Asus introduces slick looking Blu-ray combo drive

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30 Jun 09 23:59 by Randomus in category Blu-Ray writers & players To news archive

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Asus has introduced a new USB 2.0-powered external Blu-ray combo drive that doesn’t require an external power source, though several major questions remain about the drive.

The Asus SBC-04D1S-U External Slim Blu-ray storage device is able to read Blu-ray discs at 4.8x, along with DVD read and write support. Since it’s a USB-powered device, users don’t need to use an external power supply and instead just plug it into their PC or notebook.

Along with 4.8X BD-ROM read speeds and 8X DVD write speeds, it also can write CD-Rs and CD-RWs at 24X, the Asus web site reads.

Asus hasn’t issued a launch date or pricing for the drive, which is expected sometime later this summer.

The device itself looks sleek, and can be stood up or laid on its side, with the blue X on the side of the unit glowing and pulsing when it is being used.

The Asus SBC-04B1S-U likely isn’t anything to write home about, and its 4.8x Blu-ray disc reading speed isn’t anything stellar, but it looks like an okay unit for people looking for a USB Blu-ray drive.

10 Comments

Blu-rayFreak: Posts: 225; Posted on: 01 Jul 09 16:41

I like the design and the glowing X. Looks pretty cool.

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5756; Posted on: 01 Jul 09 16:54

Why did they stand it on its side? So you can knock it over, break it and buy another one ? It is so thin, I would have made a flip stand on the bottom of the front that collapsed into the device when not in use. when you wanted to use the player, you flip down the stand, raising it a bit off the surface it is setting on and then you can insert a disc easier as well. Probably have some soft rubber tabs on the back so it does not slide. This would also be a lot easier to transport than that idiotic configurration pictured. Who wants to schlepp around with that stand?

Hemispasm: Posts: 5248; Posted on: 01 Jul 09 17:24

Crabby, it does mention in the text that you can also lay it down... are we grumpy today or what?

Chuckwagon: Posts: 163; Posted on: 01 Jul 09 18:38

Today?

ferd: Posts: 243; Posted on: 02 Jul 09 13:26

Yeah, why should "today" be any different?

blegs38552: Posts: 10; Posted on: 03 Jul 09 17:11

It would be nice if it had an HDMI connection so that you could play blue-ray disks on it directly to your TV from it.

ferd: Posts: 243; Posted on: 03 Jul 09 17:19

Then you would have a Blu-ray player, not a drive. The HDMI output would require a video card, which would not be able to use USB power and which would therefore require a power supply and a power cord and a cooling fan, etc.

Chuckwagon: Posts: 163; Posted on: 03 Jul 09 20:23

It would be interesting if a TV maker would enable their USB equiped TVs to display, in addition to the still pics they can display now, video streams (Mpeg, Xvid, whatever, files or discs) from USB devices connected to the TV. Then maybe a drive like this could be portable between the TV and your PC.

Hemispasm: Posts: 5248; Posted on: 03 Jul 09 20:39

That would again need extra hardware included in the TV that would add up to the final cost; making the prodict economically not viable compared to the competition since the people with such drives as this one are scarce. Most people have standalones.

Chuckwagon: Posts: 163; Posted on: 04 Jul 09 01:14

Well, it would appear that Samsung already has some sort of decoding support hardware in their TVs with the Wiselink Pro system, which it would appear allow them to play back video files stored on USB. The claimed supported codecs are MPEG1, MPEG2 PS/TS, MPEG4/H.264. So the cost must not be too out of the world. Now if they could get the USB support to recognize drives and the content on those drives in addition to USB sticks that would be cool.

About this category

Blu-Ray writers & players

Blu-ray has won the war for the new high definition optical format. More frequently manufacturers are presenting laptops and desktops which feature a blu-ray drive. Blu-ray players are only able to read Blu-ray (and CD/DVD) media, whereas Blu-ray writers are able to write Blu-ray, CD and DVD media. At the moment blank Blu-ray drives are still rather expensive though, but Blu-ray offers high storage capacity which makes it an excellent back-up medium.

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