PC Optical Drives: Gone With The Wind

[Judge]

Assuming this is true, it appears that LG is the last major manufacturer of optical drives for PCs to end all production. I've maintained the computers I build to be able to play DVDs, but have long since stopped archiving anything on an optical disk. I have to assume all case manufacturers will cease producing anything with 5.25" drive bays along with external drives run by USB. Including Fractal Design who still manufactures their "Pop" Air and Silent line of cases with a two hidden 5.25 drives.

Frankly I guess no one gives a damn any more...much like Rhett Butler. Oh well. My only question is whether I outlive all my devices capable of displaying a DVD. Maybe, maybe not.

 

[Outdated]

That's been in the works for a long time now. Optical drives lasted a lot longer than almost any other media but nothing lasts forever.

Vinyl records. Audio cassettes. VHS tapes.

The technology isn't going away though, just massively expanded on.

Light-Based Quantum Computer Exceeds Fastest Classical Supercomputers

 

[Judge]

Ironically I'm on a precipice of whether or not to get a new, and considerably bigger widescreen tv. Much more impressive, but also easier on vision concerns in my old age.

Which with 4K technology would effectively ruin the experience of upconverting native 480p DVDs well past 1080p. Making it that much more imperative to have a player that at least can successfully upconvert a DVD to 1080p, and a native 1080p television to properly display them.

Up to now I've always relented in accepting a new media format, and effectively having to repurchase them. But with close to 400 titles, it's not financially viable any more. Not to mention that about half of them are easily found on streaming media without further cost. Though with most streaming media, I'm at the mercy of online hosts who may choose to discontinue such programming.

So I have no choice but to accept the possibility that some day I might lose the ability to play my ancient DVDs upconverted to 1080p entirely.

 

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So I have no choice but to accept the possibility that some day I might lose the ability to play my ancient DVDs upconverted to 1080p entirely.

Do the same as many of us did with our music collections - rip them on to a harddrive where they're good for decades to come. The best Linux software for this is called Handbrake:

HandBrake: Open Source Video Transcoder

I don't keep many movies and TV shows any more, but some things disappear over time and you won't be able to find them on streaming services in the future.

 

[Judge]

Do the same as many of us did with our music collections - rip them on to a harddrive where they're good for decades to come. The best Linux software for this is called Handbrake:

HandBrake: Open Source Video Transcoder

I don't keep many movies and TV shows any more, but some things disappear over time and you won't be able to find them on streaming services in the future.

Thanks.

Interesting, though I'd hate to think of the disc space that might involve for some <400 titles. But it might be a thought for more exotic titles that I don't expect to find in streaming media, particularly stuff involving arguments over intellectual property rights.

I guess over so many years I've become terrorized by copyguard technology like Macrovision. But it would be interesting to see if it can be so easily circumvented on an SSD.

 

[Outdated]

Thanks.

Interesting, though I'd hate to think of the disc space that might involve for some <400 titles. But it might be a thought for more exotic titles that I don't expect to find in streaming media, particularly stuff involving arguments over intellectual property rights.

I guess over so many years I've become terrorized by copyguard technology like Macrovision.

When I was living in the bush a lot of people had no access to TV or to the internet so their main entertainment was harddrives full of movies, which got shared around communities a bit like people leaving old books in the pub for others to read.

A 2 terrabyte drive will hold up to 3000 full length movies, depending on what quality they were reencoded at.

DVDs were deliberately encoded in a truly bloated format to discourage people from just ripping the information straight to a harddrive, reencoding them to MP4 or MKV reduces their size to under 1 gig.

 

[Judge]

A 2 terrabyte drive will hold up to 3000 full length movies, depending on what quality they were reencoded at.

That's my real concern. Compression algorithms. Anything degraded below the default quality would be utterly unacceptable to my discerning eyes.

Plus whether or not this is completely legal under US law.

 

[Judge]

One other question I have about such technology. Does it only transfer quality based on an original DVD's native resolution of 480p or can it magically upconvert the saved file to say 1080p ?

That would really increase my curiosity about actively using such technology.

 

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Plus whether or not this is completely legal under US law.

That's a point too. Under Australian law we don't buy a DVD, what we buy is access rights to a set of digital information. Under Australian law it's highly recommended that when we buy digital media we immediately make back up copies of that information.

Under Aussie law it's perfectly normal and expected that when someone buys a music CD the very first thing they're going to do is make multiple copies of it, one for in the car, one for out in the shed, etc.

 

[Judge]

Under Aussie law it's perfectly normal and expected that when someone buys a music CD the very first thing they're going to do is make multiple copies of it, one for in the car, one for out in the shed, etc.

Not surprised. That doesn't bode well from my end. It will require some legal research.

 

[Outdated]

One other question I have about such technology. Does it only transfer quality based on an original DVD's native resolution of 480p or can it magically upconvert the saved file to say 1080p ?

That's called Upscaling. I'm not sure if Handbrake provides this feature or not, it's a long time since I used it, but the technology is certainly out there and it's something you can look in to.

Upscaling uses AI to preserve and even enhance picture quality.

 

[Judge]

Upscaling uses AI to preserve and even enhance picture quality.

That's precisely my point given a simple reality. All my PC DVD recorders/players default to their native 480p resolution. Unlike a Television DVD player that can in fact upconvert to 720/1080p.

They look acceptable on my monitor, but not as good as streaming media or blu-ray playing at 1080p.

LOL....which reminds me that I still possess my first Sony DVD player that defaults to only 480p. I loved it at the time, with both a volume control as well as its own headphone jack. Sadly though it has no ability to play back DVD or CD recordable discs. I also never tossed out my Sony 9-inch TV set. But that's a mighty small screen, especially in letterbox format...lol.

 

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That's precisely my point given a simple reality. All my PC DVD recorders/players default to their native 480p resolution. Unlike a Television DVD player that can in fact upconvert to 720/1080p.

They look acceptable on my monitor, but not as good as streaming media or blu-ray playing at 1080p.

If files are reencoded in an upscaled format then it doesn't matter what you play them on. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's any open source software available for this just yet, only commercial products, but that will change.

I've seen some really good examples of old videos that have been upscaled but at the moment it's use seems limited to museum archives and old porn films.

 

[Judge]

I've seen some really good examples of old videos that have been upscaled but at the moment it's use seems limited to museum archives and old porn films.

Over the last few years I've seen a lot of that happening. Amazing to see, apart from titles being completely remastered, having been cleared of so many typical video artifacts that can spoil an otherwise good film or tv show.

Giving it more thought, without being able to upscale such video to watch on my PC, I don't see myself bothering to archive them to a 1 or 2 TB drive. But of course it all comes down to how long my DVD player that upconverts lasts, along with a 1080p tv to watch them on. I can still buy such a dvd player at $49 if I want another....at least for the timed being.

 

[Outdated]

I can still buy such a dvd player at $49 if I want another....at least for the timed being.

And there's the catch - optical drives won't be that readily available in the future. They'll always be around but they'll become very expensive items that only geeks use. You can still buy record players and vinyl records today but they cost an arm and a leg.

 

[Judge]

And there's the catch - optical drives won't be that readily available in the future. They'll always be around but they'll become very expensive items that only geeks use. You can still buy record players and vinyl records today but they cost an arm and a leg.

LOL...yep. Just like cassette decks or laser disks. Considering only the tiny few you can buy. Inferior to the originals, with a much higher price tag. And questionable noise reduction given legal issues with Dolby.

The inferior dynamic range and particularly all the unwanted audio "artifacts" of vinyl records always made me puke. Yet in as much as I enjoyed my cassette tape collection, both tape and vinyl are completely obsolete to me given digital recording formats with higher bitrates.

But then I have both a PC-DVD Player/Recorder and a PC CD-Player/Recorder that are both about 25 years old. Sitting in my closet for years...but they also still run fine. As does the one in my legacy computer. But buying recordable discs in those formats will likely come to an end as well.

I suspect they will all outlast ME...lol.

 

[Crabcore]

And there's the catch - optical drives won't be that readily available in the future. They'll always be around but they'll become very expensive items that only geeks use. You can still buy record players and vinyl records today but they cost an arm and a leg.

I was thinking about this, too. What's going to suck is shelling out $100+ for some boutique USB optical device when you just want to hear one of your old CDs. Not to be 'cool' or anything, just because you kept something really unique over the decades and the world moved on.

I will convince my kids from day one that CDs are not a novelty item. They're serious business

 

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Not to be 'cool' or anything, just because you kept something really unique over the decades and the world moved on.

I got to play old 78s on my great grandmother's gramophone when I was a kid. Those records were made of bakelite instead of vinyl and they lasted a long time.

They were a poor family and couldn't afford fancy diamond tipped styluses for it, instead in ran on sewing machine needles.

They worked fine as long as you kept the balance light. They wore out quick too but they were cheap.