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Do you still use optical discs in your computer?

Do you still use optical discs?

  • Yes, occasionally or often

    Votes: 49 33.6%

  • Yes, but very rarely

    Votes: 58 39.7%

  • No

    Votes: 33 22.6%

  • What is this "optical disc" you speak of?

    Votes: 6 4.1%
  • Total voters
    146
BenTrovato said:
For console gaming yes because the disc has trade in value whereas the digital download becomes valueless. Otherwise no practical use for optical discs.
Click to expand...

Interesting that I am totally on the other way around. Occasionally use optical disc on computer (live CD, burning DVD / photo CD for someone else, etc). But moved to digital 100% on console. I own multiple consoles, so one digital copy can serve them all (at once), I can even set primary console to let my wife login to her account and play the same game with me (co-op) on another console at the same time. For physical copy, I have to buy 2 discs to achieve that. But now I can buy one copy and serve more than one players / consoles (at the same moment). Of course, it's also faster and quieter by avoiding the game disc (I use SSHD on my consoles).

I 100% agree that the biggest advantage of a physical disc is that you can sell it. However, I never do that, not even once. Eventually I have hundreds of game disc in my drawer now. So, it become a problem for me more than value.

Anyway, I am now no more a super fan boy of new games. And basically only buy games when there is a big sales, almost never buy any new expensive games. I usually won't buy anything from XB / PS store which cost me >$20. So, I don't really care about the games re-sell value.

For me, it's more like $15 for 2 copies (at least), and never have to worry about the optical drive fail, or disc scratched, etc.
 
I use my DVD/Blu-ray drive literally just to rip my DVD and Blu-ray movies onto my Plex server. Lol.
 
I'm using a couple of optical drives for backup and for music clients who want to play their CD on a CD player.
Just about every day.
Obviously, this is an archaic paradigm, but the silver discs are somehow an immutable reference.
 
Last edited:
For what it's worth, I've used mine twice this week. Once to burn a DVD and once to rip a Blu-ray. I have a home theatre and buy a lot of Blu-rays for it (streaming looks awful on a screen that size) and I tend to rip the main .m2ts file to get around idiotic decisions (I haven't found a single Blu-ray player that will actually pause when I press Pause - they all tend to run some sort of on-disc code to pop up progress bars and thumbnails and the like).
 
As so many others, I use the Superdrive and Bluray Drive mainly for ripping music and movies.

However, with Amazon's AutoRip feature, even this scenario is less and less common nowadays. I buy the CD and get the MP3 download at once. The MP3 are dropped into iTunes, the CD is placed in storage when it arrives a few days later.

Bluray ripping is still a more common scenario, until someone decides to offer DRM free movie downloads with every purchased Bluray.

I have a few applications that where delivered on CD, so on rare occasion I need the superdrive to install software.

To be honest, an external Bluray drive would be sufficient for me.
 
I still use bluray and dvd for archival purpose.
For installing linux or windows I use Rosa Image writer to create a usb key from the iso.
 
tomvos said:
As so many others, I use the Superdrive and Bluray Drive mainly for ripping music and movies.
Click to expand...

Same here. Other than that I never use the superdrive anymore. I don't even remember the last time I installed something from a dvd :p
 
I burn a blu-ray backup every time I download pictures from a memory card. Too many HD failures over the years. I also occasionally get CD's of new artists and put in iTunes. I would guess I use my blue-ray mounted in the optical drive slot on my cMP once a week.
 
h9826790 said:
Interesting that I am totally on the other way around. Occasionally use optical disc on computer (live CD, burning DVD / photo CD for someone else, etc). But moved to digital 100% on console. I own multiple consoles, so one digital copy can serve them all (at once), I can even set primary console to let my wife login to her account and play the same game with me (co-op) on another console at the same time. For physical copy, I have to buy 2 discs to achieve that. But now I can buy one copy and serve more than one players / consoles (at the same moment). Of course, it's also faster and quieter by avoiding the game disc (I use SSHD on my consoles).

I 100% agree that the biggest advantage of a physical disc is that you can sell it. However, I never do that, not even once. Eventually I have hundreds of game disc in my drawer now. So, it become a problem for me more than value.

Anyway, I am now no more a super fan boy of new games. And basically only buy games when there is a big sales, almost never buy any new expensive games. I usually won't buy anything from XB / PS store which cost me >$20. So, I don't really care about the games re-sell value.

For me, it's more like $15 for 2 copies (at least), and never have to worry about the optical drive fail, or disc scratched, etc.
Click to expand...

Completely understand your situation. What I often do is buy a console game at launch for $80. I'll play/finish the game and sell it for $40 a month or two later. The off time I'll buy a game and end up keeping it for longer and trade it in for even $5-10 a year later.

I do have Steam on the PC but all the games in my collection are wasted once they no longer have use. I don't mind the trade in value, just feels like less of a waste. Sometimes when I sell games online, it's the dad or mom of a kid who buys the game off me that can't afford full price. I guess it kinda feels good to help someone out while still getting some value for a game. I would like to have an SSD in my console and just load games more quickly but haven't eaten the cost yet of the game having no value when I'm done with it. Although I have a feeling that digital media may cease to exist in the next generation of consoles.
 
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AidenShaw said:
What's the difference between an emulated laser and a physical laser?
Click to expand...

My cat is far more interested in physical lasers.

Nothing good would come of removing ISO support. I use that myself. Well I still use optical discs too, but very rarely. I could be finished with the latter any time.
 
I use old game DVDs to create Wineskins every now and then. Plus, installing Windows 10 from DVD or reinstalling MacOS from DVD usually presents less headaches than using USB drives on my old 4,1>5,1.
 
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Yes. Went to external USB DVD burners when I bought my MBA. I was also going to pull the burner out of my PC, but am going to put it back in, even though I also have VirtualCloneDrive installed on it, as I could just simply mount the ISO instead of having to burn it to disc then mount the disc.

BL.
 
I work in audio all day and, no. Certainly not enough to require an internal drive, a USB drive for occasional use is fine. Reminds me to go with that and stick a couple of HDDs in my optical bays, thanks!
 
The last time I used my burners was almost 2 yrs ago when I burned movies into iTunes for my iPad, now with apps that allow me to download/stream I have no real use for them anymore. Might consider using those connectors for a higher spec video card down the road at some point...
 
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