Apple dumping DVD
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- Boz
"I don't like it. Not one iota. But frankly, it doesn't much matter -- Apple's officially done with the optical drive, and there's no evidence more strikingly clear than the mid 2011 refresh of its Mac mini. Last year, that bantam box arrived with a $699 price tag, pep in its step and a personality that could charm even the most hardened desktop owner. This year, a $599 model showed up on my doorstep promising the same, but instead it delivered a noticeable drop in actual functionality. Pundits have argued that you could tether a USB SuperDrive to the new mini and save $20 in the process compared to last year's rig, but does relying on a cabled accessory go hand-in-hand with beauty and simplicity? No, and I've every reason to believe that Apple would agree.
Despite the obvious -- that consumers would buy a mini to reduce the sheer burden of operating a convoluted desktop setup -- Apple's gone and yanked what has become a staple in both Macs and PCs alike. For years, ODDs have been standard fare, spinning CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs (however briefly) and Blu-ray Discs, not to mention a few other formats that didn't do much to deserve a mention. Compared to most everything else in the technology universe, the tried-and-true optical drive has managed to hang around well beyond what it's creator likely had in mind, but it's pretty obvious that 2011 is to the ODD what 1998 was to the floppy drive. At least in the mind of one Steven P. Jobs. "
- Boz0
I'll be perfectly honest. I haven't used my DVD drive in ages. The only, I mean ONLY time I use the DVD is to install the OS and to install Adobe Creative Suite. That's it.
I watch my stuff online or Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, HBOGo, Amazon. Movies I buy are on Blu-ray (but that happens less and less when I have HD movies on tap with the cloud services as well) so I use them in my Blu-ray players or PS3, I download/buy software online and i listen to my music in the cloud or from Amazon/iTunes/Pandora/Spotify/Gr...
With the rise of cloud, which is already here, optical media make even less sense. Especially when 8gb USB rewritable drives are basically dirt cheap.
The only time I really use the DVD for anything else I mentioned above is backing up my Blu-ray movies and transferring them to view them on Windows Media Center throughout my house. But, since Macs don't even have support for Blu-ray, taking out DVD is really something that makes sense. More people download and install stuff online anyways and with Mac App Store, this is perfectly logical step. At least for Apple.
- lowimpakt0
how much are them external drives they be sellin?
- detritus0
They're just prepping for HDDVD in 2012, Boz...
- capn_ron0
How are you going to import your old cd's into your itunes without purchasing a drive? i think that may be the only thing i use my drive for. and the occasional dvd for a printer overseas.
- Download a pirated version.nb
- that's still only a one-time usescarabin
- if you haven't imported your old CD's by now, you're never going to do it.reinitialize
- lol yup reinmoldero
- jon_d0
whats an external run for nowadays? 30 bucks?
Plus Id prefer the mini to have as little maintenance needed as possible, which means not needing to ever open it up for a failed DD.
It only needs a SSD now and it will never need to be opened.it's a non-issue.
- prophetone0
the only i'd have would be accessing the five trillion cd-rs of files i've backed up over the years. and ripping cds which I did once a long time ago when i thought 192kbps was adequate and it was like $300 for a 10GB drive. i'm now contemplating re-ripping everything at 320. these are trying times indeed.
- good point. I have a lot of DVD's with backed up work. Mostly terrible work, but work.capn_ron
- hellz round it up to 640kbps just to be sure :)Boz
- if i weren't so lazy i could spend some $$ on some external drives and just copy it all and trash them...prophetone
- i might just do that Boz, a once and for all rip of my cds at some future-proof quality level.prophetone
- after all, external drives are so freaking cheap now it makes sense...prophetone
- lukus_W20
It's no loss.
- prophetone0
- ironically the 2400c was designed for Apple by IBM. until the recent laptop designs this was the best imo.prophetone
- maybe designed 'with' IBM is a more accurate description, can you imagine that happening now? hahaprophetone
- haprophetone
- dopepope0
No one here backs up files on DVD?
- 5 years ago, sure. Not anymore.nb
- what do you back up on now?dopepope
- i back up on dvd. i want a physical disc like that in addition to my external.BonSeff
- I still do also. Sure it's a redundancy, but I find it worth the while. And I'd like the ability to keep doing it.dopepope
- Hard drives.nb
- I back up to a hard drive.Hombre_Lobo
- sherm0
have to admit I barely use my DVD or optical drive on any of my machines except to get music off once in a very blue moon.
CDs/DVDs are going the way of the Zip disk at this point.
Truth be told, I never really liked it as an archiving medium for data. I'd rather use an external HD.
- I just find the approx 4gb limit really limiting, but it's still ideal for secondary back ups.dopepope
- I have several 2TB drives to mirror files, but they aren't any more infallible than DVDs. So the redundancy is kinda needed.dopepope
- just as infallible I meantdopepope
- hmm, makes sense. Although you can argue if you back up to a lesser used HD, it would be less prone to "fallibility"sherm
- And you can replace your external HDs every 3-6 years as necessary. Especially at the cost they are now and the expected future cost.sherm
- ...expected future cost.sherm
- CyBrainX0
Mine hardly ever worked anyway.
- oddslob0
@dopepope
1TB External hard drives are like $100 these days. Save yourself the pain and headache of burning mass DVDs to cover your data, and just throw it on an external drive and shelf it till solid states are that cheap then repeat.
I have old cd's and dvds that I used for backups and it blows my mind how many of them have data errors, or somehow miraculously got scratched, or just forgotten somewhere because there are just too many versions of a file to keep track of, etc.
Important stuff gets backed up via dropbox between my 2 computers. Dated / archived stuff gets thrown on a usb drive and filed that way.
- Yeah. I already do this plus DVD back ups of certain shit.dopepope
- nb0
Why is that so many people consider a DVD a "physical backup" but an external HD as something else? They're equally "physical."
Worried about hard drive failure? Get two hard drives. Still cheaper and more efficient than DVD backups.
- a DVD can be used as an archivelukus_W2
- plus optical discs are much more sustainable to scratching and damage..Boz
- But they're not impervious to damage. And their lifespan is limited to that of the drives.nb
- But...you don't have to plug shit in like a HD....just pop it in, access stuff. easy.fyoucher1
- HDs mount faster than DVDsnb
- JSK0
When I got my Macbook air, it came with pretty little thumbdrive.
I hardly use any CD / DVDs. If I need to save or transport, I just use thumbdrive or upload it some where.
who needs CD / DVDs anyways.
Now back to Final Cut X talk .
- JSK0
Wait, do you hate Apple for getting rid of DVD or something I dont get this thread.
- kgvs720
What about iMovie and burning movies?