Lacie launches first Blu-ray exterior burner

£600 devices among rafvt of new HD products at CES

LaCie is to launch the first external Blu-ray burner for PC and Mac professionals at next week's Consumer Electronics Show 2007 in Las Vegas.

The d2 Blu-ray Drive will be among the first raft of Bu-ray products on show, not least of which will be the first look at LG’s player that will handle both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs and Warner’s new HD disc, Total HD.

The d2 drive records, rewrites and reads 25GB or 50GB BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable) discs, as well as DVD±RW DL and CD±RW media. Up to four hours of high definition (HD) content can be stored on a blank 50GB disc.

Each drive will come bundled with a full version of Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 for Windows and Toast 7 Titanium for Mac, both of which support Blu-ray. There is no information yet on whether or not the drive will support playback of Blu-ray movies.

It also ships with one blank 50GB blank disc from Panasonic.
“LaCie’s d2 Blu-ray Drive is a necessity for video editors who need to distribute HD content while retaining quality of picture and sound,” explained LaCie product manager, Anne Bordet.

“Business users can safely archive large amounts of data or regularly back up individual workstations with the included, easy-to-use software.”
The drives are available immediately online for the not insignificant sum of £600.