Hopefully with the upcoming of the loss of the optical drive on the macbook pro, it made me think just how much i use my optical drive and if i could live without one with me all the time. I rip movies, burn cd's, and install software occasionally so i think i could manage with an external, but who else could live with or live without an optical drive?
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What do you use your Optical Drive for (if at all)?
- Thread starter euphrus
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making copies of illicit software.
EDIT: In all honesty, I could get away with an external. In fact, Id prefer an external drive. I usually only burn cd's, the occasional movie, and install some software.
EDIT: In all honesty, I could get away with an external. In fact, Id prefer an external drive. I usually only burn cd's, the occasional movie, and install some software.
Sometimes watch movies on airplanes. I have a lot of stuff downloaded though. Also use it to download software a lot, as well as another way to boot up the computer when I have had issues.
Honestly, I've had my Mac for nearly two years now. I've probably used the SuperDrive a total of five times - two of those were reinstalls of Mac OS X.
Almost all software is available online now, and so are movies.
Almost all software is available online now, and so are movies.
I use it to install Software (especially for windows, lots of stuff I have or get comes on a DVD), watch a dvd on an airplane or anywhere away from home in general. I could of course use an external drive but the Internal is much more convenient and I would much rather have an internal drive than have a macbook pro that is .25 inches thinner or .3 pounds lighter...
In fact one of the reasons I decided to get a macbook pro was because it had an internal dvd drive while still being pretty thin.
In fact one of the reasons I decided to get a macbook pro was because it had an internal dvd drive while still being pretty thin.
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Install snow leopard, watch movies on DVD. Burn music CDs. Install windows xp via Bootcamp. Rip audio CDs.
Personally I find those calling for the removal of the SuperDrive so soon to be premature as it is nowhere near as useless as floppies were at that point in history.
Install snow leopard, watch movies on DVD. Burn music CDs. Install windows xp via Bootcamp. Rip audio CDs.
Personally I find those calling for the removal of the SuperDrive so soon to be premature as it is nowhere near as useless as floppies were at that point in history.
Playing DVDs, ripping DVDs, ripping Blu-ray, ripping music, making video DVDs... I have two drives and use both extensively.
I cant decide between the tradeoff of more hdd space plus less weight against the convenience of having an optical drive just incase you need it...such a big decision
Ripping and burning, the rare movie. I don't think I've actually used it in a manner I couldn't live without in a long time, so long as I have an external.
For some reason I still have a mental block on the laptop going without it.
For some reason I still have a mental block on the laptop going without it.
burn cds, burn dvds, archive data, rip dvds , install software and those sorts of activities.
The people below below me will say how much nobody uses it and how much we are all utilizing antiquated technology even though you can't reinstall the OS without a Disk (unless you are on the MBA).
v v v v
The people below below me will say how much nobody uses it and how much we are all utilizing antiquated technology even though you can't reinstall the OS without a Disk (unless you are on the MBA).
v v v v
This.
At first thought of not having an optical drive I shuddered, but after some thought I would be fine with an external. I only use mine now for ripping my DVDs into iTunes & burning the occasional audio CD.
I use mine mostly to watch DVD's, rip CD's and burn digital images to DVD.
Netflix and music downloads will eventually replace the first two functions, but for photography you really need the ODD to burn photos. The camera resolutions go up and up and I might do two 4GB shoots in a single day. For information stored on HDD's, i like to have two copies, whereas I feel comfortable keeping a single DVD as an archive. Say I shoot 20GB of photos a week, I would have to buy 4, 500GB HDD's every year. Its so much easier to just burn a DVD and put it in a drawer, not to mention normally faster.
When HDD space, and internet bandwidth become cheap, we will be able to simply rent space on a server somewhere and store your files offsite (in the cloud). But for now, lets keep the ODD.
Burning DVDs of my work for clients/producers/directors. Installing software. Ripping music CDs at highest quality because MP3s and their ilk really suck. Also nice for burning data DVDs every once in a while if I need to get a large file from one place to another without exchanging hard drives or flash drives.
Rip CDs, burn CDs, data backup, watch movies (on the go), and sometimes install software. No, I don't feel like having an external on my lap while watching a movie on an airplane, nor do I feel like ripping that movie to my computer when I'm only going to watch it once (redbox).
I don't. It's been broken for quite some time.
Last time I used it was to download some tax prep software last year, and I realized it wasn't working when I tried to download the update to the software this year.
I have never watched a dvd on my computer... that's what my plasma tv is for!
Last time I used it was to download some tax prep software last year, and I realized it wasn't working when I tried to download the update to the software this year.
I have never watched a dvd on my computer... that's what my plasma tv is for!