PLDS Announce Portable Blu-ray Drive

PLDS (Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions) has announced that they will release a portable Blu-ray drive, the DX-401S. This BD-ROM drive will connect to any PC via a USB 2.0 cable enabling users to watch any Blu-ray movie on their computer without installing a Blu-ray drive. No price has been given at this time for the device, which is expected to be released sometime in April.
Source: Tech Radar (UK) | Permalink	Relevant for:

Blu-ray San  » Feb 25, 2008
NICE!!!!!

Sonny  » Feb 25, 2008
Sweet!!!

Toxa  » Feb 25, 2008
Great

Mr. Spiffy-Pants  » Feb 25, 2008
Right after I built one myself... Nice. :-\

futurezero  » Feb 25, 2008
The problem with something like this is that people are going to buy it, thinking "insta-Blu-ray player". Unfortunately, they're plugging it into a 4 year old laptop that can't even come close to the technical requirements needed to play a BD disc at full quality. And then they need to have an HDCP certified video card to play the video or even output it to another HDCP compliant display.

w_tanoto  » Feb 25, 2008
finally. what I've been waiting for. Planned to buy Sony VAIO FZ series. I will cancel that and get this instead (provided if its cheaper)

monkeytap  » Feb 25, 2008
macbook air compatiable? :-)

richteer  » Feb 25, 2008
Cool, although a standalone portable player would be cooler!

Guinness7  » Feb 25, 2008
That will be godd for people that want to move the drive around.

1Fish2FishRedFishBlu  » Feb 25, 2008
I hope they price this competitively, IMO anything over $299 MSRP will push this to an expensive gadget that till appeal only to the affluent and keep it off mainstream retail shelves. Wonder what the screensize will be?

Branden  » Feb 25, 2008
article headline says "portable blu-ray player" which implies a portable blu-ray player. for a second i got exciting at the prospect of being able to conveniently take my blu-rays on the road, but turns out it's really just an external blu-ray drive. dang.

msetten  » Feb 25, 2008
Great news, but if it is by Pioneer & Lite-On Digital Solutions, why is the Philips logo in the post?

CptGreedle  » Feb 25, 2008
AWESOME! Now if they can get this to burn BDs as well I would buy it today!

KretzJ  » Feb 25, 2008

Interesting... this sounds a LOT like the now-whacked XBOX 360 HD-DVD player... USB connector... I wonder if MS could use this as the basis for their oft-rumored Blu-Ray Add-on for the XBOX 360? Also, how does HDCP come into play on this? Do you still need an HDCP capable vid card and monitor? If it's a laptop, will that suffice (the software assumes you haven't hacked the system and therefore violated HDCP?) I am VERY excited about this announcement but I have a LOT of questions that must be answered first... I hope it turned out to be what I am looking for!

MrinkDore  » Feb 25, 2008
Agree with some of the comments - what happens to HDCP with this?? Nice and all but you need a Vcard and Monitor that supports HDCP.

Elandyll  » Feb 25, 2008
Who else smells a re-boxed version of this drive as an Xbox add on within a few months ? lol More players = always good news though.

Gaius  » Feb 25, 2008
nice idea but if you think you can just plug and play ,,,forget it,, the chances are that a fair percentage of pc owners wont have what is required for blu ray playback, first your monitor will have to be hdcp ready as well as a graphics card which is hdcp ,, but for some it will be ok,

AlienHeadBoy  » Feb 25, 2008
Amazing, I can't wait, I've been dying to get a laptop BD drive, this will save me on replacing the laptop that I just got last summer with a new one for atleast another year or so

Holmen  » Feb 25, 2008
hmm is it even possible to stream HDCP content over USB? ....didn't think USB was supported ...perhaps with some special tunneling software.

Rainman208  » Feb 25, 2008
I personally wouldn't have a need for something like this but it sounds cool.

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