No Optical DD in Retina MBP, good decision!

[PracticalMac]

Unlike my threat blasting Apple for not including Ethernet, removing the ODD is a great choice, with one caveat.

I hardly use a CD or DVD anymore (everything online), far less then I use the Ethernet on my MBP (which is often). Gladly remove it for a more battery (or use the 2ed HDD mounting kit!).


The one caveat: I would like to see a Thunderbolt eternal optical drive.
Yes, I know, the USB2 "Super Drive", but that drive is a kludge, needs 1Amp power (0.5 Amp is specification, most USB hubs can't use), must be directly connect (Apple change that?), and USB2 is a bottleneck compared to how fast ODD can be.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

USB2 is a bottleneck compared to how fast ODD can be.

ODDs offer speeds faster than 36 MB/s? Even those slim ones?

 

[PracticalMac]

ODDs offer speeds faster than 36 MB/s? Even those slim ones?

USB bandwidth is shared among all devices on that channel. More devices will reduce the throughput. CD (36 MB/s, 288 Mb/s) should be OK, but Blu-ray disc needs about 54MBps (432 Mb/s) which will likely exceed the streaming capability of USB2

USB3 works too, but TB is cooler.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

USB bandwidth is shared among all devices on that channel. More devices will reduce the throughput. CD (36 MB/s, 288 Mb/s) should be OK, but Blu-ray disc needs about 54MBps (432 Mb/s) which will likely exceed the streaming capability of USB2

USB3 works too, but TB is cooler.

I think you got your MB and Mb confused. If Blu-Rays would need 54 MB/s (MegaByte per second) one 90 minute film would be close to 300 GB, not even HD editing codecs like ProRes and DNxHD offer such a bit-rate.