Toshiba's PA35 external drive does HD DVD on the cheap
By Jeannie Choe 
posted Mar 14th 2007 6:20PM
posted Mar 14th 2007 6:20PM
We thought this little dude looked familiar -- strikingly similar to one of Toshiba's prototypes from CEDIA last year. Now the real deal, Tosh's slim 'n trim PA35 external HD DVD drive will latch onto your PC via USB 2.0 for plug-and-play HD capability. The PA35 delivers 7.1 channels of hi-res audio to accompany hi-def eye candy, but only a ho-hum 1x HD DVD read speed -- since you can't do any burning, maybe they assume that you won't be reading any data discs either (plus hey, what do you expect for under four benjamins?). You can still count on it for trusty multi-drive duties with write speeds of 4x to DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, and DVD-RW, 16x to CD-R, 10x to CD-RW, 2.4x to DVD+R DL, 2x to DVD-R DL, and 3x to DVD-RAM. So if you're raring for some HD DVD action on the fairly cheap, this one's all yours for about $370.
[Via PC Perspective]
[Via PC Perspective]
just get the xbox drive, unless you need another burner
So there is a $170 surcharge for black? This isn't Apple... ;)
Can you take it out of the external case and pop it into a lappy? Its a slim drive like a lappy isnt it?
So, is MS just taking a huge loss on the 360 HD-DVD drive?
@tiuk: I bet they aren't really taking much of a loss on the 360 drive (if any, not large), based on the fact the HD-DVD manufacturing isn't that different from DVD manufacture for discs - the HD drives needs a different laser and some other encryption in hardware, but outside of those parts I don't imagine the costs are significant.
Those blue diodes ain't cheap.
just buy the xbox drive and a regular burner. you'll get better speeds and it will be cheaper as well.
This is significantly better than the xbox add on. It supports sound output, the add-on is useless for AV use due to the lack of decent audio.
I wonder what the system requirements are, thaey aren't listed anywhere. I never could get the 360 drive to work right with my Turion 64x2 notebook.