Off the CES show floor Lite-On was displaying its new Blu-ray Disc drive, the 2X Blu-ray Disc Triple Writer LH-2B1S, available with a SATA interface for just US$650. For those keeping track at home, that's a 35 percent price drop in just the first six months of Blu-ray Disc burners shipping; when the Pioneer BDR-101A debuted in May 2006, that model cost US$999.
The drive does 2X reads and writes for Blu-ray Disc media, as well as up to 12X writes for DVD+/-R, 4X writes for DVD+/-R Double Layer, 8X writes for DVD+RW, and 6X writes for DVD-RW, Lite-On will also offer an external model.
A 20X DVD burner is also shipping now. This burner is an industry first -- albeit one that comes ahead of any standard for 20X DVD+/-R media. Only some Taiyo Yuden discs will burn at 20X, so your speed boost with this drive may be incremental. The LH-20A1H is available in both PATA and SATA versions, and it has Lite-On's SmartWrite technology for optimizing the drive's write strategy on a disc-by-disc basis. It also offers LightScribe label etching. Both internal and external versions are available in the U.S. as of the end of January.
The LH-20A1H writes to DVD+/-R DL at 8X, DVD+RW at 8X, DVD-RW at 6X, and DVD-RAM at 12X.
Lite-On also showed a Blu-ray Disc Combo LH-2E1S, a SATA BD Reader with DVD writer capabilities. The maximum write speeds for DVD are a bit below what you'd expect with a stand-alone DVD burner: 12X for DVD+/-R single-layer, and 4X for double-layer media. Lite-On didn't discuss pricing or availability for this drive.
