Expensive stuff in Off Topic

ID:182679
 
Mar 11 2008, 1:32 pm
In 2008, InPhase plans a second-generation 800GB rewritable optical disc with data transfer rates of about 80MBbps, with plans to expand its capacity to 1.6TB by 2010. The current 300GB holodiscs are supposed to retail for around $100-$125, while the optical reader drive is expected to cost $15 000.

Umm wow, is it worth it?
#1 Mar 11 2008, 1:57 pm
For awhile, no, but that was the same thing with CD and DVD burners,eventually it will drop in price.
#2 Mar 11 2008, 2:14 pm
Pyroclastic wrote:
Umm wow, is it worth it?

Worth what? The market does not have a great need for 1TB removable disks presently, but already video game makers are cursing the Blu-Ray disc's tiny (50GB!) capacity. Certainly as data demands rise, there will be demand for higher-density removable storage.

However, as fixed discs become more dense and internet pipes become fatter, analog distribution is likely to become less important. Already, NetFlix and Blockbuster movie renters are downloading HD films off the internet to play on their home systems, Apple TV is streaming HD video to homes, BitTorrent-based technologies such as Joost are facilitating fast transfers of vast quantities of video data, and the traditionally analog music market is stalling during the transition to digital delivery, made painful by the foot-dragging of record companies.

So, will a >1TB removable disk ever make sense to the average consumer? Maybe, but I personally doubt it.
#3 Mar 11 2008, 2:40 pm
It's cheaper, be a rather large margin, to just buy a harddrive at that storage rate. A 500GB harddrive retails for around $100 now days, and is only dropping. Laptop drives are getting cheaper too, and they will hit the $100 500GB mark within a few years, and a laptop drive is plenty small enough to store and go. Plus, harddrives are rewritable.
#4 Mar 12 2008, 6:32 am
The target consumer, in this case, isn't your average person. And instead will deal with people who work regularly with large storage requirements; for example, people with HD Media in field. To be able to throw your data into a reliable, large format media, instead of just having hard drives laying around, is a lot more reliable (for the most part) - and therefore, a large storage rewriteable media is a good investment.

Also useful for data backups.
#5 Mar 12 2008, 10:40 am
In response to PirateHead (#2)
To me it will be. You have talked about this before, and seems like you have a thing about needing to use CDs, or DVDs or other kinds of media devices to keep and store data.

I personally like having my data kept on disks I can neatly organize and store on a shelf or in a locker or some sort. The same can be said for digital data on my computers hard drive.

I don't want to have to stream data. I want to put a disk in, hit play and watch the movie.
#6 Mar 12 2008, 12:03 pm
In response to DBZ.Omega (#5)
For as much as I like owning things, there is something to be said for just pressing play, none of that putting the disk in junk. I buy all of my PC games off Steam and it makes me so happy to doubleclick an icon and start playing a game. Granted, for years I have been just using no-CD cracks, but you can't do that for console games or movies. Once you go digital, you never go back :P. Granted, I have several hard-drives just laying around which I back stuff up to and I can take them with me when I go to friend's houses, so no need to worry about not having it mobile.

I do like the idea of buying unDRM'd video files over streaming, but if the price is right, I can't say too much about streaming.
#7 Mar 12 2008, 12:14 pm
In response to Danial.Beta (#6)
I have gone digital before and I'd like to add it has done nothing but given me headaches.

I have done a number of digital downloads and redistributions of games from online websites, only to get unresponsive game time and terrible online support.

GameTap is one of the worst. Their software is buggy and slow to say the least. They have a number of games on there that have a big list of problems and incompatibility. Instead of fixing the software themselves, they expect the player, who is paying for their service, to fix it. The support staff automatically assumes if there is a problem, it is the users fault, not their software.

When digital distributions get to the point where it is a easy, 1, 2 click, go, and I have zero wait time, I might be more willing to accept it, but right now, it sucks.
#8 Mar 12 2008, 12:27 pm
In response to DBZ.Omega (#7)
I've never had a problem with Steam. Gametap is a crappy company in the first place, it doesn't surprise me that their software and support is the same. Steam isn't instant, but I always get download speeds equal to that of my max, even when I get something on release date. If you preorder something from them(only available on Valve games) you can download it beforehand and only have to wait for it to unlock(took about 45 minutes for the entire "The Orange Box", which is about 5GBs).

Steam is a very stable software, and the only problems I have had with it were when running it through WINE, which is no surprise.

I have also bought a good bit of stuff from the PlayStation Network. It is been a decent experience. Once downloaded, everything worked good, but sometimes the downloads would just freeze or start going really slow, and they didn't tell you the exact Kbps. It's still a little rough, but at least they don't go with the 'moon dollars' idea of Nintendo and Xbox.
#9 Mar 12 2008, 2:35 pm
In response to Danial.Beta (#8)
Steam is one of the worst if not the worst. When it comes to third party support. (any game not made by valve) take Medieval II: Total War & Kingdoms for example. Off the CD it is fine, on steam your lucky if it works, and you can count on zero support, plus no returns allowed.

http://suf.seirmubsa.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=307
#10 Mar 12 2008, 4:54 pm
In response to Danial.Beta (#8)
The fact you have to use Microsoft's and Nintendo's own idea of credits to download their games never bothered me one bit.

Anyways, I still prefer having a physical print of the game or movie I own. Always will.