this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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Can someone tell me, why weren't optical discs (mechanically, ergonomically) designed similarly to floppies? In a protective envelope with a window.
Sony PSP discs had something like that. More expensive and impractical from looks, the window part was always open and cleaning it from dirt is inconvenient if untouched for long. But then the cover for that window wouldn't break off, and the looks solve the problem of "looking obsolete" that arises with clueless baboon crowds. Sony engineering back then somehow evokes feelings in me.
Og CDs came in a protective case like that, as did some large optical discs. But I guess it was just cumbersome and needlessly expensive to make the hardware?
Yes, but scratches.
Turned out that scratches can easily be avoided if you are careful, and - more importantly - a few scratches won't prevent the disc being read, thanks to the error correction.
Back in the day I remember using one of those AOL internet sign-up junk discs as a drinks coaster, for several years. As you'd expect from grinding around on my desk it was filthy and scratched to total hell, never mind the thermal stress of hundreds of hot tea mugs being sat on it. I'd never seen a CD looking so bad.
One day out of curiosity I decided to wipe it off and put it in the PC to see what would happen. I was genuinely surprised when the AOL splash popped up (and also a little disgusted because I had no love for AOL and was hoping I'd killed it)
A few won't. I have a disc that looks as if it was tested with hot needles many times just for fun.
Looking up the Hutchinson Encyclopedia pictured above: which one of you did this?
CD-ROM discs came in caddies early on. They weren't popular with consumers I would guess. MiniDiscs were designed with a protective caddie.
MicroDisc also was like a floppy.
And IIRC, that format was also a Sony thing. They were always small tho, and had less capacity.
Price. Once the industry retooled the production lines, CDs became dirt cheap to reproduce, and successive generations of optical media are only somewhat more expensive. Plastic shells and mechanisms cost money. CDs are probably the cheapest physical audio format ever (at least as far as production costs are concerned).