Plextor releases a HD-DVD / Blu-ray / DVD-R / CD-R combo - PX-B300SA

 

Plextor LogoPremium optical drive vendor Plextor has released an interesting combo drive. Their new PX-300SA is a 16x speed DVD recorder which can also read Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. The drive is a major technological break through, as it is first of it’s kind on the market, but it remains to be seen how much there is real demand for this combination. The HD DVD is most likely to be extinct, so it is questionable how much is the dual format support worth. Of course, if you are one of those that have already bought a Toshiba or Xbox HD DVD add-on and some titles, the new Plextor could be a nice choice for bringing your PC to the blue laser age and you also provide one with Blu-ray support if and when HD DVD starts fading away.

PX-B300SA, a halfheight internal BD and HD DVD ROM with SATA connection.
The drive will read and write all conventional forms of CD & DVD’s in addition to reading BD and HD-DVD ROM.

Plextor PX-B300SA

Technical Specifications

Interface SATA
Data buffer 4 MB (with Buffer Underrun Proof Technology)
Access Time
1/3 strokes
BD-ROM 180 ms typ
HD DVD-ROM 210 ms typ
DVD-ROM 160 ms typ
DVD-RAM 180 ms typ
CD-ROM 150 ms typ
MTBF 100.000 power on hours
Disc Loading Tray (30.000 times)
Color black
Dimensions
(with front bezel)
148 x 42 x 190 mm
Weight max 870 g
Warranty 2 year Fast Warranty Service (in EU, Norway and Switzerland: Collect & Return)
1 year in other countries
Supported readable media: BD-ROM, BD-R SL/DL, BD-RE SL/DL, HD DVD-ROM, DVD+/-R DL, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R and CD-RW
Supported writable media: DVD+/-R DL, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R, and CD-RW
Lightscribe Label Printing: Pixel Resolution:600 dpi, Color: Mono, Color BG
Random access time: BD-ROM 180ms / HD DVD-ROM 210 ms / DVD-ROM 160 ms / DVD-RAM 180 ms/CD-ROM 150 ms
DVD writing modes: Disc-at-Once, Incremental Recording, Random Access, Sequential Recording, Restricted Overwriting, Random Write
CD writing modes: Track-at-Once, Disc-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Packet Write (variable and fixed)
DVD formats supported: Multi-border, Multi-session, DVD-Video, DVD+/-VR
CD formats supported: CD-DA, CD-ROM Mode-1, CD-ROM Mode-2, CD-ROM XA, CD-Extra, Video-CD, Multi-session, CD Text, CD-I, Photo-CD, Mixed CD

System Requirements

Data Writing, Video Editing, DVD Authoring

  • CPU: Pentium® D.3.2 GHz or equivalent (Recommended :Core 2 duo E63001 or higher)
  • RAM : 1GB or more
  • HDD : 30 GB of free space for Blu–ray/ HD DVD movie playback ( 60 GB for Blu–ray Disc authoring)

Source: Plextor.be

Bookmark Now!: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • del.icio.us
  • digg
  • Slashdot
  • YahooMyWeb

4 Comments so far

  1. Travis on February 19th, 2008

    I don’t think are the first..

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136133

    Model
    Brand LG
    Type DVD Burner & Blu-ray/HD Reader
    Model GGC-H20L
    Performance
    Cache 4MB
    WRITE Speed
    DVD R 16X
    DVD RW 8X
    DVD-R 16X
    DVD-RW 6X
    CD-R 40X
    CD-RW 24X
    DVD R DL 4X
    DVD-R DL 4X
    DVD-RAM 5X
    READ Speed
    DVD-ROM DVD-ROM: 16X
    Blu-ray DVD-ROM: 6X
    HD DVD-ROM: 3X
    Physical Spec
    LightScribe Support Yes
    Form Factor 5.25″
    Panel Color Black
    Configuration
    Load Type Tray
    Interface SATA

  2. zahadum on February 29th, 2008

    mac?

    pls irclude status of osx drivers as part of your standard editorial checklist even if that means you actually have to - gasp! - contact the vendor to get all facts.

    this would be a real valueable service for your readers!

    also: pls take special care when regurgiting spes - some hardware features are routinely listed by vendors even though the feature is not supported at the platform level … and requires special/custom drivers that are very expensive!

    eg dvd-ram has never had a microsoft (write) driver until vista - a decade after apple started shipping its original ’superdrive’ …

    bizarely, apple dropped write suport for dvd-ram during the change-over from ‘classic’ to os/x!!

    the result of this erratic platform-level support is that windows users gain what mac users have taken away from them :-(

    readers need to which hardware features have softwae ‘gottchas’.

    (another example would be the special drivers

  3. ljpp on March 1st, 2008

    zahadum,

    The specs are based on the company press-release, which I usually shorten down a bit to fit better. Full story can be found from the source link.

    And I don’t know what are you referring to with drivers and DVD-RAM. DVD-RAM works fine under Windows XP just fine.

  4. zahadum on March 27th, 2008

    1) yes, i am sure that u do trim down the original press release when citing specs …

    but the point i am making is that u should not leave out VITAL info from your digest (like platform support!) or else u r defeating the purpose of having a specialized web site!!

    not to mention the idea that u might want to consider actually curring apath through the marketcom underbrush & directly contacting the product managers yourself — so that you can create an editorial product that fills in the missing gaps … ie has some value-add, and is not just re-cycled PR!

    2) as for drivers, it is news to me that XP had writeable support for dvd-ram … i was under the impression that this feature (FULL COMPATIBILITY) was new to vista –

    but what do i know!?

    “Windows XP can only write directly to FAT32-formatted DVD-RAM discs. For UDF-formatted discs, which are considered faster, compatible device drivers or software such as InCD or DLA are required. Windows Vista can natively access and write to UDF-formatted DVD-RAM discs.”

    cf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvd-ram

    3) anyways, could you pls make sure that you let the marketcom minions know that u expect full platform in their press releases — so that they (the vendor) not you (the media) have to do the hard work of actually reporting the facts!

    anyways - my original question is about macs - so i guess i will have to go hunt down the url directly myself …. which i guess is part of the windows FUD tax mac users have to pay :-(
    thanx:dlf

Leave a reply

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word