As I was shutting things down late last night...after watching our Rockies battle back to take the wild card spot, I know I know he didn't touch home plate, oh well:)...I got to thinking about the longevity of the PS3 and it's components; the slot loading BR drive in particular -

What is the best option, IYO: a) to remove the disc before powering down for the evening EVERY TIME or b) to let the disc remain in the PS3 upon booting up? What's harder (over its life span) on the mechanics of a drive: ejecting a disc or spinning up from an idle position - I realize there are separate functions. What do you do?

I know in my experience over the years with optical drives, I've had many more slot loading drive go bad vs tray loading and I also know that the overall probability of an issue arising is slim, but I was just hoping to get some opinions from others.This isn't an issue at the moment, just a "what if" type question.

I can't believe no one has an opinion on this....come on nearly 100 views and 0 replies. I'd really like to know peoples thoughts....I guess this question is a bit uninspired, but it may come in useful down the road, maybe?

Well...chances are you'll get bored of the ps3 before that mechanism fails. That and the ps3 really hasn't been out long enough for people to determine the lifespan of the disc loading mechanism.

I have my console set to NOT automatically launch a game or movie - if that helps - because it saves wear and tear AND it's less annoying. I tell you what - I'll let you know what happens in a few years to my drive and then I'll let ya' know. Personally, I'd imagine that letting it stay in might be better - BUT you will probably be heating up the disc even if you're not playing it. I had a DVD changer like that : the discs were all slightly warm when not being played (the ones in the slots not being used) so I started worrying about their longevity. The eject feature seems noisy - so who knows? It's not as smooth as it could be. There ya go: one uninformed opinion.

I didnt realize that you could disable the auto launch thingy. Ill have to set mine up that way...Ive always founds that annoying.

Well...chances are you'll get bored of the ps3 before that mechanism fails. That and the ps3 really hasn't been out long enough for people to determine the lifespan of the disc loading mechanism.

True enough, and anyone, including myself can make an educated guess as to life span of a drive, things such as usage, time, care...etc...all are contributing factors.

So I guess my question should have been stated differently, my initial intent was simple to gage the current disc usage of PS3 owners - "Who's removing the disc every time and who's leaving the disc within the unit? Guess I did get off kilter a bit with my first post. This thread is going nowhere fast, even I can see that.:)

I tend to leave my disc, whether game, dvd, or bd inside the ps3's drive, never really thought that leaving them inside would amount to wear and tear though....I'm also with Mattardo, I tend to have the load disc at start up set to off...

let the disc remain in the PS3 upon booting up;)

It sounds like you're asking the same question. If you leave it in the drive it will spin it up when you start playing the game/movie, if you take it out then reinsert later, it will spin it up when you start playing the game. Seems to me that you're putting most stress on the mechanism by ejecting reinserting the disk every night. Just turn autorun off and you'll be saving energy.

I have my auto run turned off, and I just leave the disc in the machine. It's not based on drive longevity. I've had lots of Sony drives in things and never had a problem with them even after 15 years. I tend to play one game for weeks at a time, and I don't like having to get up and put in a disc when I decide there's nothing on TV, and I want to play a game.

As I was shutting things down late last night...after watching our Rockies battle back to take the wild card spot, I know I know he didn't touch home plate, oh well:)

/offtopic Exciting finish. I can't wait to go to the game Saturday.

one problem with turning off autolaunch is my mom can never navigate her way to the disc to play a title. she'd be under network moving up and down looking for video. :(

I didnt realize that you could disable the auto launch thingy. Ill have to set mine up that way...Ive always founds that annoying.

FYI...

In addition, for those of you that might like the normal auto launch to the disc, you can hold left or right on the PS3 controller d-pad to interrupt the launching to optical disc and go straight to the XMB.

But I just have auto-launch turned off.

/offtopic Exciting finish. I can't wait to go to the game Saturday.

Lucky... GO ROCKIES!!!