What are the features of Optical Drives

[Aristotle2019]

So, I'm trying to understand optical drives better. Internal, external. And what they really do. And what those 8× or 16× or 24× or 48× means. And the difference between a BluRay one and a standard DVD one. And if it impacts audio. And what the best ones are out there - external, internal, slim external, and a completely seperately housed bigger one which goes in home theatre setups. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, Aristotle2019 said:

And what those 8× or 16× or 24× or 48× means.

How fast they are

 

9 minutes ago, Aristotle2019 said:

And the difference between a BluRay one and a standard DVD one

Do you want to be able to read blurays?

 

9 minutes ago, Aristotle2019 said:

And if it impacts audio.

Do you mean audio cds? Then no

 

Optical drives stopped doing analogue audio a long time ago

 

What is your goal here? What do you want to read or write?

 

[Jimkirk363]

The only reason i slapped one in my setup is i like to watch DVDs\Blurays in bed.

[Aristotle2019]

15 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Optical drives stopped doing analogue audio a long time ago

Ah okk

15 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What is your goal here? What do you want to read or write?

No goal, I was just curious. But does that mean if I let's say guy a BluRay DVD of a movie from the store and play it on a blu ray player, I won't get audio ? That doesn't compute. 

 

Also, will Blu-ray discs still be a thing in the future ? I have an idea of a custom itx PC case idea I wanna execute in a few years time and I want it to double it as a home theatre. U know, kinda like the Ncase M1 has a feature for a slim optical drive. I want my custom case to have that. But only if optical drives are still a thing then (considering Bluray) and what best options in the slim category are present right now and if they will still be newer models in coming years. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

16 minutes ago, Aristotle2019 said:

But does that mean if I let's say guy a BluRay DVD of a movie from the store and play it on a blu ray player, I won't get audio ? That doesn't compute. 

You get audio, but its the computer giving you the audio, not the drive its self. Back in the 90's computers couldn't handle doing the digital audo decoding well, so the cd drive did it. Back in the day, there was an analogue output from the drive, now its all digital data

 

17 minutes ago, Aristotle2019 said:

Also, will Blu-ray discs still be a thing in the future ?

We don't know, but probably not seeing how things are going.

 

17 minutes ago, Aristotle2019 said:

? I have an idea of a custom itx PC case idea I wanna execute in a few years time and I want it to double it as a home theatre.

Do you plan blu-rays? From how technology is going, streaming seems to be the way of the future, and streaming quality is increasing faster than on physical media. ? I have an idea of a custom itx PC case idea I wanna execute in a few years time and I want it to double it as a home theatre.

[Aristotle2019]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

We don't know, but probably not seeing how things are going.

 

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you plan blu-rays? From how technology is going, streaming seems to be the way of the future, and streaming quality is increasing faster than on physical media

So.. u mean BluRay streaming cud be a thing in the near future ? Or is that even possible ? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, Aristotle2019 said:

 

So.. u mean BluRay streaming cud be a thing in the near future ? Or is that even possible ? 

You can easily stream much higher quality than bluray, its just most streaming services don't have the bitrate that high cause most people don't have connections that faster and the lower the bitrate the cheaper it is for them to host.

[skywake]

8 hours ago, Aristotle2019 said:

Also, will Blu-ray discs still be a thing in the future ? [...] I want my custom case to have that. But only if optical drives are still a thing then (considering Bluray) and what best options in the slim category are present right now and if they will still be newer models in coming years. 

I wouldn't hold my breath for newer optical media standards as we more-or-less just got a new one a few years ago with UHD BluRay. And with UHD BluRay we're at the point now where we have a format that exceeds the quality that movies are usually captured at and more or less exceeds the spec of any TV you can buy. 

In terms of relevance to PCs? I think it's only something that matters if you have a large collection of BluRays already and want to copy them to some network attached storage. That's the only reason I can think of why you'd want an optical drive on a PC in 2019. And for that any BluRay drive will do unless you're specifically wanting to get into UHD discs. If you're just wanting to causally watch a couple of movies? Use a streaming service or buy a BluRay player....

[Aristotle2019]

4 hours ago, skywake said:

I wouldn't hold my breath for newer optical media standards as we more-or-less just got a new one a few years ago with UHD BluRay. And with UHD BluRay we're at the point now where we have a format that exceeds the quality that movies are usually captured at and more or less exceeds the spec of any TV you can buy. 

In terms of relevance to PCs? I think it's only something that matters if you have a large collection of BluRays already and want to copy them to some network attached storage. That's the only reason I can think of why you'd want an optical drive on a PC in 2019. And for that any BluRay drive will do unless you're specifically wanting to get into UHD discs. If you're just wanting to causally watch a couple of movies? Use a streaming service or buy a BluRay player....

Oh.. that means copying Ur blu ray /uhd blu ray discs onto a NAS isn't illegal ? I always thought it had something to do with copyright problems.

Alright.. I do want to have physical copies because I just like them more and I prefer having copies on my storage drive than streaming. 

Thanks for your input