Optical drives!

Thanks Joel.
Pretty sure I can get one for around $30 to $40 (Aus).

In my opinion Al, the Sammy is the better all rounder because it is a decent burner but a fantastic reader.

The LG's are great readers although very slow, but they are exceptional fast burners.

Hhhmmm...
Food for thought.
Not fussed with burn speed but if it can read well that'd suit me better.
One thing I found with my Pioneers, they are fussy burners.
The disc brands I have least issues with are Verbat. DVDs and TDK CDs

I run LG's in all of the rigs I have built. They read at a decent speed and I have had very few problems burning anything.

I find it strange that Pioneer left the OD market.
Can someone give me reasons ?

I was sad to see Yamaha, BenQ, and Plextor leave the market... They all saw the ODD market as a dying business before the rest of us. I am not at all surprised at this news, even if it is a rumor. I only use drives as rippers anymore. I have not burned a disc in... heck, I can't recall. Apple removed the ODD from the Mac Mini and I suspect the next MacBooks will not have them either. I imagine, software distribution has advanced to thumb/flash media or DLC. Movies and Music are all that remains. I buy fewer DVD's/BD's... I still buy Music CD's (rarely, but still do). I think it would be cool to get music on SD cards if the RIAA did not feel the need to restrict playback. I rip my own CD's to my iPod.

Hello :)
Plextor claimed at the time they could no longer produce a viable domestic DVDRW(BD).
But still market a brand clone.
http://www.plextor-digital.com/index.php/en/Internal-Blu-ray/
Pioneer similar.
http://www.pioneer-optical.eu/Products_Detail.asp?sn=164&class1=BD RW&ck=BD RW
Though Pioneer was always a NEC clone anyway.
But better.
Yahama felt domestic market had no future for them commercially.
BenQ were taken over by Lite-On.
Then closed down in effect.
This was due to BenQs' learning ability working.
Unlike the Lite-On which only partially works.
I had hoped that Lite-On would implicate BenQ features into their drives.
Pride appears to have prevented that. ;)

Ok...
Let me ask you this...
should I be worried ?.. in that DVD's and CD's will go down the same path as the video and cassette tapes.
And how much time do we have... in your opinion?

I think you will be able to obtain readers for a long time. Think about it, Vinyl still has a place in the audiophile world.

True...