My printer/scanner has USB, Ethernet, and SD card interfaces, which means I can save scanned images or print pictures from my digital camera via an SD card, as well as communicate with my PC via LAN or USB. Similarly, in addition to LAN, USB, and FireWire, this DVD drive adds the option of transferring files via an SD card.

Some ultralight notebook PCs do not come with DVD drives. Such users can have their DVDs to go by copying the disc's contents to an SD card first, using the DVD drive's built-in user interface indepentent of a PC, and hit the road with an SD card solution only which has benefits such as better battery life, more compactness, less moving parts, and increased portability. An ultralight notebook can have an SD card reader be internal instead of external without much disadvantage.

The file transfer can go both ways: put files you want to burn on the SD card first. Extensions of this idea would be to have other intermediary storage types such as microDrive or USB flash, or whatever else that may gain popularity in the future.
-- rhatta, Mar 21 2008

More, please. I understand that if your computer cannot read DVDs, move the contents of a DVD to a format your computer understands. Likewise 5 inch floppies - if your favorite computer cannot read them, move them to a format which can be read.

I grok that. But is there more than that being proposed here?
-- bungston, Mar 21 2008


i only see piracy written all over it.

possibly a way to make the data readable between the computer and drive it's assigned to?

but as you might have noted (and i might not have understood) if i have access to the drive, i'd rather just plug into it and copy the files directly to a 'virtual drive.'

maybe the SD card would be a portable-'virtual drive?'
-- crazyrog17, Mar 22 2008


It's the idea of being able to move DVD data to a memory card without a computer. The RIAA isn't going to like it so no one is going to sell it. I guess it would work for data DVDs, but if you have those, then you have a computer, you'd just need a USB DVD player. Sorry, I'm going to have to give this the fishbone. (-)
-- MisterQED, Mar 22 2008


Not sure how this is better than flash drives...?
-- wagster, Mar 22 2008


Also, in hot climates, it should be OK to wear shorts with a tie.
-- bungston, Mar 24 2008


With regard to movie DRM: additional encryption would be used so that the movie content copied to the SD card will only be playable on up to 5 authorized PCs, just like iTunes Store FairPlay DRM.

This method could be used for the duration MPAA still thinks DRM is necessary.
-- rhatta, Apr 17 2008



random, halfbakery