I had a 5X DVD Creative DXr2 set in 1999 with which I upgraded my i440LX system. DVD's came in jewel cases 😀 . I'll have a look through my mags to check your list.

douglar wrote on 2021-04-23, 15:31:

1991 - 1992 […]
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1991 - 1992

• 486SX & 486DX2/ "The Multimedia PC"
• IDE & SCSI CDROM drives attached via your sound card
• 2x CD Rom Drives (Twice as Fast!!)

Got a 2x Matushita/Panasonic CR-562b to go in our 486DX33 round about then (I might be able to find the exact date later). MKE bus connection on SB16 (CT1740).

Still have the drive, although managed to break the read head whilst fixing a dodgy PCB (turned out to have a missing via on the +12v line). Now investigating whether I can transfer the flat cables from it to a new head (SF-92.5, as also found in the 3DO I think).

Starting in 2016, seemed like cloud services became popular enough that optical drives started becoming optional components.

I think USB sticks had taken over by then already; once they got above 128MB. I got a laptop around that time and remember starting out thinking I wanted a CD drive, then realising it'd been months since I'd last needed one. So I just took the drive out of the old laptop, stuck it in a USB adapter case, and have used that on the odd occasion it's been needed.

Good list.

By the late 90's I had cycled through a few I can't check but were plextor and pioneer, I had sold a Pioneer 602x changer and 1542 controller from maybe pre-1996, think I had a slot dvd in my NT box...I have left a black plextor from '98 and 2 Nakamichi 16x slot changers from '99 and a 6324 Pioneer from '99. In cases a Plextor 412 DVDrw is about 2000 I think. I thought I had DVD and CDR things prior to '98..?

I know for sure the first Pioneer 1x changer was prior to 1994.

snufkin wrote on 2021-04-23, 17:19:

I think USB sticks had taken over by then already; once they got above 128MB. I got a laptop around that time and remember starting out thinking I wanted a CD drive, then realising it'd been months since I'd last needed one. So I just took the drive out of the old laptop, stuck it in a USB adapter case, and have used that on the odd occasion it's been needed.

I hear what you are saying. Optical drives on laptops just increased weight while increasing fragility. The drawer would pop out at the wrong time and it was just one more opening for dirt to get in. Those went first.

I kept optical drives around on my desktops for OS installs through Windows 7 and the occasional legacy game through 2015, but I think I've only done one windows 10 install from optical media ever. I miss stopping by game stop at the train station after work & before the bar to pick up the latest release on PC-DVD, but that was 10+ years ago; it's been a long time since I've installed a new game off physical media. My kids' computers still have optical drives. I used to break out the box of hand me down disks in the 201x's, but once they started fighting over who had the blue clues CD and they each had TB drives, I just started dropping ISO images on their desktops and showed them how to mount them. Hard to get finger prints on an ISO. There was a month about 2 years ago when they found out how to burn audio disks for mom's car which was really exciting for them, but dad's car has not had a CD drive since 2014, so there was limited utility. And even those iso's are not that interesting since I unblocked ROBLOX.

snufkin wrote on 2021-04-23, 17:19:

Got a 2x Matushita/Panasonic CR-562b to go in our 486DX33 round about then (I might be able to find the exact date later). MKE bus connection on SB16 (CT1740).

It was September '94, along with MS Encarta, Musical Instruments and Bookshelf. Had already got the soundcard in June '93. Gradually turned in to a multimedia PC.

Instruments was great. Samples of all kinds of things. Well over a decade before broadband and Wikipedia could match it.

Oh, Sam and Max Hit the Road as well (Sam:"I hope there was no one on that bus", Max:"No one we know anyway"). I should probably stop now.

douglar wrote on 2021-04-23, 15:31:

I was trying to pick out a drive for a slot 1 computer and suddenly realized that my memory wasn't so clear on optical drives as […]
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I was trying to pick out a drive for a slot 1 computer and suddenly realized that my memory wasn't so clear on optical drives as it was on other components.

I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what is a period correct video card or hard drive, but I had to start thinking hard about the disc players.
Here's what I came up with:
What did I mess up on this list?

Think you did pretty good !
One of the quirks is that some SCSI drives were slower to mature OR sold longer at a slower speed than IDE counter parts. From my odd stack in garage looked over a few and got these, they are Man dates not sales dates...
Wearnes 2X LMSI cdrom Feb 1993
Sony 2X IDE cdrom CDU55E Aug 1994
Toshiba 5401B 4X SCSI cdrom June 1996
Plextor 6x SCSI cdrom (can not clearly read man date is in a case, appears to be 1995).
Toshiba 8x IDE cdrom June 1996
Panasonic 12X SCSI cdrom Feb 1997
HP 32x IDE cdrom Dec 1999
Plextor 8x/20x R820 SCSI CDR March 1999

After this time things went nuts and CD and CDR went nuts with wack0 read and write speeds.

OK, I typed up my notes, put in some details, and put it on the wiki:

Rise and Fall of ISO 9660

If people want to list their optical drives here with these items, I'll add them to the wiki:

Make, Model, Manufacture Date
Loading Mechanism (Tray/Slot/Cart)
Bus type & version (SCSI 2, 10Mhz)
Max CD read speed (6x, 20x etc)
Max CD-R & CD-RW write speed
Max DVD speeds

all trays, all line-out

Plextor PX-W1210TS: SCSI-2 /32x read /12x write/10x rewrite / spdif + play/pause button and volume dial/sep-00
Plextor PX-40TSI: SCSI-2 /40xread + play/pause button and volume dial/oct-99
Asus DRW-1604P: ATAPI / 40xread/32xwrite/24xrewrite/12xDVD/apr-08
LG DRD-8120B: ATAPI/40xread/12xDVD/SPDIF/Feb-01