Flash vs DVD
First of all, let’s disregard CD-Roms. Nowadays memory sticks far exceed the 700MB limit of CD-Rs so they pose no competition. But what about DVD-Roms? Can you see them being ousted by USB flash drives? Unless you care about watching self-burned movies with your actual TV-DVD-player I would say yes. Think about it:
- They’re smaller and can have more capacity than a normal DVD-R (8/16/32/64/128GB compared to 4,7 GB or 8,5 GB as double layer).
- You can write data a lot quicker (USB 2.0 can transfer 60 MB per second whereas a DVD burner can only do 24 MB/s using a writing speed of 16x).
- You can rewrite data over and over again effortlessly, unlike with DVD-RW. (I don’t know about you but I constantly screwed up my data through rewriting.)
- You can carry them around handily without inflicting any damage (see wear your stick) whereas DVDs usually require a case and some type of bag for safe transport.
- They are far more durable and reliable. How often did you pop in that burned DVD-R to find out that your player has a problem playing it? Could that newly discovered hole or scratch on the surface be to blame? Well, these things can’t happen with USB memory sticks and the data stored on them is not that easy to lose, even when exposed to magnetism.
The only disadvantage I can think of is that 1 flash drive-GB is more expensive than 1 DVD-GB. But does that really bother if it means that GB is good to last? So if you ask me, sooner or later the shiny silver disks will be obsolete. Imagine movies, games and music albums being sold on memory sticks. As a matter of fact there have already been occasions where this has been done (for example, Kylie Minogue’s “X” or Portishead’s “Three”). And why not? It sure saves a lot of space.
To take it one step further, pen drives also score well compared to hard disks. I devoted an article to that here: Flash drives vs. hard drives. As always, feel free to leave your comments.
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April 5th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points.
February 15th, 2010 at 7:14 am
my opinion is that 1 flash drive-GB is more expensive than 1 DVD-GB so DVD is a right choice
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February 18th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
where can i find movies sold on memory stick?
February 19th, 2010 at 1:34 am
Edward,
I wish such flash drives were available already but my guess is the movie industry is reluctant to go that route.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:46 am
I love my flash drive. Right now, there’s a guy on ebay selling 16 gig flash drives for like twenty dollars. I got one, and it works great. He’s a little slow with shipping though, because he’s in China, but other than that, I think it was a great price for a great jump drive.
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February 25th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Thanks for this blog site. It is a valuable site for those who are not certain of how to manage their data and what new releases are in the market place. I will conclude that I too use my flash drive and welcome this for the end user in place of Compact discs. Compact Discs are similar to the old vinyl in that they are often stored in the wrong jacket or no jacket at all.
You can find them in the most unexpected place in the family home. They then scratch and become useless. I am not certain that the flash drive is such a good marketing tool as they do not have the visible attraction that DVD, CD, tapes, and vinyl’s were, yet they are maintained in a better condition for an extended period and may hold more data than earlier equipment. They can be easily transported. Overall I think the flash drive is fantastic device and user friendly.
April 5th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Great article here! Unless, like you mentioned, you wanted to watch an actual disc from your tv… I can’t see the discs being better than a usb drive. I think discs in general are becoming obsolete with all of the streaming technology available today.