Thunderbolt DVD Drives - do they exist and any difference in speed?

[GizmoDVD]

I'm looking to copy hundreds of DVDs to an internal HDD. Do Thunderbolt DVD Drives exist and if so do they make any difference?

 

[g4cube]

While possible to cobble one, there is no need too. USB 3.0 is plenty fast enough.

Why?

Speed is limited by what optical drives can deliver from the media.

 

[maflynn]

Thunderbolt DVD Drives exist and if so do they make any difference?

I'd say no, because there's really no need for them. Optical drives are a dying breed, and Thunderbolt is not universally accepted so why create an optical drive that will be much more expensive, for a need that is probably in the niche category at this stage.

 

[GizmoDVD]

Ok, thanks. Figured I would ask before I just bought an Apple branded superdrive.

 

[Fishrrman]

Gizmo wrote:
"Figured I would ask before I just bought an Apple branded superdrive."

DON'T spend extra $$$ on the Apple-labeled superdrive.

You will do much MUCH better to just buy a 3rd-party DVD drive, USB3 (or even USB2).

Be aware that the Apple-labeled Superdrive doesn't work with all Macs (at least to my knowledge).

 

[satcomer]

I bought the Blu-Ray version version here at OWC and it lasted me now through 3 versions of OS X!

 

[steve62388]

Most external drives don't even top out USB2 speeds. Real world USB2 can handle 35MB/s, for DVDs 1x = 1.385MB/s, so you can see in most cases they would never swamp the interface. This is why most drive manufacturers don't normally bother with USB3 and Thunderbolt would be huge overkill.

 

[Muttznuttz]

Just get one of these and you will be happy. Works on Win and OSX.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01468IUFS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1