optical drives obsolete?

In my line of work we still get manuals on CD. So not having an optical drive isn't an option for me. An external wound work. I would have to carry it with me everywhere.

Sent from my overpriced Galaxy S6 Edge +

 

I would remove my built in dvdrom and fit an hdd/ssd caddy $15 and stick a 2TB 2.5" inside , then get an external dvdrom case for like $15 so you can still burn or read an dvd if you need to.

John.

 

Download the ISO and enter your product key.

 

Couldn't find the iso to download.

Sent from my overpriced Galaxy S6 Edge +

 

From Microsoft:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8

 

I have a spare 2.5" bay already and the optical drive is already in the machine.

 

Right now I'm ripping some CD's to iTunes, I don't use the drive for anything else though. You can always buy an external CD/DVD drive, and might be more useful to have that internal space on the laptop dedicated to something else.

 

Can't wait until I either replace the head unit in my car, or simply buy a new car. Then I can quit using optical discs for good...

Car only has a CD or radio option, so currently have one of those cig-lighter aux-to-FM modules for plugging in my ipod/phone

 

Our buy a new aftermarket radio.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

 

I replaced the head unit on my car and now just use a 64GB nano USB stick or stream from my mobile using Bluetooth. I was happy to be able to move all of the CD's I own out of the car and into a box in the garage. I'm pretty sure it can handle a connected iPod almost natively but USB sticks and bluetooth streaming work OK so far.

 

Comes down to price if they can eliminate the CD drive and charge more then so they will. Notice on all the prices you look they are still the same and even more without the CD drive. So if it was to not have the CD drive why did it become more expensive then when it had the CD drive. It isn't used more but isn't completely obsolete like others like to want to believe. I seen others talk about how they can grab their OD right next to them without thinking its more hardware you have to drag around and if fails off table or if you forget to take it with you then you out of luck if you need a OD - are you going to buy a OD everytime you go somewhere and forget it at home, most likely not you would have so many USB OD in storage. For me I still use OD and like to have that option when I need it without carry around a ext. OD and know I won't forget it somewhere or loose it. The loss of the OD and prices were still same or higher tells me it was a money decision mostly to make more money from laptop buyers rather then lowering the price it went higher. Now for the Slim laptop that would be something a OD can't be used in but then again you are sacrificing laptop power and storage options as some don't allow you to expand or access the laptop like the larger laptops that you can upgrade. But then again I know this IMO.

 

With Sony and Samsung no longer making Windows notebooks, and Toshiba cutting back on Windows notebook production, Are notebook now not obsolete (tongue in cheek) not just the dvdrom drive.

John.

 

The first ever Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray player has gone on sale a little bit early
http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/8/10936792/uhd-4k-blu-ray-samsung-player-on-sale

PC Blu-ray BD-XL drives might already compatible, so we only need software upgrades to play the new releases. Getting close to knowing...

Ultra HD '4K' Blu-ray: Here's what we know
Ultra HD '4K' Blu-ray discs are due to hit the market at the end of 2015 with enhanced resolution, expanded color and more. Here's the 411 so far.
http://www.cnet.com/news/ultra-hd-4k-blu-ray-what-we-know/

4K Optical Drives: Will Existing BDXL Options Work?
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-ho...drives-will-existing-bdxl-options-work-4.html

PC's are basically ready for 4K
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?s=6ce791e73e6cf2a8b40223d1f7d21acc&t=256623&page=2

 

Can it upscale DVD to 4K

No interest for me, I have a blu-ray player under my tv and an external usb blu-ray writer and an load of blank disks gathering dust, but i play everything from usb sticks or portable hdd connected to my tv

John.

 

Upscaling is magical, but no substitute for the real thing.

Try as I might, I can't get Redbox, Target, BestBuy, Fry's, etc to load the Blu-ray movies data I buy from them onto a USB drive

And, all the streaming stuff, no matter how good it looks, are lower density data streams than served by a local optical disc.

It's hardly sensible to invest in 4k hardware and not give it the best software to run.

 

My 55" 1080p TV is retina, if i sit over 7ft away from the screen, so unless you have an great big 100"+ tv 4K is a waste.

Now 4K displays on an VR Headset will look amazing, the higher the better as the screen is only an 1" away from your eyes or something.

http://isthisretina.com/

John.

 

The same was said about 1080p, it's not true.

The more data available the better, at any distance.

The first time I saw the difference between 4k vs 1080p was at a distance of 50', then 30', then 20', and the difference was clear from each vantage.

Invest in some good contacts or Lasik

Also, all of our current 1080p/4k hardware without HDR is obsolete...

HDR was shipping toward the end of last year, and declared as a standard this CES 2016.

Multiple 4K HDR Options Begin To Emerge
http://hdguru.com/multiple-4k-hdr-options-begin-to-emerge/

Source material will need to support it, but it's coming as part of upcoming 4K content. Gaming will likely be the first content to support HDR in a meaningful way, and benefit greatly from the new high contrast images.

Spoiler

Starting at 3:40

Once you see HDR, all the previous 1080p/4K source material will look like dim washed out shadows of reality

HDR TV: What is it and should you care?
http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/hdr-tv-high-dynamic-television-explained

No, but seriously: Should you buy a 4K TV?
http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/222397-should-you-buy-a-4k-tv

You'll soon watch 4K live sports with HDR... in Canada
http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/05/rogers-4k-live-sports-and-gigabit-internet/

Games with HDR will be the new hotness - if you have the hardware to display it.

Same for VR. Do the current displays / hardware support HDR?... if not, budget for a new headset and support equipment soon.

4K HDR data increases data demands in video sources, so optical will be even more important to deliver the high bit rate data stream required to deliver the best image in real-time on the new HDR displays.

Streaming sources will have HDR too, but at lower data rates than you can get with local Optical disc's:

YouTube Announces HDR Video Support At CES 2016
http://www.androidheadlines.com/2016/01/youtube-announces-hdr-video-support-ces-2016.html

 

This is exactly the path an audiophile of the 80's would go through. Simple 'stereo' setup to insanity (in a good way). Today, they laugh at the $10K+ speaker wires... but little do they know... so little.

As with anything, the more you learn/educate yourself the higher your standards will be. And with video as well as audio, the smallest differences can seem huge once you begin appreciating them.

I agree that a physical disc with 4K HDR content mastered professionally will be a poor substitute viewed on the proper ancillary equipment any other way (i.e. streaming).

The issue isn't that optical drives though are needed. Just that different forms of delivery of 4K HDR content are not made available to the average joe.


But on topic; except for the above noted usage model; yeah; optical drives are dead. Especially for recording on... (nothing beats a pressed disc, for accuracy or longevity - and until and unless we can press our own optical discs? They are a throwaway tech).

 

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I do not "stream" anything except what I watch on youtube basically. I have both a huge digital and disc collection.

Sometimes it is convenient and I watch a digital copy I have made and is handy, other times I just pop in the disc. I never have to worry about buffering, my internet not working that day, wireless signal problems, account login issues, or issues with any of those custom applications you need for netflix or whatever.

I love having an optical drive in my notebook so I can watch discs when in a hotel room by bringing some with me, borrowing a friends, or going to a local redbox. I also HATE DRM in every way possible. So I like to make backup copies of all my discs so I can watch them on as many machines as I want as often as I want.

I really hope they never stop putting in optical drives in all notebooks, otherwise I will be forced to use an external all the time. If they ever stop making discs completely, well I just hope I don't live that long

 

I dunno though. If I'm travelling the last thing I want to do is fuss with an optical disc. Just get digital replica. To me it doesn't matter much on a 15" or 17" display if it's uncompressed video. At home on the big screen is where it matters most to me. Although right now I only have a 1080p blu-ray player and have a 4K television I acquired about six months ago.

 

I'm with Porter, if I want portability I use my 5.7" Note or 10" tablet, my Notebook should have optical drive bay, if for nothing else, I can always install second (or third) hard drive for extra storage, since it replaced my desktop. I have hundreds of older DVD's some of which I haven't time to watch yet. And as far as streaming, I don't want to use bad words and be suspended here, but I just spend three days trying to make my 2 laptops work with HD home run. One of them has eDP screen and will never work with DRM protected content, since MS only certified HDMI, other one, which has HDMI screen will not connect, Windows Media Center can't see tuners, even if silicon software program can. SO i'm not big fan of streaming nor MS for that matter.

 

I thought I had read it all. You want an optical drive so you can have room for a second/third HDD/SSD?

Interesting...

lol...

 

Yeah, nice 2TB HDD in place of the DVDROM, did any manufactures ever offer the option, Then again you know how much manufactures can inflate the prices, an 2TB hdd and caddy = £80, manufacture charges £160.

Flash ram storage on phone/tablets has got to be once of the biggest ripoffs going from 32GB to 64GB oh that will be another £100, for actual £15 of memory even the high speed stuff.

John.

 

I said even if you don't use build in optical drive, (for example I have usb BR drive, so build in DVD drive may be redundant in my older laptop), you can still use it for storage expansion and it's 30 sec swap, just in case I want DVD back and either way I still have optical drive, what's so strange about that? It's all about having options, concept some people may not be very familiar with.
As far as Tinderbox comment about phone/tablet memory price, I will not buy phone/tablet without SD slot, simple as that. My phone has about 150 GB of storage, I'm good for now and cost me $30 extra to max it out and it seems Samsung came back to it's senses and Galaxy S7 will have sd slot back.

 

I'm the OP and admittedly have been absent after the 1st page of responses and message exchanges. I am considering purchasing another notebook PC as backup to mhe y primary PC. I use my PC as an all-round entertainment center and among the activities is watching DVDs. As a more specific example, hypothetically I am considering a 15" or 17" Alienware notebook PC, manufacturer-refurbished. Since they (as well as almost all new notebook PCs) don't come with an optical drive, is installing an aftermarket optical drive feasible? I know this may be tricky, as I'll have to determine which optical drive models are compatible.

Thanks much for your consideration and any advice and information.

 

I would personally stay away from Alienware, you can get better hardware for less from MSI and Asus, if you are looking for a gaming laptop. If there isn't a slot to fit the BD/DVD optical drive, then you can't put one in on your own.

Both Asus and MSI offer Optical drives in their large frame gaming series, about the same size as the Alienware laptops - or smaller.

I've noticed the Blu-ray optical drives are only in the highest end models now, but you can easily purchase an LG BD and replace the DVD optical drive, swap the face plates - it will still say DVD on the face plate but the curve of it will fit the laptop.

I am looking at getting a 965m/970m/980m previous generation model to tide me over, and there are a number to choose from. They all have DVD's, and I have a BD drive I will be swapping in myself

 

@paradoxguy it is impossible to install optical drive internally if the machine lacks optical drive bay. You can always hook it up on USB, though.

 

I greatly appreciate the responses. @hmscott I did a cursory search and certainly MSI seems to offer some well-featured gaming notebooks (Apache) with optical drives at attractive pricepoints. Could I ask a few more questions?

1. You refer to 965m/970m/980m models to tide you over. What makes and models are you referring to?
2. Do you have any specific recommendations for gaming laptops w/internal optical drives in the 15"-18" size range? I'm looking for a gaming laptop to play the WWII flight simulator IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946, but also to serve as my primary workhorse notebook PC for other tasks.
3. Are you familiar with the warranties of ASUS and MSI? Do you know how well these companies support and back-up their products?

Thanks much again.

 

Wow, so much to say, but I will try to condense it.

Asus comes with a 1 year warranty, but used to automatically extend to 2 years. MSI comes with a 2 year warranty still, so I like them best for that.

Cost. It's the #1 killer of laptop dreams.

Start by picking the GPU you want / need, then find which generation of laptop is best for your pocket book, gaming performance will be pretty much the same.

Don't get swayed by the lure of the newest release. They always have the most problems right at launch. Buy the model line just before to get the best value, but even so pricing will center around the GPU value.

965m will run 97% of the games at 30fps+, given reduced eye-candy and resolution. It will be by far the cheapest of the previous line up.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-965M.134120.0.html
"Overall, the GTX 965M is fast enough to run demanding games as of 2014/2015 with high details and FullHD resolution. In some titles, even additional quality features like anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are possible."

The latest line up will always cost too much more to consider simply for performance, if it has exactly the same GPU's.

For example a new Asus G751JL with G-sync goes for sub $1000 new, but a new Asus G752VL will go for $1500, some 965m based laptops will go for even more. That's a lot of $ to pay for 965m level performance.

You can get a Asus G751JY with G-sync for $1600, that's got a 980m, why get a new 765m based laptop for the same price or more than one with a 980m??

The Asus G752's have new tech like M.2 PCIE x2 Nvme, but it's problematic, they need BIOS updates to get best performance, or function for some SSD's.

The GT72's vs GT72S's, you pay more but you get more new funcationality, upgradeability, CM236 vs HM170 chipsets, etc.

The nice thing about the GT72's is you can get the 980m + 6820HK, the only 2 real necessities. G-sync is nice, IPS is more important - they mostly come with both now.

The GT72S / GT80S are the only ones with a single 980 or 980 SLI. Kinda pricey, no matter how you slice it. A $2999 "bargain" configuration GT72S 980 is coming out very soon.

The problem with the non-GT models is they only go so far as a 970m. And, you can pay as much for them as a GT72 with a 980m.

Slim / pretty / small cost more, and to game you really want a full frame laptop for cooling.

Ah, I left out the Asus G751JT with G-sync, $1248.

It's hard to buy anything else when the end of production G751's have worked out all their bugs, and do the same as or better than the new G752's, that are still in their infancy.

Same with all Skylakes, Windows 10 only machines, ongoing bugginess.

I would go for a Haswell + Windows 8.1/7 solution.

For me a 970m is the sweet spot, but also more likely for me to hold the line and get a 965m, and enjoy trying to make it run OC'd and have fun tuning the OS / games for performance. That's only $1k new or so to play.

It doesn't hurt to run "low power" gaming for a start, or to return to once in a while to appreciate the high power stuff again.

Waiting for the Pascal stuff to hit...

 

Thanks much for the detailed information about gaming notebooks. I will take this into serious consideration as I continue my search for a reasonable model.

 

And, if you are going to try to buy a used 980m/970m, be prepared to have a few deals turn out to be not worth going through with.

I can't believe people spend all this money, and not register the laptop for warranty as soon as they buy it - you get 3 more months extra from MSI on your 2 year warranty if you register within 2 weeks of purchase date on receipt.

And, that's the other thing, save your receipt - stick it in a zip lock back along with the other associated receipts, and tape it to the inside of the laptop box. You can't get warranty support without registering your laptop, and you need that receipt to show proof of purchase

And, that's the other thing, *never* throw out the original box and packing material. It's worth $100+ on resale, and you need it for transport for RMA if that comes up.

The box is a good place to keep the parts you replace in the laptop with better RAM/SSD/HDD. Keep those little boxes / packages in the laptop box too.

The laptop box is also a good place to keep the USB 3.0 flash boot recovery drive.

You do backup your recovery volume as soon as you get your laptop, before a component like an SSD/HDD can fail, right?

I may have a line on a G751JT G-sync for $1050.

I had a line on a G751JY G-sync for $1200, but that guy disappeared.

Before that I had an Alienware 17 970m that went for way too much $, I could get the same model at Costco for $1399 new. Alienware stuff goes for wayyy to much $.

Anyway, have fun, and let us know what you end up getting!