Verbatim is doing more than just keeping the formats on life support – it also unveiled new hardware at CES 2025. Its Slimline Blu-ray Writer lets you back up 4K video to Ultra HD Blu-ray and even comes bundled with antiquated Nero disc burning software.
This is the important part imo, given that LG and Sony both pulled out of the USB Blu-ray reader-writer market
https://www.verbatim-europe.com/en/blu-ray-writers/products/external-slimline-blu-ray-writer-43890
Means we’ll be able to rip Blu-ray’s into the future. At least, that’s what I hope. Need to check there are cracks for these writers.
EDIT: Won’t link to it here, but many Verbatim writers, UHD and otherwise, use Pioneer hardware internally and are therefore crackable.
What’s the benefit of cracking the drive?
Probably that you can backup your own media
It’s a bd writer, it can backup my media out of the box.
Edit: oh, I see. You mean “backup”. Lol gotcha. Yeah, cracking would be needed for that.
Yaaarrrr.
Work to preserve physical media across all your entertainment. You give away your leverage as a consumer with every stream and digital “purchase” (because of course you legally own nothing digital from these companies, you lease the right to access them, until that company decides you no longer get that access, see Sony)
I’ve had good luck with their stuff so I’m pleased
Unfortunately I don’t think Verbatim manufactures any quad-layer discs, so Sony was the only real option for 128GB disks.
Furthermore, M-Disc is still very pricey per-GB, and their non M-Disc BD disks aren’t priced that much better. I’ve also recently got a spindle of Verbatim BDXLs that every single one would fail to either write or read at the layer transitions, so having a single option here is already proving to be painful.
Disc failure is the verbatim I remember, but I’m glad they’re still around. My 2008 car has a 6 disc CD changer, and I have a few retro PCs which rely on CDs too. Yes, I know I can get adapters for CF cards and the like, but doing things the old way is the whole point.
I have a stack of Verbatim blanks I bought years ago just in case they ever stopped being sold; I’ve actually used quite a few to create daisy disks and audio CDs.
I did get a ~128 micro sdxc (micro center branded) for free, so, im kinda on the fence, but wont mind rocking a cd player again!
~128 micro sdxc (micro center branded) for free
How bad is it, Class 4 perhaps?
SDs are cheap these days, 128 class 10 for 9$. Just don’t buy them for OS level writes, logging is ok.
My goal was to just use it as media storage, smol formats and minimal use cases
https://www.apacer.com/en/product/personal-product/detail/personal_memorycard/microsdxc_uhs-i_u3_v30_a1_gaming_card Similar but this is the closest I can find.
Kinda afraid to even look it up or try it. 🙈
Verbatim for the win
Can someone tell me, why weren’t optical discs (mechanically, ergonomically) designed similarly to floppies? In a protective envelope with a window.
Sony PSP discs had something like that. More expensive and impractical from looks, the window part was always open and cleaning it from dirt is inconvenient if untouched for long. But then the cover for that window wouldn’t break off, and the looks solve the problem of “looking obsolete” that arises with clueless baboon crowds. Sony engineering back then somehow evokes feelings in me.
Og CDs came in a protective case like that, as did some large optical discs. But I guess it was just cumbersome and needlessly expensive to make the hardware?
Yes, but scratches.
Turned out that scratches can easily be avoided if you are careful, and - more importantly - a few scratches won’t prevent the disc being read, thanks to the error correction.
Back in the day I remember using one of those AOL internet sign-up junk discs as a drinks coaster, for several years. As you’d expect from grinding around on my desk it was filthy and scratched to total hell, never mind the thermal stress of hundreds of hot tea mugs being sat on it. I’d never seen a CD looking so bad.
One day out of curiosity I decided to wipe it off and put it in the PC to see what would happen. I was genuinely surprised when the AOL splash popped up (and also a little disgusted because I had no love for AOL and was hoping I’d killed it)
A few won’t. I have a disc that looks as if it was tested with hot needles many times just for fun.
Price. Once the industry retooled the production lines, CDs became dirt cheap to reproduce, and successive generations of optical media are only somewhat more expensive. Plastic shells and mechanisms cost money. CDs are probably the cheapest physical audio format ever (at least as far as production costs are concerned).
I’d guess because they already had a protective layer in the plastic they’re made from. At least enough to protect during actual use, and not infants scattering them all over the floor.
I can’t say I’ve ever lost a disc to physical damage.
I was the infant and have destroyed many discs.
