for portability sake).

Most people can get away with a 500GB capacity external HDD in 2.5" flavor because their media rarely goes over that... unless they have a huge collection of movies and whatnot.

 

I don't want to get off topic, just a quick question. I was planning to buy one too with 2TB storage. For portability I was thinking of a WD Passport. Do you think its reliable?

 

yep time to kick the internal optical drive to the curb along with firewire, expresscard, usb 2, vga, dialup modem for usb 3 and thunderbolt.

 

Optical media should die. Right now it is a waste of resources, one more legacy data storage.
An optical disc is too big to transport, storage, too slow to write/copy, too unfriendly to write/copy, too small data for the cost.

I can't remember the last time i have put a CD/DVD disc in my laptop.

Two 2TB discs(one for backup) are much cheaper than an equivalent 2TB number of optical disc. That doesn't even account for burn time you waste - and time is money or life quality -and the risk that you'll have only one optical disc for each movie.
With automated copy in your computer duplicating everything in your drives while if you want to duplicate optical discs, you have to do it yourself, loosing a even more time of your life.

 

I use my DVD drive on a daily basis. My kid has dozens of movies bought on clearance for $4.99 (random Scooby-Doo made-for-DVD movies and collections of shows, etc) and often watches them on the computer.

And I frequently have to burn DVDs for work--we're mailing them to people across the state, we're sending them to people who wouldn't return a USB thumb drives when they were done copying the files, etc. USB thumb drives just don't cut it in my industry.

At least in the foreseeable future, I will not buy a machine that does not have a DVD burner. Period.

 

When thumb drives will be at price of a DVD+burning there isn't the issue of returning.

Yes there are people that still needs them. I would prefer we will be able to choose.

 

My workplace forbids and has blocked USB storage devices - we are still using CD/DVD. So I still need that matching capability on my personal computers. There is no clear right or wrong answer - truly depends on each person's situation.

 

Interesting that nobody has been able to identify anything that can really replace the practicality and versatility of the Optical Disc yet. Lots of stuff that's either/or, but nothing that does both like those cheap little plastic discs.

Same here

 

I don't remember what I said last in this thread - but isn't it time the ODD drive slot becomes, instead of an ODD slot a much more standardized slot for large peripherals? HDDs of course being the first and easiest options.

When are laptops going to start coming with m-sata to normal sata adapters and caddies all customized and built in?

And in the future - the possibilities would get more endless if thunderbolt were to be built in. Sooner or later a GPU product will TOTALLY happen, I believe it.

But I'd also really love to see some more professional devices, like high end sound cards. Stay with me here. With the advancement of technology, all music falls into the "electronic influenced" category. Laptops will become more accepted as instruments, and live realtime sampling, effects processing, etc will be come pretty important to a decent sized consumer base.

In fact on an even broader scale, I believe digital media like blu ray will stay alive for a similar reason, and therefore the ODD slot will compliment itself as a peripheral slot in the future.

I do however strongly believe that netbooks will grow a little and become the standard laptop without a disk drive for most everyday users, while slightly larger laptops in the multimedia, high end gaming, power user or professional class will continue to include it as a standard feature inherently necessary for the laptops purpose.

 

When do you picture that happening? I needed to pick up an 8 GB thumb drive today. The cheapest I found at my local office supply store was $15 (HP), and many of the brands were priced at $29.

I'd need two DVD-Rs in order to transfer the same amount of data. You can get a 100-DVDR spindle of name-brand DVDRs for about $25. So it'll cost $0.50 to transfer the same amount of data. That $15 thumb drive isn't looking so disposable in comparison. It's thirty times more expensive.

 

Wanted to throw in my own question here instead of opening a new thread (as it is relevant)

Im toying with the idea of going with an SSD + HDD combination in a new laptop (Sager 8150). Im planning on using it mostly for gaming, so im just curious of how easy/cheap/reliable it is to buy games online for download. Ive looked at some of the services, but i just want to hear what people think about:

1) Once you buy a game, does it completely belong to you? (I.e. can i move the entire file onto a separate disk to reinstall later if i deside to uninstall? etc.)

2) Are all new games available via download? (im thinking of games like Diablo 3, Skyrim, etc. due to come out in the next year)

3) Are there any price advantages to downloading?

Id love to ditch the optical drive as I would ONLY be using it for gaming (I figure i can get movies by downloading easily enough). What do you guys think?

 

I hadn't logged onto my Steam account for more than two years. About a month ago I installed a new game that uses Steam and my old games (that I lost the discs and codes for) were there and downloadable. I was impressed.

 

Maybe not literally ALL, but any you'd want to play. If it's not available on steam, check Origin (EA's competitor) or purchasing directly from Blizzard (for Diablo III).

Not when a game is brand new, but when it's three to six months old, absolutely. Discounts for not-quite-new games come faster to Steam than they do to brick-and-mortar stores, and Steam has some outrageously good limited-time deals on year-or-so old games that you maybe missed when they were new. For example, I think there was a two-week period where they were offering Bad Company II for about $6. I know I picked up Command and Conquer 3 (arguably the best C&C game?) for $5 during one sale.

 

Well according to that logic all tech is dead technology.

Every piece of technology with perhaps the exception of the wheel will probably have a better replacement in the future unless something catastrophic happens.

The real question is what about the present and the next 5 years or so. I think you can only declare something dead if it is dead now, and not if it will be dead sometime in the future. So the tape deck is dead now, but the Blu-Ray? Not really, Blu-Rays are for watching movies in a high quality environment while streaming is more suited for "low quality" environments. So if you have a $3K sound system, a 55" LCD TV you might want the blu-ray. If you have a netbook you probably want streaming.

For the download price advantage, its primarily PC only. Xbox 360 and PSN have worse prices on download. Why? Its a monopoly, PC doesn't have that problem. However you can't resell (so there are no used game sales). Used games help keep prices lower. But some people don't care so in the case of PC games Steam has some of the best deals because B&M stores discontinue selling games before they are selling for $5.

Not all games are download, but many games are. Even Amazon.com has downloads. I would say the vast majority of new releases are download available. The question is "where can you download them". Blizzard games can be downloaded from Blizzard, they can't be downloaded from Steam. EA games are sometimes only available from EA.

 

Thanks a lot guys.With all that in mind I think i can go with the SSD + HDD with a clear conscience