Maybe this is different where i live? But any CD i have ever owned has always been compressed.
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Do You Use Your Optical Drive in Your MBP?
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Maybe this is different where i live? But any CD i have ever owned has always been compressed.
I didn't say iTunes was. Even an AAC 256 kb/s is still a lossy compression. The keyword here is 'lossy' which means data is lost during compression. So in laymen terms, which do you think is at a better quality, the music with missing (or lost) data or the one without any data lost whatsoever? Which brings me nicely back to your above statement regarding quality comparisons.
i love having it... being able to import my music from old albums i have, burning software i make for my uni course (computer science) which we have to hand in on CD, not usb and also for burning home videos off of camcorder to DVD for relatives who do not have a pc/wouldn't know how to use so they can watch them, also for burning playlists for my car 
definately love having it coming from using a netbook the last year, and having to go to a library to burn cds etc/didnt want to buy external one
definately love having it coming from using a netbook the last year, and having to go to a library to burn cds etc/didnt want to buy external one
it seems to me that avarage age of parties on this forum is about 50, 60, slaves of their habits, just like my grandpa and grandma, but they are a lot older
I''m 23 and use my ODD for burning DVD's... If I got an Air though, I'd just burn to ISO and transfer to my PC, since there's nothing a PC can't do
I don't use the optical drive often, but when I need it, I need it, and I sure would hate to either be caught w/o it when I'm away from home or have to carry an ext. around.
Also funny, yet disturbing, how some do not understand the difference between lossy and lossless compression and uncompressed audio. I have to tip my hat to Apple marketing for convincing people that iTunes lossy compressed AACs are better quality than uncompressed AIFFs found on a CD.
Also funny, yet disturbing, how some do not understand the difference between lossy and lossless compression and uncompressed audio. I have to tip my hat to Apple marketing for convincing people that iTunes lossy compressed AACs are better quality than uncompressed AIFFs found on a CD.
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Apple's ability to TELL the consumer what they want and need is unparalleled.
That said, the D/A conversion in all of the iPod/iPhone/iPad iterations is so bad, the current quality of iTunes surpasses what you will receive on the analog end.
Apparently, after three pages of notes, and 100's of votes, we can say, nope this is not a joke.
I use the optical drive and do not think it is wise to eliminate it. People have the option to remove the optical drive and replace it with an HDD or SSD.
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OK! so the question is settled....more people need optical drive than not in the MacRumors community! Let it be stated when the next thread comes up in which people claim otherwise!
case closed. Let this topic R.I.P.
case closed. Let this topic R.I.P.
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umm no, your thread doesn't settle anything. This is only a poll of 200 people, not even close to the number of users on macfourms, much less the mac community as a whole.
Also your poll is very limiting, how many of the people that said yes use their drive less than 4 times a year? How do you know how many of the people who said yes would or would not be willing to live without the optical drive? Your poll does nothing more than tell you approx half of the people who read the thread use their drive and half don't.
It doesn't at all talk about how often they use the drives nor if they would be able to live without them or perhaps with an external.
It's a shame the ODD takes up so much valuable realestate inside of the machine. I use mine too much to get rid of it, but would really like another harddrive in here (at least until SSDs become more reasonable in price for a decent capacity).
Yes, I use mine all the time. I also think it's great to have the option to replace the ODD with a second HDD. The yays are thus far the clear winner in this poll.
Apple will still eliminate it
Apple will still eliminate it
who is to say that apple doesnt modify their firmware to allow us to load the os from a usb stick or SD card. If anything that is the only logical reason I can think of for the proliferation of SD card slots on Macs. The SD card is far from ubiquity in the camera/camcorder etc market.
uhh...
...The SD Card slot and USB Sticks are bootable. After your format it with disk utility you can install 10.5/10.6 and away you go.
Hmmm. But it is a factual statement when I make the claim that more people end up making use of the optical drive than not according to this poll.
Are you arguing against this fact?
I find SuperDrive to be useless piece of crap on MBP Mid 2008 and MBP Mid 2010. Both were doing so bad job reading a variety of CDs & DVDs. With latest MBP I got it cannot even read supplied installation DVD. I thought that my 1st MBP just had faulted piece of hardware before I got brand new MBP with same issues. So I'm using internal 3.5" $10 Lite-On drive (externally) that does it all for me.
I still use mine, but sparingly. However, when I "need" it - I NEED it.
Example - while working overseas in Thailand I needed some VERY important video footage for my work and I had to rip it off a DVD. Could I do this with an external DVD drive? Yes. Would it be a pain to pack yet another item for an overseas trip? YES.
Bottom line, is if Apple got rid of it. I'd make it work.
Example - while working overseas in Thailand I needed some VERY important video footage for my work and I had to rip it off a DVD. Could I do this with an external DVD drive? Yes. Would it be a pain to pack yet another item for an overseas trip? YES.
Bottom line, is if Apple got rid of it. I'd make it work.
I still use my "Super"drive, but I wish my MBP didn't have it built-in. I wish it came with an external disk drive and a bigger battery/an SSD/anything else. Apple would still be providing you with a "complete" solution, but perhaps a more modern, useful solution.
Not everyone buys things off of iTunes, and even for those who did, it probably wasn't until fairly recently. Since I'm older than 15 years, I have lots of music that I originally purchased on CDs. I don't need to back those up since I purchased them, but I treat those physical CDs as my backups. I haven't ripped those CDs and threw the physical disks into the trash, even if I'm unlikely to ever look at most of them again.
What I want to back up are photos, some music I got "illegally" from friends (actually, it wasn't illegal in Canada until a number of years back....), etc. I back up my data to an external HDD, but backing up to an HDD is still backing up to physical media. It will probably ALL look silly in 10 years time, when we'll be laughing that we had to back our data up to harddisks rather than "the cloud" or whatever, but until that day comes, it doesn't seem silly to use disks.
Also, I'm one of those people who still purchases physical CDs. It may seem old school, but I actually do it because I save NO money buy purchasing the digital version of an album in Australia.
Currently:
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2 = $20.99 at iTMS, or $19.99 for the CD at my local bookshop. Guess which one I purchased.
Fair enough, music quality is a valid reason to want to own the physical cd, but stating it's for backup purposes is what makes me laugh. Nothing wrong with wanting physical media, I just personally have never understood why people say they need a physical backup
Not everyone buys things off of iTunes, and even for those who did, it probably wasn't until fairly recently. Since I'm older than 15 years, I have lots of music that I originally purchased on CDs. I don't need to back those up since I purchased them, but I treat those physical CDs as my backups. I haven't ripped those CDs and threw the physical disks into the trash, even if I'm unlikely to ever look at most of them again.
What I want to back up are photos, some music I got "illegally" from friends (actually, it wasn't illegal in Canada until a number of years back....), etc. I back up my data to an external HDD, but backing up to an HDD is still backing up to physical media. It will probably ALL look silly in 10 years time, when we'll be laughing that we had to back our data up to harddisks rather than "the cloud" or whatever, but until that day comes, it doesn't seem silly to use disks.
Also, I'm one of those people who still purchases physical CDs. It may seem old school, but I actually do it because I save NO money buy purchasing the digital version of an album in Australia.
Currently:
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2 = $20.99 at iTMS, or $19.99 for the CD at my local bookshop. Guess which one I purchased.
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umm no did you read my post? I said you poll doesn't "settle anything" All it does is tell us that of 200 people polled on macrumors just over half use their optical drive. It doesn't tell us how often nor if they would be ok without the drive or if they would be ok with an external.Hmmm. But it is a factual statement when I make the claim that more people end up making use of the optical drive than not according to this poll.
Are you arguing against this fact?
Just because someone uses the drive does NOT mean they want the drive in their computer....
That's fine, but since iTunes is now the number one music retailer, MOST people have now switched to buying their content online. Apple (or any other online retailer) will let you redownload the music if you need to.as[/I] my backups. I haven't ripped those CDs and threw the physical disks into the trash, even if I'm unlikely to ever look at most of them again.
What I want to back up are photos, some music I got "illegally" from friends (actually, it wasn't illegal in Canada until a number of years back....), etc. I back up my data to an external HDD, but backing up to an HDD is still backing up to physical media. It will probably ALL look silly in 10 years time, when we'll be laughing that we had to back our data up to harddisks rather than "the cloud" or whatever, but until that day comes, it doesn't seem silly to use disks.
Also, I'm one of those people who still purchases physical CDs. It may seem old school, but I actually do it because I save NO money buy purchasing the digital version of an album in Australia.
Currently:
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2 = $20.99 at iTMS, or $19.99 for the CD at my local bookshop. Guess which one I purchased.
My argument was that saying you need a CD for physical backup is a stupid argument.... CD's are bulky, take up room, and scratch easily. Downloaded music can easily be backed up via time machine, onto cd's, whatever you want so there is no point in saying "i need to buy a cd so that I have a backup"
Exactly. The members of the MacRumors forum hardly represent the entire population of Mac users.
Exactly again. I am that person.
Not exactly. iTunes is the number one music retailer, but in aggregate music downloads represent only 40% of music sales. CD sales still make up the majority. So, most people are still buying CDs, though it is a narrow majority.
Not exactly again. CDs are not bulky and do not scratch easily. CDs are a physical backup of uncompressed audio that is ready the second you buy it. Show me how to do that on iTunes.
thanks, wasn't aware of that!
umm yes CD's are very bulky... a box of 50,000 discs (aprox. 500,000 songs) or a 3.5" 2TB drive?
Can't get the uncompressed audio (I already said earlier if that's what you want go with CD) but you can download an album and burn it to a CD, transfer it to a thumb drive, backup to an external, etc. the second you buy it. That's surely faster than it would take you to drive to a store, grab the CD, buy it, and drive home. Also it is immediately backed up because you could always redownload from iTunes the second after you click "buy"
Also a CD is NOT an immediate backup... how is it backed up the second you buy it? It's not until you copy it to a computer or make a copy of the disc.