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Plextor ships PX-B120U USB-powered Blu-ray drive for $100
We aren't saying your nifty new netbook can actually handle the stresses of playing back a Blu-ray Disc, but if your USB-equipped laptop has the oomph, Plextor has a new device to bring the spoils of BD to your previously lackluster machine. The new PX-B120U is a USB-powered BD-ROM drive, which not only plays back Blu-ray flicks but also burns DVDs and CDs of the blank variety. The standout feature, of course, is the ability to function entirely off of USB power, with no extra AC cabling needed. Furthermore, the device can be converted into a living room player when connected to the forthcoming PlexMedia, and while we wouldn't expect a wealth of extras, the $99.99 MSRP is shockingly tempting. %Gallery-97832%
DRA audio coding technology gains BDA approval
Remember that funky DRA audio format we mentioned way back in July of last year? Yeah, somehow that just got approved by the BDA. While we're sure the likes of DTS and Dolby won't be up all night fearing for tomorrow, there actually is another audio format in the Blu-ray town. Over in Beijing, the Blu-ray Disc Association, China Hualu Group and Digital Rise Technology have gathered together to announce that the DRA digital audio coding technology has been approved for inclusion in the BD-ROM 2.3 specification as an "optional audio codec." The folks involved seem pretty stoked, but seriously, what are the chances any mainstream Blu-ray Disc ships this year (or ever, really) with a DRA soundtrack? Anyone placing bets?
Cheaper Blu-ray? Sony, Panasonic, and Philips say it's coming, honestly
Look, we don't really "get" people who aren't willing to buy the latest and greatest thing regardless of the price and / or current economic state, but evidently there's a rather large sector still clinging to their antiquated DVD format. Blu-ray proponents Panasonic, Philips, and Sony are looking to change all that by knocking down the tab a few notches. The trio has revealed plans to form a single licensing firm for Blu-ray, which they anticipate will lower the cost of the license -- and therefore the retail price -- by "at least" 40 percent. They expect it'll amount to $9.50 for read-only BD player, $14 for a burner, 11 cents for read-only discs, 12 cents for BD-Rs, and 15 cents for BD-RE rewritable discs. In its current form, hopeful BD makers have to seek out each company individually. The group also hopes a single licensing entity will help them spot unauthorized BD devices, so watch out, suspicious mom and pop Blu-ray stores.
BenQ hacks 33% from its BR1000 Blu-ray optical drive in Taiwan
We'd give you two guesses on how we feel about this trend, but you only need one. BenQ has just followed Pioneer's lead and dropped the price of its BR1000 Blu-ray optical drive a full 33% in Taiwan. Post-discount, the BD-ROM unit now sits at around NT$3,650 (or $120 to you Americans). SonyNEC Optiarc projected that we'd see these internal drives selling for under $100 before 2009, and it looks like its prophecy will indeed come true. Now, as soon as the standalone players start heading in the same direction, we'll be all smiles.
Philips and Lite-on announce a $199 Blu-ray drive
All the action in the next-gen format war might be at the front lines of cut-rate players, but the battle rages on across the entire spectrum of devices -- which is why we've seen the poor $199 DH-401S BD-ROM drive from Philips and Lite-on touted as the answer to those $200 HD-A2s in a couple places. That's quite a stretch, obviously, but it's still much cheaper than any other BD-ROM drives we've seen. The read-only SATA drive pulls data off BD media at 4X, single layer DVDs at 12X, DVD-DL and DVD±RW at 8x, and CDs at 32X. Giving up write capabilites is obviously limiting, but for those of you building out HTPCs, this bad boy might be just the ticket.[Thanks, AG23]
Pioneer's BDC-202 "combo" 5x Blu-ray drive
At Pioneer's CES press conference it announced both its new plasma display technology and a new half height Blu-ray drive for PCs. Titled the BDC-202 combination Blu-ray disc drive it unfortunately isn't quite the "combo" drive we might have expected. No HD DVD compatibility is in store from Pioneer but this drive is still special, able to read BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE discs at 5x, dual layer recordable Blu-ray discs at 2x while also service as a DVD/CD read/write drive. As long as Blu-ray is your format of choice this is the type of drive that is most likely to end up in the PC of someone who wants to watch Blu-ray movies on their PC, but doesn't need to be able to author them or back up large files. Also, by forgoing Blu-ray burning capability it should (hopefully) be significantly cheaper than current Blu-ray burners (pictured) on the market. No price yet, but the drive should be available in the second quarter of this year.
Report: 50GB, dual-layer Blu-ray discs WILL play
So check it: intrepid optical media journo Bill Hunt -- the same man who told us with some confidence that 50GB Blu-ray discs would definitely NOT work on currently-configured BD-P1000 players -- is now reporting that dual-layer movies WILL actually play on the Samsung machine, no firmware update required. Hunt was at an unnamed Hollywood studio the other day before a taping of Attack of the Show when he had the privilege of watching one of the first production 50GB discs playing in an unmodified P1000, even observing the seamless switch from one layer to the next. According to Hunt, the previous compatibility problems were restricted to BD-R discs only -- media that was being used to test authoring -- and that the final production BD-ROMs should work just fine on your existing hardware. In all honesty we're kind of disappointed at this revelation, as were just about to snatch up an HD DVD player, and now once again we're hopelessly torn between the two formats. Bah, maybe we'll just cave in and settle for whatever low-res fare we can dredge up on Unbox and iTunes.
Blu-ray camp pumps up release list in Japan
In advance of their press conference tomorrow at the IFA in Berlin, the Blu-ray Disc Association was showing off their wares in Japan. They're promising 75 Blu-ray titles by year end, a few dual layer 50GB discs, the debut of h.264, you know the drill. Interestingly, the Japanese will be getting Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl this year while Disney's Buena Vista leaves the US with Paul Walker. They had a real Playstation 3 in attendance playing back high bit-rate encoded Blu-ray discs, although all we've seen is pics of the very PS2-reminiscent menu. Also on hand were other companies releasing Blu-ray products soon, mostly showing the same preview units we've seen since CES. Basically the theme was all is well, Blu-ray is on track, PS3, dual-layer and BD-J are coming, stay the course.Read - PS3 BD-ROM Playback Demonstration - ImpressRead - Blu-ray camp to offer 75 software titles in Japan - ReutersRead - Blu-ray disc simultaneous announcement - Impress
HD optical disc burners at Computex
Adding to the growing list of Blu-ray burners we've seen so far from Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, and BenQ is a new unit from ASUS that was being shown off at Computex. This BD-R/RE/ROM burner, whose model number remains a mystery, is capable of writing to Blu-ray discs at two times speed, while burning to standard dual-layer DVD+R and DVD-R platters is accomplished at 2.4x and 2.0x speeds, respectively. Also on display was one of the first HD-DVD-R units we've seen, the 12.7-millimeter thick SD-L902A from Toshiba, which appears to burn data at what we're hoping is just a first-gen speed of 1.0x. As with many products introduced at the Taiwanese trade show, pricing and release plans for both of these burners are still up in the air.[Via HDBeat]
