14 DAY TRIAL // Hardware makers have been going out of their way launching graphics, processing and display solutions capable of a seamless and high-quality playback of Full-HD Blu-ray content. Video-card makers have been implementing special technologies in order to enhance the experience and display makers have been increasing the color gamut and visibility of their monitors as much as possible. But amidst these developments, at least more recently, there have been few releases of hardware actually capable of Blu-ray playback and recording. Aiming to rectify this small oversight, I-O Data has just released the BRD-UH8LE external Blu-ray burner.
One of the more recent launches of Blu-ray hardware was done by LG in a rather innovative fashion, when it put such a unit inside a network-attached storage (NAS) device. That product, however, has limited use through its very nature, whereas the product launched by I-O Data combines usability with the versatility of an external device.
Blu-ray is the means by which multimedia files in HD and Full-HD quality are stored and played. The BRD-UH8LE Blu-ray burner from I-O Data combines the ability to seamlessly render such content with the capability of writing said content on Blu-ray disks. The external drive measures 166 (W) x 240 (D) x 60.5 (H) mm and weighs no less than 2.3 kg. Of course, the device is also compatible with a variety of other optical disk types.
As a complete list of optical storage media compatibility, the unit can play and write content to CDs and DVDs. It can reach write speeds of 24x for CD-RW disks, 48x for CD-R, 6x for DVD-RW, 8x for DVD-R/+R DL and DVD+RW, 16x for DVD-R/+R SL and 12x for DVD-RAM. The speeds that the drive can reach when writing Blu-ray content are of 8x for BD-R, 6x for BD-R LTH and 2x for BD-RE. Finally, the I-O Data BRD-UH8LE Blu-ray burner has a buffer memory of 4MB.
The company is offering the super multi BRD-UH8LE with a price tag of about $267 and backs it up with a one-year warranty.