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Slot Optical Drives Kick ass

post #1 of 17
3/13/05 at 1:39am
Thread Starter 
The only one I can find that has one though is a Acer Ferrari 3x00. Anyone know of any other models that have this? Anyone know where I could possibly buy one and slap it in a notebook later on down the road?
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post #2 of 17
3/13/05 at 1:45am
I wish the XPS2 had this cool feature
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post #3 of 17
3/13/05 at 1:51am
Macs have it and on that note couldn't you just get the drive and slap it in what evernote book you alreay have?
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post #4 of 17
3/13/05 at 1:54am
It would depend on whether the dimensions match. Although they are usually the same, a difference of a couple millimeters would make the drives incompatible. Also, certain companies (dell used to in the past) use drives with connectors in different places so that generic drives don't work...

Regards,

zakaluka2.
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post #5 of 17
3/13/05 at 1:58am
Ok so for all those who didn't have a clue what "Slot Optical Drive" means... ( I sure didn't) a little googling and I think it means:

A drive like the ones in car stereos where you push the CD into a slot instead of the "Cup holder Style Drive" where a tray pops out that you set the CD onto.

Yah so I'm prolly the only one confused about that but w/e.
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post #6 of 17
3/13/05 at 2:13am
Thread Starter 
oops, sorry... didn't mean to leave you in the dark. I found this out because I was in the market for a DVD player. I came across only one DVD player that is slotted. It is made by Phillips. Now they aren’t the only ones who have slotted DVD capability, just the only ones who sell the player itself. Sony has a pretty bad ass one but you have to buy surround sound with it. Did i mention im in college?

So then I got to thinking about why you couldn’t do the same with a notebook; after all, its just one less thing that is going to break. So I thought i'd get the thread out there.
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post #7 of 17
3/13/05 at 2:47am
Yeah the Ferrari's have it to simulate the dashboard of a real Ferrari (!!!). Sounds cool, but why don't more notebooks have it? Especially the ultra-portables?
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post #8 of 17
3/13/05 at 3:08am
*shrugs* who knows, they're great as they usually make for a bit more sturdy design IMO as you don't have the flimsy drawer opening up. There was one available on newegg awhile ago but it isn't there anymore sadly. I don't recall if it was the phillips or not.

Tellerve
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post #9 of 17
3/13/05 at 3:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by urchin
Yeah the Ferrari's have it to simulate the dashboard of a real Ferrari (!!!). Sounds cool, but why don't more notebooks have it? Especially the ultra-portables?
Cause they don't support credit-card-sized/small CDs. Don't try that at home

Another thing is when your CD/DVD is unreadable (for one reason or another) and gets stuck in slot-loading drive, it's a real disaster. Not so with regular drives.

Otherwise they do seem to be great.
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post #10 of 17
3/13/05 at 5:21pm
ahhh....that makes sense. But I don't use the weird sized CDs so I still want a slot-loaded drive!
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post #11 of 17
3/14/05 at 4:02pm
The VPR Matrix laptops that Best Buy used to sell had slot load optical drives, they just weren't DVD burners.
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post #12 of 17
3/14/05 at 4:18pm
Slot drives must be perfectly aligned with the exterior to keep from jamming. I had a 17" Powerbook that used to jam. Fortunately it developed screen problems too just before the warranty ran out. What did Apple to to help? They upgraded my 1 Ghz Powerbook to a brand new 1.5 Ghz 17" at no extra charge.

http://homepage.mac.com/bhardy3/PhotoAlbum34.html

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post #13 of 17
3/14/05 at 4:32pm
how does the exterior alignment of the bezel have anything to do with the drive jamming??? The powerbook drives are all built in anyways, unlike most or all pc notebooks.

Anywho, heres a drive i've been lookin at for a long time from panasonic:

http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_inf...roducts_id/216

and another from teac:

http://www.teac.co.jp/dspd/product/o.../dv-w24sl.html

i just dont know if the bezel will fit: its 12.7 mm high = 1.5 inches and the bezel on my drive is 1.7 inches, but i dont know if the height measurement includes the bezel or just the drive. I would call to inquire but i'm a) too lazy and b) prolly wont get it because theres really no easy way to remove the drive from the inspiron 6000
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post #14 of 17
3/14/05 at 4:35pm
question, if a cd/dvd gets stuck inside for whatever reason, is there a way to retrieve it?

the regular cd/dvd, players/burners (as far as I know) have a little pinhole that you can push a toothpick thru to open up the door if you lose power or the cd gets stuck inside.......

any such failsafe mechanism in the slotted drives?
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post #15 of 17
3/14/05 at 5:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mhesham2
question, if a cd/dvd gets stuck inside for whatever reason, is there a way to retrieve it?
Lucky Mac owner have several sources of information for such occurences

http://www.appletechs.com/archives/00000004.html

or even official guidance

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58566

Some slot-loading drives do have pinhole to eject disk manually. Don't know wich ones though.

Edit: Here's a desktop slot-loading drive that has pinhole
http://www.bestsonic.com/piondvd16xsl.html
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post #16 of 17
3/14/05 at 5:32pm
i really cannot tell you, as i have had no personal experience with one. I would assume that there has to be SOME fail-safe to prevent against this, unless they're just perfect

anywho, heres the panasonic homepage for their slot drives:

http://panasonic.co.jp/mke/en/device/

and the drive on an inspiron 6000 is friggin easy to remove ...1 screw... who knew!!
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post #17 of 17
3/14/05 at 9:42pm
slot drives arent REALLY the best even though they are convinient, they do scratch the hell out of your discs if there is dust or whatnot on the felt lining around the slot. just make sure you keep it clean
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