Gavin Scott wrote:I'm one of those people who don't always put the disc back in its sleeve - the same as I didn't put VHS tapes back in their boxes. While it doesn't particularly harm tapes, it seems to be death to discs.
Back in the early days of CD-ROMs, quite a few CD drive manufacturers decided to make drives that would only allow the use of discs inside protective caddies (the drive didn't have a tray, just a slot for the caddy).
Unfortunately, the idea never took off, for the usual reason (expense). However, the idea has been brought back for DVD-RAM discs (they're more delicate than other DVD formats?).
I have seen a Panasonic DVD-RAM recorder that has a special tray that allows the use of both caddies and 'naked' discs. It is a shame that most other manufacturers can't be bothered to produce this type of tray, as the caddies could be useful for providing extra protection for 'important' CDs/DVDs.