Optical Drive Production Over?

[Blues]

So I stumbled on a video recently indicating that manufacturing of optical drives is ending or has ended. I will admit I understand mostly why but it is very disappointing for a physical media enthusiast and archival person such as myself. But looking to the community to see if they have more information or know more about this and if it is true or to what extent.

On a related note I would be interested in select working Blu-ray drive for personal project/needs namely ones compatible with media ripping ideal w/o the need to flash since my one attempt to flash the firmware on a drive has broken the drive. I see people selling ones tested for this purpose but pricing is high so maybe some here might salvage some suitable drives and be able to offer them for a more reasonable price.

 

[brandonkick]

As long as they still sell them, they'll continue to make them. I don't see it going away any time soon.

 

[ThatPlace928]

@Blues thank you for reminding me I needed to order a few more for stock. A lot of laptops don't have them anymore and I have customers who come in looking for USB external drive/players.

 

[Philippe]

I have a nice stock of optical drives, thanks to all the laptops I've recycled for clients.
It's now the only part (with RAM) that I keep before bringing them to the recycling center.
(And until their dedicated box is full...)

 

[Blues]

I'm not really in the business of reselling I tend to only have limited stock and mostly salvage stock on hand which regrettably much of it went to e-waste after sitting for so long but with the changes and the growing need for the antiquated components I am definitely going to work on restocking the salvage and may actively seek out people with old systems they want to dispose of.

 

[britechguy]

I honestly can't see the day coming, soon, where optical drive production will stop entirely. There are literally billions of CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray disks out there that need something to read them, so the market still exists.

I still have a "behemoth" of a LiteOn CD/DVD RW drive I bought decades ago along with 2 very small and light ones for use with the laptops.

Given the amount of "back catalog, and on optical media" music, in particular, my household still picks up with regularity, I can't see them going away. We may be the exception, but we're not the really extreme exception.

 

[GTP]

Audio and video DVDs are still readily available at major retailers, so I don’t see ‘that day’ arriving any time soon. Sure, many PC manufacturers have moved on and no longer include optical drives, but USB drives remain very popular.
I can still buy Blu-ray DVD-RW,s and standard DVD-RW,s for PC's from various wholesalers, and CD-R/RW drives are easy to find on sites like eBay.
Personally, I keep a couple of old Blu-Ray DVD-RW,s and also a couple of Pioneer CD/DVD RW's saved from older desktops and attach them via a USB - SATA adapter I salvaged from an old external HDD enclosure whenever I need them. Handy, reliable, and a nice reminder that these formats aren’t dead yet!

 

[fincoder]

I believe it's just Pioneer that has stopped making optical drives. These were the premium ones available, but I assume we'll still have the lower cost LG drives available.

Pioneer Has Ended Production of Computer Blu-ray Drives - Transfers PDDM Business to Shanxi Group

Pioneer has quietly confirmed that it has ended production of internal and external Blu-ray optical disc drives (ODDs), for computers. Rumors about the cessation of manufacturing activities emerged earlier this month; with a small number of Japanese news outlets publishing reports. Days later...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[frase]

I do not think overall they will dissapear, there will still be available the USB ones. I have a horde of SATA and IDE Type Optical Drives still.

 

[Blues]

The video I said was claiming either LG or Lite-On was the brand and it might have been a specific model it was kind of vague and rushed and I had it playing in the background so... yeah and I did see the cost on pre-flashed drives looked to have exploded so it might be limited to the known models that can be flashed for optimal ripping drives since that is something companies want to stop.

 

[Markverhyden]

They still manufacture turntables and floppy drives. Not to mention VCR's.