CD-Rs more expensive than DVD-Rs?

[aimeeandbeatles]

This I don't understand. I ran out of CD-Rs so I was looking for them. I saw a spindle of 50 for $19.95 or so. Right next to it was a spindle of DVD-Rs, same brand, same # of discs, for $14.95. Why?

before you ask yes i googled.

 

[civ_king]

Production volume

 

[Maniacal]

They probably don't make as many CDs anymore. Also try finding a better price
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?minorcatid=1010&subminorcatid=535

 

[Zelig]

People still use optical media?

 

[GenMarshall]

There is more supplies of DVDRs than there is CDRs.

 

[mdwh]

People still use optical media?

I still find them useful for backup. (Yes, external hard drives are increasingly doing a better job of this, but DVDs still have their use here.) Useful for boot media too.

 

[Zelig]

I still find them useful for backup. (Yes, external hard drives are increasingly doing a better job of this, but DVDs still have their use here.) Useful for boot media too.

Backup of what?

My entire file library is around 5tb, so that just goes on drives, my critical documents and stuff go on several different hard drives and flash media... I just don't see any point in optical media.

Probably won't even bother installing an optical drive in personal desktops for myself from now on.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

People still use optical media?

Well I'm probably the last person in the world to use a portable CD player.

 

[Mise]

I dreamt I had a portable CD player last night.

Any way bootable CDs are still useful. The only time I'd use a bootable OS is on a computer that's really old -- too old to handle bootable USBs.

Aimee -- a 4gb mp3 player would be cheaper, smaller, faster and easier than buying 50 CD-Rs, and you could write over them later too.

 

[mdwh]

Backup of what?

My entire file library is around 5tb, so that just goes on drives, my critical documents and stuff go on several different hard drives and flash media... I just don't see any point in optical media.

Probably won't even bother installing an optical drive in personal desktops for myself from now on.

Do you fit your 5TB on flash media?

Presumably you do as I do - do selective backups of critical documents. And things like my personal photos, source code I work on, email easily fit into 4GB.

mp3s also fit onto only a few DVDs - yes I have a backup on disks too, but it's a cheap way of making additional backups.

It's also easier just to drop an additional backup DVD in my bag than lugging around a hard drive.

Do you mean that you'll rely on an external DVD for when you need one (I can see that argument), or you don't need one at all.

I need one for ripping/playing CDs/DVDs I buy; it's useful for boot media; and well, playing games like Civilization I wish they would drop the stupid CD checks (and no, Steam doesn't count either).

Aimee -- a 4gb mp3 player would be cheaper, smaller, faster and easier than buying 50 CD-Rs, and you could write over them later too.

I didn't get an mp3 player until relatively late (end of 2009). I don't know about Aimee's, but most "CD players" will do mp3 playing. The problem I had was that although a 4GB player would be smaller, it wasn't anywhere near enough to hold my collection. Since I mostly used it when travelling rather than walking, the portability wasn't an issue (plus I had my phone if I wanted to listen to a few mp3s when walking).

You can "write over them later", but changing the mp3s like that is a huge pain, and simply picking up a few of mp3 CDs each time I went out was far easier and more flexible.

I found it frustrating that for years, there was a huge gap between mp3 players with too small storage, expensive mp3 players with far more storage than I needed, and mp3 players that might have been okay, but were expensive and oversized because they fitted in things like Internet and video and software that I wasn't interested in. And it didn't help that few supported memory cards. But now I have the Sandisk Sansa Clip - £40 for an 8GB player, plus £15 for an additional 16GB memory card, finally makes a worthwhile mp3 player

 

[Mise]

I didn't get an mp3 player until relatively late (end of 2009). I don't know about Aimee's, but most "CD players" will do mp3 playing. The problem I had was that although a 4GB player would be smaller, it wasn't anywhere near enough to hold my collection. Since I mostly used it when travelling rather than walking, the portability wasn't an issue (plus I had my phone if I wanted to listen to a few mp3s when walking).

A 4gb mp3 player doesn't hold enough stuff, but a 700mb CD does...?

You can "write over them later", but changing the mp3s like that is a huge pain, and simply picking up a few of mp3 CDs each time I went out was far easier and more flexible.

So just buy another 4gb mp3 player, load that up with different music (the same way you load a different CD up with different music -- except with a 4gb capacity instead of just 700mb) and pick one of them up when you leave. Hell, take both of them if you really want - they're small enough.

I mean, I just don't get it. You can't possibly be saying that carrying 5 CD-Rs + a portable CD player is easier or more flexible than carrying a tiny 4gb mp3 player. Carrying 10 CD-Rs + a portable CD player is easier or more flexible than carrying 2 tiny 4gb mp3 players? I don't see the difference between having 40-odd CD-Rs with mp3s on them and having 6-ish 4gb mp3 players with mp3s on them, except that mp3 players are smaller, less susceptible to skipping, more difficult to break and scratch, easier to write and rewrite, searchable, sortable, playlistable, lighter, and just generally better in every way!

Although if you have ~25gb of music it makes more sense to buy a >25gb mp3 player

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Aimee -- a 4gb mp3 player would be cheaper, smaller, faster and easier than buying 50 CD-Rs, and you could write over them later too.

They're too small for me to use. I can't use the buttons right.

 

[Zelig]

Do you fit your 5TB on flash media?

I wish - only hard drives and tapes are reasonably large enough for 5tb of backups.

Do you mean that you'll rely on an external DVD for when you need one

External. (As in, I'll have at least 1 computer with a dvd drive, and I'll just share that over the network.)

Although if you have ~25gb of music it makes more sense to buy a >25gb mp3 player

Well, I've got several hundred gb of music, but I don't see why I'd ever want to put all of it on an portable media player.

 

[Mise]

Yeah, I agree. I only ever want to listen to the last stuff I just "acquired". I very rarely want to listen to stuff I listened to when I was 16 -- because I've listened to that stuff to death by now. My mp3 player is 30gb and easily fits all of the music I have ever owned, but I never take that with me anymore because my phone's 4gb SD card is perfectly adequate for the music I'm listening to right now.

 

[Abaddon]

I need to be less of a hoarder with music files.. tons of stuff I never listen to anymore

 

[Zelig]

I need to be less of a hoarder with music files..

Why?

Hard drive space is dirt cheap, and storing digital files doesn't cost you anything in time.

 

[Mise]

It's a pain to organise though.

 

[Zelig]

It's a pain to organise though.

So don't, let software organize it for you. Software is particularly good at organizing music.

 

[Mise]

Yeah but if you have loads of artists and you don't really know what you want to listen to then scrolling through them all to find one you like can take a long time. It's easier to only have the ones you like.