Plextor Intros Dual Blu-ray/HD DVD Drives
March 24, 2008 | by Nick Mokey
The PX-920SA and PX-B300SA both package Blu-ray and HD DVD read capability into a single optical drive, and the higher-end model also writes BD-R discs.
HD DVD technology may be dead and buried, but that hasn’t stopped Plextor from keeping it alive in its latest line of internal optical drives. The company’s two latest Blu-ray drives, announced on Monday, both offer HD DVD reading capability, allowing users with HD DVD libraries to keep using the discs for playback even after the rest of the name sinks beneath the waves.
The premium PX-B920SA Blu-ray burner offers a snappy Serial ATA (SATA) interface and 4x write speed on single-layer Blu-ray discs, allowing it to lay data down at 18 MB/s. That rate is halved for writing dual-layer discs, where it only functions at 2x write speed, or 9 MB/s. As it a DVD burner, it can rip along at 16x for single-layer discs and 4x for dual-layer discs, and hits 40x when writing on basic CD-Rs.
The less expensive PX-B300SA [link may not yet be active] shares the dual Blu-ray/HD DVD read capability of its older brother, but strips it of Blu-ray write capability. It does, however, retain all of the PX-B920SA’s other capabilities, and gets the same software package, which includes InterVideo WinDVD 8, Ulead MovieFactory 5.5 SE, and Burn.Now 4.5 SE.
Both drives are set to debut in North and South America in late March. The write-capable PX-B920SA will sell for $599.99, while the PX-B300SA will go for $499.99.
[Updated 25-Mar with corrected pricing information from Plextor.]
Post Your Comment...Comments
Kev on Mar 24th, 2008 at 11:39 AM:
Despite the sound bytes in the media, HDDVD is not dead. Nobody's going to throw away their equipment just because Toshiba threw in the towel. In fact, Googling reveals that HDDVD titles outsold Bluray titles last week, thanks to the massive markdowns in an attempt to get them off shelves.
Also Il Travatore was just announced as a new HDDVD title. Not sure why anyone's doing that at this point, but it's happening nonetheless.
My theory is that people are buying the HdDVD players and titles because it's a cheap way to get both HD and upconversion of their SDDVDs, without having to take out a second mortgage for a Bluray player. That, and word is spreading that current Bluray decks are already obsolete until the 2.0 units hit shelves later this year. Sony may have won the format war, but they didn't win the market. Particularly when you consider that 80% of their sales were gamers who bought PS3's...
RX8 on Mar 24th, 2008 at 11:34 PM:
But Kev, you are probably paying more for a dual drive that supports HD DVD. Think how small of a population actually has an HD DVD movie, like less than 1% of all movies sold. It's a waste for Plextor to even sell this.
Don't they make a Blu-ray only drive? How much is that?
Peter robbed paul on Mar 25th, 2008 at 9:03 AM:
$500 bucks? No thanks, going to pass for now....what a rip.
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Stan on Mar 24th, 2008 at 10:07 AM:
Dumb. HD DVD is dead, so why introduce a player that supports it at this point?