Lack of a DVD drive option is terrible. Agree?

[hexonxonx]

Not everyone has an HD TV for Blu-ray, not everyone even has a television at all.

You are correct. I don't have an HD television and I don't want one. I'm fine with my 17" Sony Trinitron that I bought back in 1998 or so. It still works great for watching all my old reruns such as Roseanne on my DirecTV.

As far as HD content, I said above that I buy it on iTunes. I watch it either on my 15" MBP or my MB attached to a 24" monitor. Either one is good enough for me.

 

[reputationZed]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

A recurring theme in all of darkboob's posts in this thread is that the majority of Mac users share his specific needs. The OP makes numerous statements about "most Mac users" without ever backing the statements up with any quantifiable data.

I may be missing something here, but are most Mac users
- in a band
- need to burn their Bands music to CD/DVD
- Watch 3D movies
- Own large collections of CD's, DVD's, and BlueRays but never saw the point of buying a dedicated CD, DVD, BlueRay player
- Own a business that burns people's pictures to DVD for them.

One of my favorite delusions of the OP is that if optical media is not part of your workflow you are obviously not a serious photographer. I shoot RAW with a Nikon D700 and have yet to ever feel like I was missing out on anything by not including a DVD burner in my workflow.
1. Take pictures - no DVD burner needed there
2. Import pictures off of the CF card - no DVD burner needed there.
3. Work in Lightroom or Aperture - no DVD burner needed there.
4. Post in PS - no DVD burner needed there
5. Print - no DVD burner needed there
6. Upload - - no DVD burner needed there

The only semi-legitimate case the OP makes for DVD's and photography is that his business burns people's images to CD's for them. Are these people really using anything higher end than an iPhone, or a point and shoot digital camera to shoot these pictures?

 

[MTI]

I do use an optical drive nearly every week; creating DVD copies of large photo albums to send to others, ripping video and music to my iTunes library, creating ad hoc backups of data . . . it's hardly a dead device or format in my current use.

Let's see if the next refresh of the iMacs or **gasp** the Mac Pro, continues Apple's philosophical exercise of eliminating optical media.

 

[chrono1081]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

A recurring theme in all of darkboob's posts in this thread is that the majority of Mac users share his specific needs. The OP makes numerous statements about "most Mac users" without ever backing the statements up with any quantifiable data.

I may be missing something here, but are most Mac users
- in a band
- need to burn their Bands music to CD/DVD
- Watch 3D movies
- Own large collections of CD's, DVD's, and BlueRays but never saw the point of buying a dedicated CD, DVD, BlueRay player
- Own a business that burns people's pictures to DVD for them.

One of my favorite delusions of the OP is that if optical media is not part of your workflow you are obviously not a serious photographer. I shoot RAW with a Nikon D700 and have yet to ever feel like I was missing out on anything by not including a DVD burner in my workflow.
1. Take pictures - no DVD burner needed there
2. Import pictures off of the CF card - no DVD burner needed there.
3. Work in Lightroom or Aperture - no DVD burner needed there.
4. Post in PS - no DVD burner needed there
5. Print - no DVD burner needed there
6. Upload - - no DVD burner needed there

The only semi-legitimate case the OP makes for DVD's and photography is that his business burns people's images to CD's for them. Are these people really using anything higher end than an iPhone, or a point and shoot digital camera to shoot these pictures?

I loled at this. I used to do a ton of photography (I don't anymore as my interests have shifted but I still have a lot of pro friends) and not one of us burned our pictures to DVD. It was all done via website where people could go and order prints of any size. Not only did this ensure the photographer got paid for their work, but its also the way its done. Rarely will you find a photographer who burns their work to disk and hands it over.

 

[reputationZed]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Not a chance. Apple knew there would be resistance and did it anyway. Complainers should just buy an external or buy a junk Microsoft PC.

I never claimed they'd think there would be no resistance. And if sales outnumber complaints by a large enough margin, they have been proven correct.

However, if sales suffered significantly and there were ample reason to believe this is due to the lack of (internal) optical drive options, you can bet they'd offer one, right quick.

.tsooJ

With the number of Optical Driveless Mac Mini's and MBA's Apples been selling it doesn't look like they feel the slightest bit of pressure to put DVD burners back in.

 

[DesertSilver]

I completely disagree that there is not an upside to getting rid of the optical drive. The space that was once used for an optical drive can now be used for a second HDD, a SSD, or in the case of a portable a larger battery. The is huge benefit on the MacAir. I'm no longer forced to carry around a piece of equipment I very rarely ever use. In the isolated cases I need a DVD drive I can always grab an external.

You make a perfectly good case from the laptop perspective, but we're discussing a desktop where portability isn't necessarily a consideration. Apple could have added 1cm max to the height and have dual HDD's while retaining the optical drive.

This is a discussion where some people need it, want it, hate it, despise it, or "Windows sucks!!!" and nobody's going to change anyone's mind with their statements. Let's all move on.

 

[RLesko]

I read the first page only, so excuse me if I'm repeating, but to the OP, no one *made* you buy a mac mini. Its your fault for purchasing something that you knew in advance didn't fit your needs. Why anyone would purchase the mac mini when they *know* they need extensive use of a disc drive? It is...illogical.

Your preferred software is Mac-only. Ok, the lowest level iMac is $400 more than the mini. Can't afford it? Hate to be so blunt but...too. d*mn. bad. You're not entitled to a mac.

 

[paulrbeers]

Seriously, let's just end this thread.....

Here's the solution that has been stated 1000 times:

Buy an External DVD drive for $20! It isn't like Apple took away your ability to attach an external drive to the Mac Mini did they?!?!!

I have a 2009 Mac Mini Server (the first mini without an optical drive). Other than reinstalling the OS, I've never needed the drive. I use the Optical drive so little in my MBP I pulled the optical drive out of it and dumped a second drive into it. Now I have an external Blu-Ray drive that I can hook to either Mac if I need to use an optical drive.

It really is that simple..... if you need an optical drive, apple allows you to buy theirs OR buy a cheaper one. If you don't want an optical drive, they didn't automatically include it so you didn't have to pay for it.


Seems like a win-win.

 

[Jon the Heretic]

Not dead yet

Apple and Netflix and many others WANT the DVD to be dead. Apple wants Blu Ray to be stillborn. If they repeat that again and again, many more and more people will believe it. Apple and Netflix see gold in panning them there streams, and in pushing things onto cloud storage. They'd say it whether it had a grain of truth or not---and just maybe they can MAKE it happen. Cha-Ching!!

DVD and BD are less convenient than streaming -- no bones about it! So some technophilic consumers too are wishing it dead. As to Cloud storage, same crowd loves having everything available from everywhere. Cool stuff, huh? Well, it is!

It is all back to the future folks! Before the PC, it was all server this, and server that, with just dumb terminals, because storage was expen$ive. Today, local storage is CHEAP, so pushing us back to servers -- often at a higher cost of an annual/monthly fee -- are on demand convenience and anywhere access (thanks to mobility).

But ultimately, it is only dead if ordinary mass buying Consumers say it is and if Content owners say it is. NEITHER has said that. Content owners LOVE selling us the same content over and over actually--LP to 8-Track to Cassette to CD, or VHS tape to DVD to Blu Ray. And many consumers love having physical disks that you can give as gifts, can resell, make copies of, which kids can watch again and again and again (!!) even when in their minvans on long road trips or airplanes (take that streaming!) And you feel you own it if it is physical. You do! Licensing is for suckers!

Many prefer to make DVDs of the kids rather than post movies to YouTube. I don't even put the ages of my kids on Facebook (though I will share a video with a SMALL number of people). Physical things feel like heirlooms like old photos in a big old suitcase, though they won't last that long sadly; YouTube seems like an abuse of privacy. YMMV, and your level of trust, too.

So O' Soothsayers, yes DVD and BD will die! So will you! And the earth will be engulfed in a world destroying super nova of our sun. Someday. But today is NOT a good day to die---so speaketh the voice of the market. Keep up the soothsaying though---some day it will come true, but hopefully well long before the super nova. Cheers.

 

[Surely]

I haven't had the need to use a SuperDrive since getting my Mini. I probably used the SuperDrive on my MBP (before I sold it to get the Mini) 5-6 times in the almost 2 years I owned it.

I don't miss it at all, and if I need one, I'll just buy an inexpensive one on Amazon.

 

[reputationZed]

I do use an optical drive nearly every week; creating DVD copies of large photo albums to send to others, ripping video and music to my iTunes library, creating ad hoc backups of data . . . it's hardly a dead device or format in my current use.

Let's see if the next refresh of the iMacs or **gasp** the Mac Pro, continues Apple's philosophical exercise of eliminating optical media.

And some continued to use floppy media long after Apple, and latter the Win PC manufacturers decided it was a dead technology. The first thing my dad did after buying a new PC last year was run out and buy an external floppy drive for the 20 or so years of floppies he has laying around. Optical may not be dead but it's in it's twilight years, and the options for buying computers with built in optical drives is going to continue to decline. The simple fact is that everything you listed, ripping music, making photo galleries available to others, and backing up data, can be done, and some will argue more easily done, without involving optical media.

 

[paulrbeers]

So O' Soothsayers, yes DVD and BD will die! So will you! And the earth will be engulfed in a world destroying super nova of our sun. Someday. But today is NOT a good day to die---so speaketh the voice of the market. Keep up the soothsaying though---some day it will come true, but hopefully well long before the super nova. Cheers.

What was your point?

I really couldn't find a true point in your post..... That DVD and Blu-Ray aren't dead? For may of us, they virtually are and for that we don't want to pay for an optical drive instead make it an add on so those who want it, pay for it.

 

[reputationZed]

Apple and Netflix and many others WANT the DVD to be dead. Apple wants Blu Ray to be stillborn. If they repeat that again and again, many more and more people will believe it. Apple and Netflix see gold in panning them there streams, and in pushing things onto cloud storage. They'd say it whether it had a grain of truth or not---and just maybe they can MAKE it happen. Cha-Ching!!

DVD and BD are less convenient than streaming -- no bones about it! So some technophilic consumers too are wishing it dead. As to Cloud storage, same crowd loves having everything available from everywhere. Cool stuff, huh? Well, it is!

It is all back to the future folks! Before the PC, it was all server this, and server that, with just dumb terminals, because storage was expen$ive. Today, local storage is CHEAP, so pushing us back to servers -- often at a higher cost of an annual/monthly fee -- are on demand convenience and anywhere access (thanks to mobility).

But ultimately, it is only dead if ordinary mass buying Consumers say it is and if Content owners say it is. NEITHER has said that. Content owners LOVE selling us the same content over and over actually--LP to 8-Track to Cassette to CD, or VHS tape to DVD to Blu Ray. And many consumers love having physical disks that you can give as gifts, can resell, make copies of, which kids can watch again and again and again (!!) even when in their minvans on long road trips or airplanes (take that streaming!) And you feel you own it if it is physical. You do! Licensing is for suckers!

Many prefer to make DVDs of the kids rather than post movies to YouTube. I don't even put the ages of my kids on Facebook (though I will share a video with a SMALL number of people). Physical things feel like heirlooms like old photos in a big old suitcase, though they won't last that long sadly; YouTube seems like an abuse of privacy. YMMV, and your level of trust, too.

So O' Soothsayers, yes DVD and BD will die! So will you! And the earth will be engulfed in a world destroying super nova of our sun. Someday. But today is NOT a good day to die---so speaketh the voice of the market. Keep up the soothsaying though---some day it will come true, but hopefully well long before the super nova. Cheers.

You can make the same argument that the music industry and the motion picture industry have a vested interest in keeping CD/DVD/Blueray alive and that Apple and Netflix have had to pull them into streaming kicking and screaming. The music industry and motion picture industries are not holding on to optical media because they think it offers a better user experience. They do so because that is where they have the most control and the greatest ability to nickel and dime their customers.

 

[Artful Dodger]

I need to burn media to disc still but I like not having a cd/dvd drive in my computer(s). Case in point, my iMac, 2 drives from day one didn't work right and the 3rd one finally does but close to the end of Apple Care. I now use (if I need the iMac) a faster cd/dvd FW drive. If it burns out I don't have to give up my Mac for about 5 days (happened twice before for 12 days total) which really can hurt what I need it for. My MBP is fine with a drive but if it was between a cd/dvd drive or 2nd HDD, I'm going with more storage and using either a FW or USB burner, again much faster and less wear and tear on my MBP or any other unit.

I'm not in the norm however, like I said I need them for giving movies to those who need them to be on disc yet there will always be FW/USB ports to accommodate my needs.

It's seemingly ignorant to think millions or greater even up to billions of people don't need certain things because a board of 10-20,000 feel it's the correct path Let's think back, FW is better than USB (we know how that one worked out, see many FW thumb drives) what else has Apple given that was a good idea yet hasn't really made leaps and bounds over the masses?

I like usb drives and would love to give those to people since they don't scratch, warp and are for the most part drop proof (won't chip or crack). Most tv's, dvd players and PC's all have usb ports and can be really nice to hand a client. I think it's an even trade off and not a loss, more room for a storage drive and less trouble, maybe heat (internal) and better options in the build without a cd/dvd drive to add to the mix.

 

[QuantumLo0p]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

....The only semi-legitimate case the OP makes for DVD's and photography is that his business burns people's images to CD's for them. Are these people really using anything higher end than an iPhone, or a point and shoot digital camera to shoot these pictures?

Um, I believe you forgot installing windows.

 

[JS3]

If not having a drive bothers u that much you should buy a mac pro. Yeah its more expensive but hey has a drive.

 

[noisycats]

Sorry, I was just responding to the budget situation...

I think you quote the wrong person bro!

But you are correct, my rant was at the OP, certainly not you.

 

[accessoriesguy]

I do not really need a DVD drive for my laptop, it's rare for me to use any type of CD drive, although I do every now and then.

However for a desktop computer I would be more inclined to have one, since I would expect a Desktop computer to be capable of everything.

It's kind of hard to say, I want to agree with you, but the mini wasn't designed to have a bunch of ports or drives, or PC-i slots, it was meant to be, well a min.

A DVD drive would be more favorable for a desktop computer, but the mini is meant to be simple, so its hard.

However an External DVD drive is still available and a good investment, since as laptops and desktops together will slowly be getting rid of CD drives over time, eventually External DVD's will be the equivalent of external floppy drives

 

[Schmitty11]

I agree. I rarely rarely use my DVD drive on my MBP but its real nice to have when I want to watch a movie in my dorm, on the go etc. I'd really like to see Macs to be able to read Blu-ray but I dont see that happening. Although maybe Tim Cook will give it thought...

 

[veterator]

Simple answer, if you need an optical drive, don't buy a MBA or Mini. Get something else. It's not like you buy the computer and get home to discover the drive just isn't there.

It's like buying a new car, leaving out the spare tire to save money, then complaining when you have a flat.

Love my MacBook Pro, love my MacBook Air, love Lion. Change is good.

 

[jlin615]

I've had my 2011 Mac Mini for roughly two weeks now, still feels like something is missing without the optical drive.

But on the other hand, I've only used the Air external superdrive once or twice, to create ISO's from couple discs.

 

[robanga]

Wow - don't even know where to start here.

Change is hard - I get it, but guess what... its changing if you like it or not.

The bottom line is - if the world isn't willing to accept this new paradigm (and I mean by not buying Apple products because of the lack of DVD drives) then Apple would probably go back to including optical drives. I don't see that happening.

A few years from now we'll all be saying - remember when we used DVDs?

Well stated people vote with their purchases and the votes seems to be going against optical media.

 

[Macman45]

Who Said Musicians

That's prolly because they are musicians on a budget!

Are all rich? Ha ha, I don't struggle, but I won't be buying a yacht any time soon. I made the decision to go with the MBA and it's great, can't see myself buying a new MBP I have an external SuperDrive, and when the newer SSD stuff comes out I will buy one of them.

Don't get me wrong, I love the MBP but the Air is just so much more portable.

I sold a Toshiba 17.5" over the weekend they came to collect it. What a heavy lump that was....( I hid my Air away in case they saw it and changed their minds)

 

[Sgt. Raven]

True and the option is the USB superdrive that they offer it at $69 or $79 I can't remember! Anyways, look at floppy disk and VGA port! They are long gone from Apple computers, and I'm glad that they removed it! Seriously look at how Windows users still have the VGA port in there laptops and you think they even use it? I'm sure they all switch to something better like HDMI port.


This my man!

You fly in somewhere to give a presentation and their projector uses VGA input, without a VGA port you're SOL, unless you bring your own projector.

 

[FrozenShivers]

Disagree, personally I'd rather have no optical drive, using mines for a HTPC, I would have still had to have bought an external Blu-Ray drive thus leaving me with 2 optical drives (1 un-used) and only 1 HDD.