Getting out of making Optical Writer and Media business

[pchan]

Hi All,
Pioneer, Samsung and LG have announced that they getting out optical drive business.

Sony has announced that it's ending production of Blu-ray disc media, recording mini disc, recording MD data, and mini DV cassette. Of course, Sony is not the only player in the market.
https://www.sony.jp/rec-media/info2/20250123.html

What's the point of keeping long lasting blu-ray disc as backup if there in no optical drive to read it ?

I don't see much alternatives other than hard disk, thumb drive and SSD. Any thoughts ?

Thanks in advance.

[Subtitles]

This happened in the past with VCR machines. I have hundreds of VCR cassettes but I don't have a VCR machine to watch them or copying them to other medias.
Streaming platforms made the need to have drives irrelevant. I bought last year an LG Blu Ray drive so I should be OK for few years.
Yes the alternatives are as you mentioned. There is no point in copying backups to Blu Ray discs.
You can store them in the clouds, but you have to pay a lot and there is the risk they will be deleted if you stop paying for storage.

[cholla]

I still use DVDs for a lot of movie storage.
I have enough drives for this.So I should be good for a long time.
I have two BD drives & a third broken one which probably could be fixed.

My DVRs are also DVDs so I'm good for settop players.
I have one settop BD player & I bought it at Walmart new this year.

I have a VCR that I can play VHS tapes in my entertainment center.
I have another VCR mothballed & I hope it will work if I ever need it.
I have very few VHS tapes.

I have never used "The Cloud" for storage & I have no plans to.

For availability of drives: There is the used market.
Then like turntables for LPs. They almost disappeared.
But now you can purchase a new one because there is a demand & market for them.

[aedipuss]

nas boxes. my original dual drive nas is still running after 101,000 hours with the original drives.






4208 days or 11.5 years so far


2 other 4 drive units also on the network.

[pchan]

Thanks.

Someone should make VCR and miniDV compatible players and there should be market for it. One can still get a turntable with USB output now. I have 1 USB thumb drive, 6 IDE and 4 SATA HDD, and 1 WD 2T passport gone bad. A few CDs and DVDs writers gone bad too. My Asus DVD USB burner that came with laptop bought in 2015 and a salvage laptop DVD burner with USB adapter are still working. Recently, bought a Asus BW-16D1HT blu-ray burner and an USB3 enclosure for it. I think external USB drives last longer as it's only power on when needed. Let's hope "someone" still continue to make the combo blu-ray burner in the very far future.