Next gen consoles: drive trays, slot load or flip top?

[Squeak]

There is also the issue of the "lip" on slot loading drives, that prevents dust from entering the drive. It scrapes across the surface of the disc as it slides into the drive, and depending on much dust has been scraped of previous discs, you are going to get some small scratches on the disc.

What kind of dust do you have floating around in your home, cement dust? I can mention my slotin Pioneer DVDROM, it has brushes similar to those we used on our vinyl LPs back in the day (uh, well, at least those of us born BEFORE the CD era started did), made of carbon fibers or similar. They're so soft the chance of them scratching anything is extremely remote to say the least. You'd get bigger scratches on your CDs just by putting them down on a plastic tray, that's for sure.

Putting you CD straight down on the tray won't harm it at all, as the motor also scoops the CD straight up, without spinning it first.

With slotdrives, no matter how soft the brushes are, they will always sweep across your discs every time you insert or eject it, and various kinds of dust will accumulate on the surface of a CD (actually being spun around at high speeds must make it slightly charged with static, and make it actively attract dust).

I also have a Pioneer LaserMemory drive, and I find it’s a good idea to vacuum the opening once in a while, and keep the discs dust free, otherwise scratches will appear.

Of course, if Sony chooses a cartridge-based media, the problem of scratched discs will be completely alleviated, and ms and probably also Nintendo will follow suit.

 

[Tim Murray]

I thought cartridges were universally considered too expensive for a high-capacity game format unless you can't have a CD drive (so for mobile parts)...

 

[akira888]

Cartridges on future game consoles - not going to happen, unless you want to pay US$500 per title.

 

[Florin]

Actually for next gen its about time they do stacker of some sort. I hate changing disc.

It would be nice if you can stuck 100 discs in the console and change it in the menu or something like that.

But that'll never happend, so I prefer fliptop the best.

Well, an XBox with a larger harddrive and a new BIOS does just that

 

[Squeak]

I meant a cartridge with a disc in it of course, like BluRay.

 

[London Geezer]

I meant a cartridge with a disc in it of course, like BluRay.

Oh... I did think WTF too, but avoided to post it... Now it all becomes clear...

 

[Evil_Cloud]

I'd like to see a multi disk tray, with switching option!