End is Near for BD/DVD Drives?

[chane]

With Sony's closing of their DADC plant in Terre Haute, IN and Sony BD/DVD distribution chains closing in several European cities, I wasn't too surprised when someone here said that Pioneer and LG are the only brands left who are actually making these drives, says poster # 32 here.
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/com....379410/page-2

Will multiple SSD NAS or servers be the only personal storage device left to us? The one I'd have to build would have to be enormous just to store not even 1/3 of my TV and movie collection. And how much of my time and how many drives would die on me before I even ripped that much to my servers?

No wonder the club.myce.com forum died; there's next to no BD drives to review anymore.

This planned catastrophe will render home video libraries, which millions of collectors have spent thousands of dollars and countless hours amassing, absolutely useless.

[D00mM4r1n3]

They're used for more than home media, they'll be around for quite a bit longer. There's no substitute for the storage life/cost per gigabyte: https://www.blankmediaprinting.com/b...es-infographic

[Graxzon]

They are getting harder to find for sure though. The one I originally had in my PC died 2 years ago, and at the time the couple models NewEgg had in-stock were priced right around $100 each, which was nearly double what the one that had failed cost me new pre-2020. Ended up taking a chance on buying a used drive off of Ebay, which works, but the drive tray gets stuck and requires using a rod to manually force the ejection... can't complain though as it was only $20 shipped.

This is certainly a long term problem though as you have correctly identified that if the PC BD ODDs suddenly vanish from the market, or as presently go sky high in price making them stay cost prohibitive, then the option to rip videos to the home server for long term convenience becomes problematic.

[stonesfan129]

You can't even find PC cases that have 5.25" bays for these types of drives anymore. I have two Pioneers. One is a USB-powered drive, the other is in an enclosure I bought (and then you put an internal drive in it). I use it for burning data backups onto DVD and BD media. They will probably be around awhile yet, just tougher to get.

[Wendell R. Breland]

UHD Blu-ray drives are not readily available, Blu-ray drives are readily available and with a little help some can be made to read UHD Blu-ray disc.

In my office PC I have Pioneer BDR-211UBK 4K UHD Blu-ray drive and a ASUS BW-16D1HT Blu-ray drive that can read UHD Blu-ray disc. I did have a LG WH16NS40 Blu-ray drive that could read UHD Blu-ray disc in this PC but it would lock up my PC on some UHD disc so I swapped it for the ASUS. Also have a external ASUS in a Vantec NexStar DX2 USB 3.0 case.

The office PC is in a Inwin Development 175240 Server Pl052 Long Pedestal ATX Mid Tower case. This case is several inches deeper than most mid tower cases.

[Show spoiler]

[Misioon_Odisea]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

UHD Blu-ray drives are not readily available, Blu-ray drives are readily available and with a little help some can be made to read UHD Blu-ray disc.

In my office PC I have Pioneer BDR-211UBK 4K UHD Blu-ray drive and a ASUS BW-16D1HT Blu-ray drive that can read UHD Blu-ray disc. I did have a LG WH16NS40 Blu-ray drive that could read UHD Blu-ray disc in this PC but it would lock up my PC on some UHD disc so I swapped it for the ASUS. Also have a external ASUS in a Vantec NexStar DX2 USB 3.0 case.

The office PC is in a Inwin Development 175240 Server Pl052 Long Pedestal ATX Mid Tower case. This case is several inches deeper than most mid tower cases.

Cool build. I like all those accessories you installed on your PC, especially those front panel USB ports with the red and yellow switches. All it needs for me to make it feel like it's the cream of the crop is just a couple of these, and it's nigh complete: https://www.startech.com/en-eu/hdd/35fcreadbu3



Tell me, have you ever thought about which graphics card would you like to install in it if you had the opportunity to do so?

Personally, I can't stand desktop PC cases without optical drive bays, so much so that should I get one that doesn't have any, I'm committed to saw the proper slots off of the front of the case and hammer in a ribcage in order to accommodate the necessary internal accessories, aesthetics be shunned (when it comes to PC, aesthetics for me are a total non-factor when it comes to things to worry about. I also detest see-through side-panels, but not as much as the absence of 5.25" external drive bays).

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Misioon_Odisea

Cool build. I like all those accessories you installed on your PC, especially those front panel USB ports with the red and yellow switches. All it needs for me to make it feel like it's the cream of the crop is just a couple of these, and it's nigh complete:

The yellow switch is for the internal HDD that is used as a SMB and DLNA A/V server. I switch it off if I use my “Test Drive”. My test drive is used to test software that may or may not ever be used. The red switch is for the second (lower) mobile rack, it is setup for hot swappable. I have a card reader in my other office PC.

Tell me, have you ever thought about which graphics card would you like to install in it if you had the opportunity to do so?

Do not game so really never looked into video cards in the last several years.

[nova_jones]

It's concerning to see the decline in BD/DVD drive availability. SSD NAS or servers might become more prevalent, but building and maintaining such a system can be daunting. Hopefully, manufacturers address this issue to ensure continued access to personal storage solutions.

[Member-496106]

I noticed something was happening when most of the amazon listings here in Canada for external Blu-Ray drives became off-brand Chinese products. It used to be a lot easier to grab a decent Pioneer drive. That is not the case anymore here.

[meremortal]

It's definitely frustrating. Still kind of weird that they've mostly been ignored from even computers for years. I get that a uhd drive would likely be an excessive expense that most people would never use or want, but even a basic dvd drive for dvd, cd and game playback would be nice. Obviously blu would be even better.

[avexhype]

Not so. Even as 4k, 2k rez is adopting stream or other diskless forms, there will still be Disc drives for years to come.

[Pondosinatra]