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MBP Owners: Keep the SuperDrive or Loose it for other options

What to do with the SuperDrive in the MBP?

  • Keep it in, I use it regularly

    Votes: 12 18.8%

  • Ditch it, secondary HD/Flash

    Votes: 13 20.3%

  • Ditch it, better battery

    Votes: 11 17.2%

  • Ditch it, better specs

    Votes: 23 35.9%

  • Ditch it, hot swappable options (battery, HD, Flash etc)

    Votes: 5 7.8%
  • Total voters
    64
harry20larry

harry20larry

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 14, 2008
574
14
Seems to be a pretty hot topic right now, personally I want to loose it since I never use it, and would far rather have an external DVD drive for ripping the odd movie than lugging an external HD everywhere so I can access all my photos.
Please vote and comment
 
I have acknowledged and accepted that we will never get Blu-Ray, which is the only optical standard I'm interested in. Therefore, I'm all in favor of ripping out the obsolete SuperDrive. Maybe Apple should throw a complimentary external drive into every MBP-box, or at least make it reasonably cheap, like 29 bucks.
 
Tyrion said:
... obsolete SuperDrive. Maybe Apple should throw a complimentary external drive into every MBP-box, or at least make it reasonably cheap, like 29 bucks.
Click to expand...

SuperDrive is far from obsolete and Apple doesn't do many give-aways (or cheap for that matter). :D
 
bigjobby said:
SuperDrive is far from obsolete and Apple doesn't do many give-aways (or cheap for that matter). :D
Click to expand...

How is it not obsolete? DVDs and CDs are all but dead. Apple should either support current standards (i. e. Blu-Ray) or ditch optical media altogether.
 
Tyrion said:
How is it not obsolete? DVDs and CDs are all but dead. Apple should either support current standards (i. e. Blu-Ray) or ditch optical media altogether.
Click to expand...

So people don't buy DVDs, CDs or games on these formats and retailers don't sell them either? Also the media industry still use them widely.

Floppy discs are obsolete, DVDs/CDs are not. There are no degrees of 'obsoleteness', it is either obsolete or not... like a boolean result.

Edit: Business world also use optical media widely too.
 
Nobody I know buys DVDs. Why should they? It's a dying medium that has long been superseded by Blu-Ray, why invest in something like that? That would be like buying cassettes in, say, 1995, when CDs had long become the new standard.
CDs are a different matter; I still buy them every now and then for nostalgic and aesthetic reasons - but in this regard, I'm the odd one out in my circle of friends. Nobody I know still has a "CD-collection" or even a CD player.

In this case, obsoleteness isn't a black-or-white thing. It's gradual. Yes, CDs and DVDs are still being sold, but you should ask yourselves if that fact justifies dedicating about a third of your laptop's interior to those old media. CDs and DVDs are walking dead. They're zombies.
 
frankley i hate having 2 hardrives. the time it takes to like decide when i save everything and looking for it is nor worth it.

they should just extend the battery and then sell the optional external optical drive.
 
Better graphics card. Better CPU. :)

I wouldn't mind if they used the space to equip the MacBook Pros with a better cooling solution so that they could add in better CPUs and GPUs.
 
Tyrion said:
Nobody I know buys DVDs. Why should they? It's a dying medium that has long been superseded by Blu-Ray, why invest in something like that? That would be like buying cassettes in, say, 1995, when CDs had long become the new standard.
CDs are a different matter; I still buy them every now and then for nostalgic and aesthetic reasons - but in this regard, I'm the odd one out in my circle of friends. Nobody I know still has a "CD-collection" or even a CD player.

In this case, obsoleteness isn't a black-or-white thing. It's gradual. Yes, CDs and DVDs are still being sold, but you should ask yourselves if that fact justifies dedicating about a third of your laptop's interior to those old media. CDs and DVDs are walking dead. They're zombies.
Click to expand...

DVD provides the movie industry with a massive revenue stream and most probably far greater than Blu-Ray. Similarly for the music industry, the revenue streams from CDs is still very significant.

In industry (generally), DVDs/CDs are still used widely for purposes of backups, archiving, data distribution etc.

So back to my point, is DVD/CD obsolete? My answer still remains 'no'... not even remotely. It's a far more ubiquitous (and economical) format than Blu-Ray currently.

And back to the topic of the thread re. SuperDrive - yes/no? Well that's subjective as its all dependent on the user requirements (hence the poll I guess) and my opinion is on another thread and quite frankly I couldn't be bothered to reiterate it. :D
 
Tyrion said:
Nobody I know buys DVDs. Why should they? It's a dying medium that has long been superseded by Blu-Ray, why invest in something like that? That would be like buying cassettes in, say, 1995, when CDs had long become the new standard.
CDs are a different matter; I still buy them every now and then for nostalgic and aesthetic reasons - but in this regard, I'm the odd one out in my circle of friends. Nobody I know still has a "CD-collection" or even a CD player.

In this case, obsoleteness isn't a black-or-white thing. It's gradual. Yes, CDs and DVDs are still being sold, but you should ask yourselves if that fact justifies dedicating about a third of your laptop's interior to those old media. CDs and DVDs are walking dead. They're zombies.
Click to expand...

Hmm, hardly anyone i know buys Blu-rays, we can do this all day. The point is that the number of standard def TV's in US households still far outnumber the number of HDTV's which would make DVD the standard. Just walk into any blockbuster, look at how many DVD's they stock in a store compared to blu-rays. They do this because the average consumer still goes for the DVD's more than blu-rays whether its because they just don't have a blu-ray player or if it is simply cheaper. Once you see a blockbuster with a much higher stock up blu-rays compared to DVD's then that will be a sign that DVD is obsolete.
 
bigjobby said:
DVD provides the movie industry with a massive revenue stream and most probably far greater than Blu-Ray. Similarly for the music industry, the revenue streams from CDs is still very significant.

In industry (generally), DVDs/CDs are still used widely for purposes of backups, archiving, data distribution etc.

So back to my point, is DVD/CD obsolete? My answer still remains 'no'... not even remotely. It's a far more ubiquitous (and economical) format than Blu-Ray currently.

And back to the topic of the thread re. SuperDrive - yes/no? Well that's subjective as its all dependent on the user requirements (hence the poll I guess) and my opinion is on another thread and quite frankly I couldn't be bothered to reiterate it. :D
Click to expand...

As I said before, I'm not sure the mere fact that DVDs and CDs are still produced and sold necessitates a corresponding drive in every laptop. Yes, for some reason, some people still buy DVDs (can't fathom why), but does that mean every laptop should feature an internal DVD-drive? Just a few years ago, the answer was clearly yes - DVDs were the way you watched movies, installed software and did backups. Today, you'll either get your movies online (legally or not) or on Blu-Ray. If you do still get them on DVD, you might not even want to watch them on your computer. Software, too, is mostly available online. For the few installation you will actually have to perform, an external drive would suffice (how often are you going to install Photoshop or OS X?). As for backups - please, nobody I know would backup their stuff on a DVD. Its capacity is way too low, and burning takes too much time. I haven't burned physical media ever since Time Machine became part of OS X. I'm not going to backup 125 gigs of music on DVDs.

I'll stick to my initial point: either update the optical drive to conform to current standards (Blu-Ray) or ditch it.
 
dallas112678 said:
Hmm, hardly anyone i know buys Blu-rays, we can do this all day. The point is that the number of standard def TV's in US households still far outnumber the number of HDTV's which would make DVD the standard. Just walk into any blockbuster, look at how many DVD's they stock in a store compared to blu-rays. They do this because the average consumer still goes for the DVD's more than blu-rays whether its because they just don't have a blu-ray player or if it is simply cheaper. Once you see a blockbuster with a much higher stock up blu-rays compared to DVD's then that will be a sign that DVD is obsolete.
Click to expand...

Uh, didn't Blockbuster just go out of business :D

Again, yes, people still consume DVDs, for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean that there's still a need for DVD-drives in every LAPTOP. Get a 30-dollar-DVD-player for your TV or something.
 
Tyrion said:
As I said before, I'm not sure the mere fact that DVDs and CDs are still produced and sold necessitates a corresponding drive in every laptop. Yes, for some reason, some people still buy DVDs (can't fathom why), but does that mean every laptop should feature an internal DVD-drive? Just a few years ago, the answer was clearly yes - DVDs were the way you watched movies, installed software and did backups. Today, you'll either get your movies online (legally or not) or on Blu-Ray. If you do still get them on DVD, you might not even want to watch them on your computer. Software, too, is mostly available online. For the few installation you will actually have to perform, an external drive would suffice (how often are you going to install Photoshop or OS X?). As for backups - please, nobody I know would backup their stuff on a DVD. Its capacity is way too low, and burning takes too much time. I haven't burned physical media ever since Time Machine became part of OS X. I'm not going to backup 125 gigs of music on DVDs.

I'll stick to my initial point: either update the optical drive to conform to current standards (Blu-Ray) or ditch it.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong as I'm not disagreeing with your points but sometimes we have to look at the bigger picture where there's a huge fraction of the world's population who do not have the the internet speeds that alot of us are used to and simply cannot do large downloads at super speeds or have data caps on their tarrifs. Then there's also alot of people who simply don't trust online purchases too.

I also wouldn't do my backups over optical discs (especially over Blu-Ray) but in the business world, people still backup or archive their emails and other trivial files over DVD/CD and why would they not do it over Blu-Ray? Mainly because they don't have a blu-ray writer, blank blu-ray discs are more expensive, its less likely to be able to retrieve the data as Blu-Ray players are not ubiquitous.

At the end of the day, DVDs/CDs are still extensively used in business whether be it a photographer distributing school photos, a media company who can only distribute their material by optical media for legal/contractual reasons or do not have the capacity to accommodate some technical luxuries we are aware of, etc. etc.

But back to my point, are DVDs/CDs obsolete?... no.

As for Apple getting rid of the optical drive? Here's my copy/paste from another thread:

I can't see Apple getting rid of the SuperDrive for at least the next couple of years simply because there are still plenty of people out there who use it more regularly than others and from a marketing point of view, the case for them to remove it just isn't strong enough yet. Until the competition catches up with them, say on battery life, I think Apple would then strongly consider removing the internal drive.

Not trying to get in a "should they/shouldn't they" discussion but I just see it as Apple are in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" over this issue.

Personally, I do use the drive and find it very convenient having it internally but I could easily live with it being external. Having the SuperDrive is a cheap solution to filling the gap in the MBP and filling the space with something 'more' useful would increase the overall price of the MBP or cut into Apple's margins (which I can't see happening). Saying that, I use it more than my firewire port but this doesn't mean that they should get rid of this port either.
 
points to clarify:

1) people who are buying a mac rather than a PC usually know what their needs are. and even if they buy a new laptop without the optical drive, they are more likely to be able to afford a 50$ external optical drive.

2) most new computer buyers are students and professionals. dinosaurs buy laptops too, but a mac usually isn't their option. they would probably buy a desktop/laptop that's on the cheap end with an optical drive.

3) apple leads, not follow. by next year we could expect most high end laptops (1000+) would lose the optical drive. and Apple is for sure the first one to standardize it in their laptop line.
 
applepearpp said:
points to clarify:

1) people who are buying a mac rather than a PC usually know what their needs are. and even if they buy a new laptop without the optical drive, they are more likely to be able to afford a 50$ external optical drive.

2) most new computer buyers are students and professionals. dinosaurs buy laptops too, but a mac usually isn't their option. they would probably buy a desktop/laptop that's on the cheap end with an optical drive.

3) apple leads, not follow. by next year we could expect most high end laptops (1000+) would lose the optical drive. and Apple is for sure the first one to standardize it in their laptop line.
Click to expand...

Point 3 exactly. iPad is a prime example at current. Everyone jeered when apple removed the optical drive from the first air to make it super portable. In the year that followed, a shed load of ultra portable laptops (aka netbooks) were released without disc drives
 
Tyrion said:
Uh, didn't Blockbuster just go out of business :D

Again, yes, people still consume DVDs, for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean that there's still a need for DVD-drives in every LAPTOP. Get a 30-dollar-DVD-player for your TV or something.
Click to expand...


Blockbuster closed down becuase the business model. nobody wants to have to drive 10-15 minutes each way to pick up a movie for $8 for two days when you can pay $12 a month and have them waiting for you in the mail box.
 
BenFL said:
Blockbuster closed down becuase the business model. nobody wants to have to drive 10-15 minutes each way to pick up a movie for $8 for two days when you can pay $12 a month and have them waiting for you in the mail box.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. But even Netflix is doing streaming now, right? Not that I would know much about any of that, since around here we have neither Netflix nor Blockbuster; we don't even have movies in the iTunes Store. Which is why I would be a fan of Blu-Ray (there's no legal way to digitally obtain movies where I live), but Apple won't give us Blu-Ray, so I say screw it, let's get rid of the ODD altogether.
 
Next year I'll finally be retiring my 3.5-year-old MB and be upgrading to either a 13" MBA or 13" MBP.

Ditch the SuperDrive and add a i5 + discrete GPU to the 13" MBP, and my decision will be much easier.

I use CD/DVD's maybe once a month for burning and ripping, but I'm usually at home. I'd rather use an external SuperDrive at home than have it in my computer when I'm out and about whether I like it or not since I never use it then.
 
Seems like Apple already provides a 13" MacBook without a SuperDrive, the MBA. You get a built in SSD and long battery life. The 13" MBP will probably be merged into the 13" MBA in the future.
 
lasuther said:
Seems like Apple already provides a 13" MacBook without a SuperDrive, the MBA. You get a built in SSD and long battery life. The 13" MBP will probably be merged into the 13" MBA in the future.
Click to expand...

lol

its funny how many people think that if people don't a super drive then should should get a MBA, despite that this is a MBP forum where I am assuming users need Pro specs to do what they do. Try to think before posting
 
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