Plextor made a surprising announcement today when it introduced two dual-format HD optical drives, the B920SA and B300SA, both of which can read Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.
Although the HD DVD format is now obsolete, the new drives gives owners a chance to watch their HD DVD titles on a computer while also allowing them to make way for Blu-ray.
The B920SA can burn 25GB BD discs at up to 4X speed and can write CDs and DVDs at 16x. The B300SA cannot write Blu-ray discs but can read at a relatively fast 6X speed. Both drives connect through Serial ATA and will ship in March for $450 USD and $600 USD respectively. Each drive comes bundled with movie playback, burning, and editing software for Windows systems.
Result for: dual format
Buffalo Technology has introduced its first ever external optical disc drive, a dual format HD drive dubbed the BRHC-6316U2.
The drive can read and write single or dual layer Blu-ray discs at an impressive 6x speed and can read HD DVD at 3x. As is standard, the drive can read and write DVDs at 16x.
Buffalo adds that the drive is very simple to use and connects via USB to any PC using a plug and play connection. Included with the drive is Buffalo’s own TurboUSB with Secure Lock Ware for drive encryption and the popular burning suite Nero 8 .
The company says the drive will be available for sale on Amazon, Dabs.com, Misco and Play.com for about £284 plus VAT.
Result for: dual format
Shuttle has announced the launch of its latest small form factor PC, the XPC G5 6801M Vista , which includes a dual format HD drive by LG allowing playback of bothHD DVD and Blu-ray films.
The PC uses a Radeon HD 3450 with full 1080p Resolution which can output in either DVI or HDMI through a bundled adapter.
Somewhat surprisingly, the Shuttle will run on an AMD CPU, with basic setups starting at a 2.2GHz Athlon 64 X2 all the way up to its latest 3GHz equivalent. “The system also comes with at least a dual DVB-T tuner for digital over-the-air broadcasts, a 320GB hard drive, and 2GB of memory.” At its cheapest, with the Blu-ray/HD DVD drive, the 6801M Vista costs $1,721 USD and is available now.
