Current optical drive use (Feb 2013)

[Kerry56]

Its no secret that use of optical drives is falling off the cliff. I just hadn't realized how close we are to hitting the rocks below.

I've been watching a poll over at videohelp.com. The main question was, Have you bought a blu ray burner? And of course, very few respondents have them, and only a tiny percentage plan on buying one in the future.

The most interesting result was from the last answer offered: Don't have any burner installed. The poll has been going on for a while, and with well over 500 votes in, 66% are saying that they don't have any optical burners installed in their computers.

Here is the link:
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/353097-Have-you-bought-a-blu-ray-burner

The members at that site are fairly knowledgeable about video and you would think many would have some interest in ripping dvds and blu ray. Some might have a dvd-rom or blu ray rom installed, but those types of drives are not all that common.

[Liggy]

Looks like I am an exception then. In my main PC I have
LiteOn IHBS112 for burning and scanning Bluray
Optiarc AD-7201S for burning DVD and CD
LiteOn SHM-165P6S whenever a LiteOn DVD scan is required (hardly used, not sure if it’s still working)
NEC ND-3540A for scanning every DVD that I burn

In my second PC I even have 6 drives, but can’t list them all right now. Don’t use them for burning or scanning but only for verifying compatibility with some of my programs or tracing which commands other programs send to drives

[Wombler]

I don’t think I could manage without any type of burner but I suppose it’s symptomatic of the trend that I bought a Blu-ray writer a month ago and haven’t got around to installing it yet.

[B]Wombler[/B]

[Arachne]

I couldn’t manage without at least a couple of burners installed in my main PC - I’d even go so far as to say I need the external one as well.

Mainly because the different drives like different discs I think. Even my mum now “must” have two installed

No Blu-ray though.

[Kerry56]

Just took another look at the poll, with over 1000 votes cast, the percentage of folks with no burners is up to 82.5%.

[Arachne]

[QUOTE=Kerry56;2676745]Just took another look at the poll, with over 1000 votes cast, the percentage of folks with no burners is up to 82.5%. [/QUOTE]

82.5% with no burners…imagine that on here

[bean55]

All 12 of my computers have dvd burners 5 also now have blu ray burners

[JReynolds]

Hi,

I’m always amazed to find out that people don’t know one can rip a Blu-ray/DVD. I cant help but feel this is one of the key underlying reasons that use of readers/burners is falling away.

I shouldn’t say this but surely having the ability to backup a Blu-ray/DVD throws a whole new light on rental services such as Lovefilm (in the UK) and alike. For a relatively small monthly fee I get to turnaround quite a few films every month.

Regds, JR

[DrageMester]

[QUOTE=Kerry56;2676745]Just took another look at the poll, with over 1000 votes cast, the percentage of folks with no burners is up to 82.5%. [/QUOTE] Perhaps some of them misunderstood the question and are voting to say they don’t have a [B]Blu-ray[/B] burner?

[hlse]

Then I’m one of the few with a blu-ray burner…
I’m curious though. Most people I know that sent their old PC to the bin bought a laptop instead. Don’t most manufacturers include an optical drive in them?
Maybe they think it’s just for reading, not burning.

[Kerry56]

[QUOTE=DrageMester;2676783]Perhaps some of them misunderstood the question and are voting to say they don’t have a [B]Blu-ray[/B] burner?[/QUOTE]

I suppose that is possible, but there are clear choices for having a dvd burner and for just having a cd burner.

[ChristineBCW]

I am a bit curious (skeptical?) of the Don’t Have Burner numbers. Of the 2,000-odd PCs we administer, just about all of them have a burner, and those that don’t are small-case “on the plant floor” workstation types in environments so dusty that it’d be iffy a clean blank could be inserted anyway. That probably accounts for 200 units? 300? Something like that. Most of ours are office and/or studio types and they have a CD-DVD burner.

Few BluRays, though - not because of the drive or its price, though, but because of the expense of the media. It’s not perceived to be a good value at this time.

[Kerry56]

Well, its a mystery. Maybe a wandering tribe of Apple users found their way into that forum.

[Arachne]

[QUOTE=Kerry56;2676801]Well, its a mystery. Maybe a wandering tribe of Apple users found their way into that forum. [/QUOTE]

Haha

[javelar]

Currently have
Desktop NEC ND-3550A
laptop Hitachi HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GT30N
External just ordered my first Blu-ray writer Samsung SE-506BB

[touchdown_1]

Yeah I can’t imagine being without one:

current drives,

Asus DRW 24B

LG GH22L30

Buffalo (Generic LG) BH10NS30 (BD)

[alan1476]

[QUOTE=DrageMester;2676783]Perhaps some of them misunderstood the question and are voting to say they don’t have a [B]Blu-ray[/B] burner?[/QUOTE]
At least some here got it right LOL.

[Kerry56]

The mystery is solved! They had a glitch in their forum software regarding the poll.

Current standings show only 3.45% without a burner of any kind.

And an astonishing 51% who either have a blu ray burner or plan on getting one.

[Arachne]

A glitch? Doh, and here we were feeling all special