Currently, HDTVs are compatible with a wide variety of devices via USB connection, including hard drives, cameras, and flash drives, but they do not support optical disk drives built for computers.

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As can be seen, traditional film use is 15% or less with digital technologies such as optical discs, hard disk drives, magnetic tape and flash memory are the bulk of modern recording media.

FORBES: End of the Reel

Consumer devices use common digital storage technology such as flash memory, hard disk drives or optical discs.

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There were particularly severe issues for companies making disk drives and optical networking components, but the impact was widespread.

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The team is already thinking of applications for metamaterials as read-heads for future generations of hard-disk drives or optical modulators for communications.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

Regarding the longevity of storage media many of the products that we use today, hard disk drives, flash memory, optical discs and magnetic tape will react with the ambient environment and gradually lose the data stored on them or disintegrate over time.

FORBES: Storing Information for a Thousand Years

Though not directly affected by the Thai flooding, the company cautioned that they could be affected by potential shortages of non-optical components used in customer systems, like hard disk drives.

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