Is The Disc Dead?

[Bribie G]

Just bought a new desktop tower and also bought a couple of usb sticks to get my files off the old machine (for example my Forum Pictures Bribie recycled photo collection).

With 8 gig sticks now around $6 is there still any application for DVD R-W drives for the average user? I've got them in both my old and new machines but never used them for burning, just reading.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Pretty much.
All I've used mine for is to rip DVDs and CDs which have been difficult to steal from the internets.

 

[white.grant]

Haven't burn't a disc for years and don't seem to read many these days, though I guess you will always need a drive to boot from in the event of disaster.

 

[Bribie G]

Yup, I have a few games as well that came on CD or DVD but with huge internal storage nowadays you can do the "full install" version then forget about the discs it came on.

Edit: I see that one version of Windows 8 will come on a bootable USB stick.

 

[pk.sax]

Loser. Should've got the bluray drive 8)

 

[bum]

I'm fairly sure the latest version of Mac OS is download only. Their new laptops don't even have optical drives.

DVDs are finished in terms data storage. I can't imagine anyone but the most stubborn Luddite has been using CDs for back-ups in recent years.

This issue has been pretty much decided for some time. The real question is 'Is the hard-drive dead/dying?".

 

[pk.sax]

I used a CD to send rellies some photos.

Although, could've just put em on a cheap USB and posted it .... Well, its just not got the romance of 'burning' a CD and then adorning the CD with your best Sharpie craftsmanship

 

[bum]

With DVD being only a few bucks more per hundred, I'd imagine it'd be more common to use DVD for that purpose (but not most common, obviously) in order to save having a spindle of both. Surely people forced to still burn CDs for the car are pretty much keeping the plants open.

 

[Pennywise]

Lol, Im one of them bum. Well, Im not forced to burn CD's for the car. But I prefer to as CD's, in my experience, tend to get pretty well scratched while in the car. And I don't have a USB port on the deck

 

[bum]

Lol, Im one of them bum.

I'm not having a dig. Our car has a tape player.

A broken tape player.

 

[pk.sax]

Its funny cuz my (ok... mum's) old car could only play CDs (but it could play MP3 CDs).

I stopped putting more than 20ish songs on a CD because it became just too darn confusing to find the songs on a CD with a few 100!

Again, I bought a few CDs for my own wheels, it came with a 6CD changer! I had no say in that... Anyway, I hardly use the CDs... They do feel awesome to put in the player though... when I was a kid, all the cool ppl had CD players in their car.

 

[Pennywise]

I'm not having a dig. Our car has a tape player.

A broken tape player.

I wish I had a tape deck. I have heaps of albums on cassette that I dont need to buy again on cd, haven't had a car with a tape deck in it for a few years

 

[barls]

They make nice coasters

 

[raven19]

Lol, Im one of them bum. Well, Im not forced to burn CD's for the car. But I prefer to as CD's, in my experience, tend to get pretty well scratched while in the car. And I don't have a USB port on the deck

My old ute now has a $50 ebay stereo in it (replacing the old dead radio). SD/USB card only (no disc). Very limited features but it beats the hell out of listening to the radio. Have a heap of CD/DVD spindles collecting dust now too...

 

[Cube]

Dead. With bluetooth, crossover cables (old school, air drop, cloud storage, huge hard drives/media players and downloadable os upgrades etc it's all a thing of the past. Picasa etc have taken over image sharing so posting a discs is old school as well.

Apple is pioneering the move just like they did with the floppy. Seen/used a floppy in recent memory or even last 5 years!?

 

[jyo]

WTF are you guys on about?

My Commodore 64 is still running seamlessly. The Depthcharge tape takes a while to load up but once in does, I'm in heaven.

 

[Bizier]

I still burn CDs for my car regularly.

I also swap mixes with some old friends and I insist on making as a single track that I mix in Audacity, relying on basic fades and cuts... essentially I am one step forward from my old tape deck with the soft pause button that I used to mix. I am sure that it pisses people off because you only have ffwd not skip.

I even walked into JB Hifi yesterday and bought a handful of CDs.

 

[bum]

Dead. With bluetooth, crossover cables (old school, air drop, cloud storage, huge hard drives/media players and downloadable os upgrades etc it's all a thing of the past. Picasa etc have taken over image sharing so posting a discs is old school as well.

Apple is pioneering the move just like they did with the floppy. Seen/used a floppy in recent memory or even last 5 years!?

Bluetooth? Really? When did you ever see any sort of piconet with more than 2 nodes? Bluetooth isn't used all that much outside of a single user making two devices talk. Writing is on the wall there too.

Crossovers? As you say, officially obsolete.

Cloud? People just aren't ready to not actually "own" what they pay for.

DropBox (and it's pale imitations) will always (a generation) be the domain of nerds. The average person wants their data/applications local.

I don't know anyone who uses Picasa unless they use a device that basically forces them to - those devices (that device) has a huge backlash coming. Hopefully when the 90s Sony-looking new model comes out.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Cloud? People just aren't ready to not actually "own" what they pay for.

DropBox (and it's pale imitations) will always (a generation) be the domain of nerds. The average person wants their data/applications local.

Nah, this is they way it's heading - at least for transporting data from A to B - which was the thrust of the thread.

 

[petesbrew]

I'm not having a dig. Our car has a tape player.

A broken tape player.

Spewing it's broken. I think I still have my old tape adapter for my discman (gone the way of the bin years ago).
Got one of those fm radio modulators for my mp3er but the sound is rubbish. Spindles of discs are pretty cheap around Chinatown. $9 for 50 or so.