Plextor Announces Blu-ray, HD DVD Drives

Next-generation burners to hit the European market by end of month

Recent news suggests the Blu-ray optical media format used for audio, video and storage is taking control of the market place as movie studios and movie rental services such as Warner and Netflix are flipping the script on HD DVD and siding exclusively with Blu-ray. However, despite HD DVD's apparent struggles to stay in the race, many hardware manufacturers are still committed to both formats.

Plextor Europe is suiting up for the game by launching two new optical drives, the PX-B920SA CD/DVD/Blu-ray writer and HD DVD reader and the PX-B300SA CD/DVD writer and Blu-ray/HD DVD reader.

The PX-B920SA is the jack of (almost) all trades as it features CD-R/RW write speeds of 40x/24x and DVD R/RW write speeds of up to 16x/8x. Additionally, the PX-B920SA is able to write to BD-R/RE media at up to 4x/2x and read the media at up to 8x speeds depending on the format. The PX-B920SA also has the ability to read HD DVD media at 3x speeds.

The drive features a SATA interface with a 4 MB buffer and also features Lightscribe technology which is not always the seller for these devices but more of a luxury feature.

The PX-B300SA does the usual CD/DVD reading and writing duties at the same speeds, however it doubles as only a reader for Blu-ray and HD-DVD media at up to 6x and 3x speeds respectively. The PX-B300SA also features a SATA interface and a 4 MB buffer along with the Lightscribe technology.

Both the PX-B920SA and the PX-B300SA will launch in European markets by the end of February with no decided US launch date so far. Pricing information is not yet available but is expected to be a premium over OEM-type devices from companies such as LG.