This is one of many reasons I fucking hate Sony (apologies for the vulgarity). If it weren't for the fact that Blu-ray is the only way to get HD content on disc, I'd happily avoid purchasing anything that puts money into Sony's pockets. Like Navagon, I try to go out of my way to not buy anything Sony and have for years.

Optical drives..... What's next? Punch cards?

Yup, it's incredibly stupid how fucked up that situation is.

I've been thinking for a while to do what my brother has been doing for a long time now: getting them from the high seas of the internet. I've been throwing enough money at the stupid things over the years. No longer!

Yes, indeed.

Underprizing is an age old tactic to squeze out competition, much like windows are doing now.

I still have my PS2, never bothered with PS3. Some of my friends said it was dirt cheap and went for it, some wanted it just for the linux support. Little did they know that an update removed it and then the ranting started. It's the same with stand alone BR-playes connected to the internet. Still I hear about people that can't play their legally bought movies because of a faulty update.

I haven't heard about keys being locked out or removed yet, but, one never knows.

No, the only thing I'm considering using a br-writer is to take backups, unless something better comes along, whitch I hope isn't far away.

I'm a proud old fart that thinks DVD is "good enough"

VHS would have been, but the tapes slowly get worn away or eaten by the VCR.

Optical drives may be obsolete for games, since steam and gog are around. But name me a service comparable to those two for movies.

I don't think that DVDs are good enough, but I hate Sony enough to not upgrade. No, it is not just Blu Ray that is the issue, in fact compared to other things they have done I consider it relatively minor.

netflix?

If I was going to make backups of that size then I wouldn't use optical media. You're basically spending £5 on a disc. Hell of a thing to turn into a coaster. I'd say HDDs instead. Although that's not such a great investment since those floods. But even so, better than the alternatives.

Netflix streaming has horrible selection and in many cases doesn't get you the quality that your connection should deserve. It's nice, of course, if you want to watch mediocre movies from two years ago, but it doesn't really compare. You're much better off having blurays delivered rather than streamed.

I will never install any software associated with Sony on my computer. They install all kinds of DRM malware that can harm your drives and computer. In fact, i will never buy anything Sony makes whenever possible.

Not available around here, and honestly I'd much prefer a download over streaming.

You're quite right... backups hasn't been my strongest point so I've constantly delayed that option, and only using dvd's for transfere and backup small things. Physical copies was more "hands on" before. Lately, I've started using HDD's more and the price has gone alittle lower since the flood, so its a good investment, after all.

Yeah, I've got loads of DVD-Rs. But at some point when money's a little bit less of a concern I want to get a couple more drives, put them in enclosures and just copy everything to them, so I've got that as well. Thinking about it though, I think I'll also need a lot more time on my hands too. :P