Plextor ships PX-B120U USB-powered Blu-ray drive for $100
By Darren Murph 
posted July 21st 2010 8:40AM
posted July 21st 2010 8:40AM
Plextor Announces the New PX-B120U USB-Powered External BD ROM
PX-B120U lets users enjoy high-definition and 3D movies on the go
(Fremont, CA – July 20, 2010) – Plextor (www.plextor.com), a leading brand of high-performance digital media solutions, announces the new PX-B120U external BD-ROM. The PX-B120U was first introduced at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan in June and is now available for purchase in the U.S.
The PX-B120U is a USB-powered external Blu-ray Disc playback device that allows users to watch high-definition movies on any Blu-ray capable PC or notebook*. The device comes bundled with Cyberlink –high-quality Blu-ray and DVD playback software that provides a full Blu-ray experience in 3D, including the ability to upscale standard videos to HD-like and 3D-like visual quality.
"Blu-ray has become the media player of choice for consumers and we wanted to provide a versatile solution to our customers," said Christine Hsing, Marketing Manager at Plextor. "The PX-B120U is great for on-the-go viewing and can also serve as the Blu-ray player at home. It's a great all around solution for anyone's Blu-ray needs."
Its compact, slender design makes the PX-B120U easy to transport in existing cases or bags without adding extra bulk. There's no need to carry an additional AC adapter or other cables. Also, the top-load design makes it easy to open from any angle even with minimal space. The drive's external design features a unique ripple pattern and a smooth, gloss texture finish.
When connected via USB cable, the four-speed mechanism provides smooth Blu-ray playback. It also provides extensive support to multiple media formats; including DVD+ /- R, DVD +/-RW, DVD +/- R DL, DVD-RAM and CD-R.
Additionally, when the PX-B120U is connected to Plextor's soon-to-be-released media player, PlexMedia, it can also function as a living room Blu-ray player. The ability to use it permanently at home, or take it with you, makes it a truly versatile drive.
Plextor's PX-B120U external BD-ROM is available now in the U.S. with an MSRP of $99.99. For more information, please visit www.plextor.com
*Note: System must meet certain requirements for BD playback
Nice! Not a bad price at all. I am happy to see that Blu-ray is become affordable now. Can't wait for it to get to the price of regular DVD players - low $40s.
I really enjoy HD - it does make a HUGE difference in the way you watch movies.
@TikiTeko
Can't wait until HandBrake releases an update so I can start ripping my bluray movies onto my hard drive with this! Considering the file size though.. I may need to purchase a very large external HD for storing them..
@Heirborn391 If you don't mind a two step process, I just started doing this. I use a program called MakeMKV that decrypts and extracts the blu-ray pieces that you want, and then I bring them into handbrake. Smashes a 22gb movie down to 3gb or so with great quality.
@TikiTeko
Here is the detailed specifications, since the link is missing from the article
http://www.plextor-digital.com/index.php/External-Blu-ray/px-b120u/Specifications.html
@TikiTeko
we dont need a wealth of features thats great for $99
it even looks like the blu-ray is a pearl in a clam shell
@mikeventi
Eww, why not go the whole hog and just convert them blurays to SD 480p, the whole point of Bluray is 1080P HD at 40-50mbps.
@Sheppard
I get your point, but you're slightly overdoing it, these are close to the maximum BD bitrates. In fact bitrates over 25 Mbit/s aren't all that common except for really complex scenes like the famous birds scene.
Of course you're not going to make the video quality any better by transcoding it, but just check out one of the many ~8GB BluRay rips that have been available from the usual sources for quite a while. You really need a damn good TV set and a really good pair of eyes to see a lot of difference between those and the original.
@Sheppard No, the point of ripping them is so the kids don't destroy the them. Can't tell you how many DVDs have be destroyed over the years. Back them up and let the kids play them right from the hard drive on my HTPC.
@mikeventi I've been comparing 4GB DVD rips with 4GB x.264 or h.264 Blu-Ray rips - and (to my eyes) the quality increase with a 4GB Blu-Ray is negligible. However, once you get into 8GB territory, you have a far-better looking movie file.
So, my recommendation is that if you're going to be ripping your blu-rays - plan on at least 8GB if you want something that's noticeably better than DVDs.
@Sheppard
Have you not checked the torrent sites lately? You can get stunning 720p bluray rips that are only about 1.5gb. Good luck telling the difference between that and the original, they look amazing.
@atourgates
Perhaps you're connecting to your flatscreen with analog HD (component) cables. This could explain why you don't see a difference. For example, when I connect my HD DVR to a Sony 46" LCD with analog (component) cables an HD channel still looks similar to broadcast SD. Not great. When connected with an HDMI cable the same HD channel looks much, much sharper.
I agree with @Sheppard about compression ratios too. A Blu-Ray disc compressed down to 720p and around 1GB/hr still looks vastly superior to a full 8GB DVD --> all when transmitted over a 100% digital, hdmi, connection.
Correcting myself here... I agree with MAATTP
That's a pretty sweet deal right there. I'm tempted to get one. =P
@wolf4537
You and I both. Perfect device to release those bits from the physical media prison and put them on hard disks.
@wolf4537 agreed. my birthday is coming up =P
Mac Drivers?
@Critic2029 I second that.
@Andrew8404 An older version of this drive is listed on Amazon and IS Mac compatible according to user reviews... I'll be keeping my eye on this here bag of hurt, since I have handbraked all my existing DVDs to HDs and play them through Apple TV. This would be a good solution for those BR discs that I now buy. Keeps the kids mucky mitts off my discs!
@Andrew8404
I also like it because It looks like a 1992 Diskman...
@Critic2029
That is EXACTLY what I was thinking.
One a related topic what is the chance of Apple introducing bluray sometime soon.
And also How about WMP and Quicktime supporting the format? Tired of dealing with Power DVD
Why is this so special?
A similar functioning, much thinner drive can be found on ebay with generic enclosures.
Basically laptop drive+ $10 enclosure
They too only need usb for power. It does need two though (1 power+ 1 data I think)
@jdimitri
Branded unit, driver support, warranty, all in one, single USB and decent price point. Most people dislike cheap knockoffs.
@Almo
Are we the kind that'd rather pay significantly more for hdd in enclosures rather than putting it together ourselves as well?
The said ebay items contain decent sony drives.. Driver won't be an issue
Warranty is fair enough, unless you can find something similar locally
The thing is I got this 3 months ago for $80 total
Point is, I can't see myself lugging around something that big with my V13 (or any other laptop that is small enough to exclude an optical drive in the first place)
@jdimitri
Agree for Hard Drives, generally disagree for Optical Drives.
They are not updated often enough and the enclosure market is not big enough to make the small saving worth the hassle.
Now, if someone can just put together a tivo hack for this thing.... would be pretty nice to have BD on the tivo :)
@jamalekai Second that
This is pretty good. Thanks for the tip, Buster.
I have a HP DM1 and I got a external dcs rewriter, that had the same claim, no need for power cable, what a load of bollocks, and came with two usb plug cable, and if they don't need why the feck is there a 5 volt dc in socket.....
And yes I Do know some usb don't have lots if juice to them. But come on 1000ma should be enough in this day and age, when a power hungry hd can run off 500ma
The design would probably be cooler with a clear cover.
Considering as it's the same price as the MacBook Air's external DVD burner it's a very good deal.
i dont need, blu-ray.
soon there will be no optical storage.
@JakeG895
While true for those such as myself that have FiOS, for the vast majority of people, their internet connections are not fast enough to stream HD.
@ashwinkn
you will get it soon ;)
in a couple of years almost everywhere will have it.
That is one thick player, it looks like it came right out of the 80's. However, for that price I may have to get one.
Now all we need is the 100 BD carousel version and I'm set.
Why are they advertising it with a Blu-Ray RE disc in it?
@uShak Agreed. This would be a lot less misleading without that thing. I was very excited for about three seconds:(
You know what, that is a great price. I might have to get one. Will it be live compatible though?
Not exactly something new and dang it's huge. Asus has had one out for a while:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135207
@jonyah I've been looking at getting one of the notebook internal burners and an external drive for it. twice the price but also twice as useful and half the size.
@jonyah To be fair this one is much cheaper (MSRP) than the one you linked. They didn't say it was the first ever.
Personally I'd be in the market for something like this but I use a Mac and inexplicably, Apple still doesn't support blu-ray playback (and less inexplicably, nobody's yet cracked it for use in open-source software like VLC), so, yeah, no.
@jonyah
I've got one sat next to me, and Engadget covered it a year ago:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/29/asus-unleashes-usb-2-0-blu-ray-player-government-denies-knowl/
While the article doesn't say the Plextor drive is the first, they're still making a portable bus-powered blu-ray drive sound like something novel.
The Plextor site also seems to suggest that DVDs are read-only:
"BD Media (Read Only)...
DVD Media (Read Only)...
CD Media (Read/Write)..."
is the first usb bluray player?
Think you can share this over an Airport Extreme? lolz... fat chance!
That's actually impressive. I have no interest in bluray but I didn't realize it's become so cheap. Hell, I know DVD drives are dirt cheap but I assumed that even an external DVD burner (no bluray playback) would be more than that.
Cody
So, since it is connecting via USB, any idea if it will connect to an XBOX 360 so you can watch Blu-Ray movies through your XBOX?
Just a driver thing, right?
@Hefavitzen
software thing. I got a bluray drive and even some bluray discs.. never been able to watch them, powerdvd doesn't want to work on my machine. I suppose I should just get some bluray ripping software, as torrented hd media works so easily. a bit ridiculous, really. sony should just release some playing software, but I suppose they got a better deal going on selling ps3's.
I hope vlc gets bluray support soonish, some way.
Bag of hurt
It's so thick because it needs room for the hamster wheel, that's why there are no external power supply
So would this work with the Xbox 360? Does it need device drivers, or does it appear as a external hard drive on windows?