Items tagged with Optical Drive
It looks like Pioneer will be the first company to release a line of 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drives for PCs. Pioneer in Japan announced two models that are expected to go on sale later this month, both of which stick to the standard half-height 5.25-inch optical disc drive form factor. However, both also require Windows 10, at least 6GB of system memory, and a Kaby Lake processor. The two models are the BDR-S11J-BK and BDR-S11J-X. They've very similar to one other, with the higher end BDR-S11J-X sporting a paint job that's better at dissipating heat, low resistance flat cable, anti-vibration components, and the ability to check and display the playback quality of an audio CD (CD-DA) in four different...
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Microsoft isn't too keen on discussing the Xbox 720 or whatever it plans to call its next generation game console, and apparently the Redmond outfit isn't all that keen on optical drives, either. We've heard reports that the next Xbox iteration might ditch optical storage hardware entirely, and now at least one website claims to have confirmed as much with an un-named source. The source tells MCV that Microsoft's hardware and software partners are under "the strictest NDA" they have ever signed, nevertheless they were willing to leak the fact that the Xbox 720 will ship sans a disc drive. Instead it will use a type of solid-state card storage, though it's unclear if that means it will have a...
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Introducing a new optical drive may not be top priority these days for tech companies -- particularly with many machines going without one altogether -- but Samsung's looking out for those of us who still rely on those tried-and-true coasters. The company has just revealed a new pair of drives, with one in particularly being especially exciting. The SE-208BW is a new hybrid product that combines an external ODD with a wireless module. It offers traditional CD/DVD playback and writing capabilities, but also features Samsung's own app to enable smartphones, tablet and PC users to wirelessly stream and play CDs/DVDs to their smart devices. Not bad! It basically doubles as a wireless access point,...
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Sony Optiarc revealed a new dual USB bus powered slim portable DVD/CD rewriteable drive designed for use with notebooks, netbooks, and desktop PCs. The new DRX-S90U drive features a lightweight design. The drive supports up to 8X DVDR recording speeds. The drive can also record to 8.5 GB DVDR Double/Dual layer and 4.7 GB DVD-RW discs at 6X speeds, DVD+RW at 8X, DVD-RAM at 5X and CD-R/RW at 24X. In the box, you'll get the drive as well as a copy of Nero 10. The drive connects via USB 2.0. SONY OPTIARC AMERICA INC. ROLLS OUT SLIM PORTABLE DVD/CD REWRITABLE DRIVE SAN JOSE, Calif., July 14, 2011- Sony Optiarc America today unveiled its first dual USB bus powered slim portable DVD/CD rewritable drive...
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Not long ago, we saw some of the newest external Blu-ray drives hit the market. Those were useful for adding BD support to machines that lacked it, particularly smaller netbooks and ultraportables that lacked an optical drive altogether. Now, Samsung is taking it the next level with the addition of 3D. The new SE-406A optical disc drive is an external 3D Blu-ray combo drive, complete with an anti-fingerprint surface, CyberLink TrueTheater software and the ability to transform 2D DVD movies into 3D movies. The drive also handles CDs and DVDs, and it's completely powered via USB. The SE-406A drive is engineered to be compatible with all major operating systems, including Win7 and Mac OS. In addition,...
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On thing that could bother some netbook buyers is the lack of an internal hard drive. Even Apple's MacBook Air line lacks them. Many machines are shipping these days without an optical drive, partly because more and more things are streaming and partly because it's a cost/space savings. But sometimes, there's just no good alternative for having an optical drive on hand. LaCie's new Slim Blu-ray is meant to be your go-to drive in those situations. This new USB 2.0 Blu-ray burner is sleek and slim, meant to fit in your laptop carry-on and be accessible for those times when you need to burn or watch a Blu-ray or DVD (or CD). At $249.99, it's actually fairly cheap to be a BD burner, with a max burn...
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Netbooks now come standard with dual-core processors, and some of them even sport respectable graphics (Nvidia Ion). But save for a very small few, the vast majority of netbooks still don't ship with an optical drive. What's an optical disc-toting user to do? Buy an external optical drive, of course. Samsung hopes you'll be drawn to its new SE-S084F extneral DVD writer, which the company promises will be on store shelves in time for the holiday shopping season. "Weighing less than one pound and available in five distinct colors, the Samsung SE-S084F DVD Writer was built for netbook and mini PC users, who require the flexibility of a smaller device, but do not want to sacrifice the benefits of...
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Thanks to the invention of the netbook and the tablet PC, it's safe to say that not everyone's main mobile machine has an optical drive. And in a lot of cases, that's perfectly fine. Not everyone needs an optical drive, and the added space, cost and power usage is sometimes not even favored. But that's why there are external optical drives, which are perfect for carrying along on trips where you may need access to a disc. Plextor has been in the media game for a long, long time, and their expertise is shining through with the PX-B120U. This new product is essentially a USB-powered external BD-ROM drive. It's one of the few external Blu-ray supporting optical drives out for PCs right now, and...
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Slim is definitely in, just ask Samsung, who has gone and introduced one of the skinniest external optical drives you're ever likely to see before the technology is supplanted by whatever storage medium the future holds. Called the SE-S084D (we would have gone with AN0R3X1A), the new drive brings sexy back to a peripherals that perhaps never had it in the first place. Apparently we're not the only ones who think so - the sleek design and stylish metallic centerline were enough to win an iF Product Award Design, Samsung says. "With a more compact footprint and lighter weight than competitive offerings, the new external DVD writer delivers high performance with a USB power source to eliminate electrical...
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In case you haven't noticed, very few netbooks have ever shipped with an optical drive. You've either had to get a more expensive ultraportable, a thin-and-light or an external ODD in order to have the ability to read/burn a disc while using a compact mobile computer. There's now a good chance that the trend may be shifting, and while optical drives do indeed take up a lot of precious space and require a lot of precious power, we aren't quite in the world yet where not having one isn't a pain at some point. Hitachi-LG just might be the company that convinces thin and light notebook makers to add an optical drive, and they've got a fairly interesting proposition to do so. Today, the joint venture...
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Sometimes, you don't need the latest and greatest. Sometimes, all you need is something basic. If you're building a new machine and have no need for Blu-ray yet, Sony Optiarc has two new units that just might fit the bill. The company's two new optical disc drives are half-height units, and both can toast at 24X. The DRX-S77U drive boasts a sleek, lightweight design and continues to support up to 8X DVD±R recording speeds, delivering a full 4.7 GB disc of video, data, music or images on standard 8X DVD+R media. Additionally, the drive can record on 8.5 GB DVD+R Double/Dual layer and 4.7 GB DVD-RW discs at 6X speeds, DVD+RW at 8X, DVD-RAM at 5X and CD-R/RW at 24X. The drive comes in...
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A bunch of new netbooks launched at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, but you'll still have to select an ultraportable (or larger) if you want a machine with an integrated optical drive. Still, Intel's new Atom N450 is likely to move quite a few more netbooks in early 2010, particularly amongst those who were waiting for the aged Atom N270 to be replaced. Optical drives aren't always needed, but when you do need one, you need one in the worst way. Samsung seems to understand this better than anyone, this week introducing a prototype of its new slim external DVD writer, the SE-S084D optical disk drive (ODD). It was designed to be slimmer, smaller and more compact than any rivaling...
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Blu-ray adoption may slowly be growing, but that's not stopping Samsung from trying to hasten the process. Today, the company introduced its first-ever internal Blu-ray Disc combo drive, with the ability to read BD-R and BD-ROM discs at 8x. It'll also read CDs at up to 40x and DVDs at up to 16x. With Samsung’s fast dual layer jumping algorithm, the new SH-B083 COMBO drive features an average access speed of 350ms which is much faster than any other drive on the market. The new drive reads Blu-ray discs and reads and writes CD/DVDs--in other words, this is the perfect drive for your bargain HTPC and for those who aren't going to bother paying top-dollar for BD-R media, anyway. The drive also features...
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Got a netbook? Need an optical drive? Sony has your solution. Designed to rival Lite-On's adorable external eTAU208 DVD Writer, the DRX-S70U-W is a sleeker, more classy design aimed at business users and those who appreciate blacks and greys more than reds and blues. Housed in an ultra-thin chassis, the portable multi-format DVD/CD recordable drive connects to notebooks and desktops alike via USB.It supports up to 8X DVD±R recording speeds, delivering a full 4.7 GB disc of video, data, music or images on standard 8X DVD+R media. Furthermore, it can record on 8.5GB DVD+R Double/Dual layer and 4.7GB DVD-RW discs at 6X speeds, DVD+RW at 8X, DVD-RAM at 5X and CD-R/RW at 24X. The drive comes...
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LaCie recently announced the latest versions of its Portable DVD±RW Drive designed by Sam Hecht. The new drives feature a sleek black finish and come with new multimedia burning solutions designed for Mac or PC. The Mac and Windows version comes with Toast 9 Basic, as well as Creator Suite 10 while the Windows Version comes with Creator Suite 10. The LaCie Portable DVD±RW drive is powered by a USB bus so only a single cable is needed to burn CDs and DVDs. The drive is also portable, measuring less than an inch tall and weighing under a pound. LaCie Enhances Portable DVD±RW Drive with New Features and a New Look Slim, lightweight, and compact design USB bus-powered Full-featured...
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Addonics Announces Hardware Port Multiplier – Lets You Connect Up To Five SATA Drives To Any SATA Port SAN JOSE, CA (September 14, 2009) -- Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced a feature-rich hardware port multiplier, the 5-port HPM XA, which provides easy connections of up to five SATA drives to any SATA port. The new port multiplier will be particularly beneficial to those wanting to attach numerous hard drives to a desktop or server as an individual drive or as a RAID volume with redundancy. The HPM can also be used to connect five SATA optical drives, such as DVD-RRW or Blu-ray drives for simultaneous data copying. Configuration can be set via a set of onboard jumpers...
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At the CEDIA Expo, Pioneer announced that its Elite BDP-09FDr Blu-ray Disc Player has become the world’s first to achieve THX certification. The company’s Elite EX Series in-wall speakers have also attained THX Select2 certification. Both of these products complement the company’s Elite A/V Receivers, which are also THX Ultra2 Plus Certified and feature Class D digital amplification. By meeting these certifications and adhering to the company’s own strict principles for faithful reproduction of content, Pioneer feels that its line of products rival the movie theater experience. Pioneer Showcases the World’s First THX Certified Blu ray Disc Player Company Delivers Cinematic Quality to the Home...
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Addonics has added new portable optical drives to its line that feature a built-in eSATA and USB interface. The new Pocket Blu-ray/DVDRW and the Pocket DVD-RRW drive provide throughput up to 3Gbits/second when connected via an eSATA port. For convenience in connecting to practically any computer, a USB 2.0 port is also available. Additionally, the drive can be powered directly from most USB ports. The Pocket Blu-ray model starts at $235 while the Pocket DVD-RRW is available for as little as $99. Addonics Unveils Unique Portable Blu-ray and DVD/RRW Drives With Built-in eSATA and USB Interface Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com) today announced the Pocket Blu-ray/DVDRW and the Pocket DVD-RRW...
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Netbooks may be all the rage these days, but one thing is for sure: if you need an optical drive, you're hosed. Of course, that's why companies like Lite-On exist--to solve quandaries you never knew you'd end up in. For on-the-go computer users that love the low price and small design of netbooks, but wish they had an optical drive on certain occasions, there's the all new eTAU208.The drive is completely USB powered, meaning that travelers won't even need to hunt down an AC outlet to use it. The entire unit weighs just 0.7 pounds, and there's even a built-in USB cable holder to keep things nice and neat. It is also integrated with a top-loading mechanism for convenient CD/DVD backup and playback,...
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Finally, a solution for that perplexing issue that hits netbook owners the hardest. Asus has placed its recent design cues onto a new external optical drive, but this is no normal external optical drive. Instead of just reading back DVDs and CDs, the SBC-04D1S-U External Slim BD-Combo Drive plays back Blu-ray Discs, promising high-def playback on any machine with a USB port and enough GPU power to handle the strain.The unit even comes with a stylish stand, and frankly, the upright position reminds us a little of the slim PlayStation 2 console. It is capable of reading 4.8X BD-ROM/R/RE and writing 8X DVD+R/24X CD-R formats, while the Turbo Engine increases the connection performance between the...
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While not nearly as intriguing as ASUS' recent tie-up with Garmin, the outfit's newest external optical drive is still a looker. The stylish External Slim SDRW-08D1S-U measures in at just 6.1- x 5.5- x 0.8-inches, arrives in black or white and burns both writable CDs and DVDs. The unit also comes bundled with a stand for those intent on showing it off, and ASUS has also tossed in a CyberLink-based burning program to handle those duties if you're currently in need. As expected, the drive gets both data and power via a single USB 2.0 plug, and there's also Disc Encryption technology tossed in, which allows users to password-protect an entire disc or its partial contents with 128-bit encryption....
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Plextor Announces New Lineup of Optical Drives with PlexUTILITIES Advanced Application & Diagnostic SoftwarePlextor, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces new products as a part of its new 2008 lineup. Featured in the new offering are 6x Blu-Ray Combo drives, 22x Super Multi DVD±RW drives, and an 8x Slim External USB DVD±RW for PC and Mac.“Plextor continues to strengthen its position in the optical storage market with the addition of these new drives to its already robust line of products,” said Bob Gronski, vice president of sales and marketing for Plextor. “Now more than ever, people are going out less and taking advantage...
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