Are DVDs Still Relevant in Today’s Digital World?

Storage technology is developing at a rapid pace. A few years ago, being able to fit 64 MB of data onto a large drive was considered a breakthrough. Today, you can fit 1,000 times that same amount on a small microSD card. The price of storage is becoming more affordable too, especially with the introduction of fast and reliable SSDs.

While hard drives and flash storage are being improved rapidly, optical discs aren’t as prominent as they used to be. The introduction of Blu-Ray discs wasn’t enough to get people using optical discs more often. In fact, many of the everyday computer users prefer DVDs. Are DVDs still relevant in today’s digital world?

A Capable Backup Solution

A single DVD is capable of storing 4.7 GB of data. The newer generation of double-sided DVDs has double the capacity. A Blu-Ray DVD disc, on the other hand, can hold up to 50 GB of data with its dual-layer technology.

The moderately large storage capacity lends DVDs to backup usage scenarios. Many users still turn to DVDs for storing old photos and videos, documents from work and personal computers, and other sensitive information.

Optical discs are also easy to store. As long as you keep them in a dry and cool room, you don’t have to worry about the discs becoming unreadable at all. Their compact size and the design of DVD cases also makes backing up files to DVDs a useful thing to do.

Movies and Multimedia

Another reason why DVDs are still in use is multimedia content. DVDs can be formatted to work with DVD and Blu-Ray players, which means you can format your recent holiday videos or the home movies you create and watch them with the entire family on a large screen using a standard DVD player.

There are more software and apps that can handle the creation of multimedia DVDs. DVD Ranger is a good option to use. It offers a lot of features that will come in handy as you use more DVDs for storing files. It can even handle copying up to 10 DVDs onto a single Blu-Ray disc. Read more about DVD Ranger to learn about its features and how this software can be very handy to have.

Cost Considerations

Let’s not forget that DVDs are also relatively cost-efficient, even compared to the hard drives and flash storage we have today. A pack of 10 Verbatim DVD-R discs costs around $5. That translates to $0.50 per disc or around $0.10 per gigabyte.

DVD burners, towers designed for copying multiple DVDs, and even Blu-Ray writers are just as affordable. The prices for these drives – and the discs themselves – continue to go down thanks to the economies of scale.

OEMs and manufacturers may no longer include built-in DVD drives in their personal computers and laptops, but that doesn’t mean DVDs are no longer relevant. Millions of people still use DVDs for various purposes and optical discs are here to stay. They are a good and affordable storage option for different usage scenarios, even in today’s digital world.