Philips and Lite-on announce a $199 Blu-ray drive
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/gE8dCifwSpymNKTmQSmbOA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTQyMDtoPTI4MA--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/ZUu65yttkP27T_YkwZ_BCw--~B/aD0xNjY7dz0yNDk7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/11/plds-blu-ray-dvd-rom-drive2.jpg)
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 otherBD-ROMdrives 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]