Buffalo To Sell Portable 3D Blu-ray Optical Drive
Buffalo's new 3D Blu-ray external drive is sleek and compact.
Buffalo Japan announced on Wednesday that it will make available the BG3D-PI6U2-BK, a compact, portable, external optical drive for 3D Blu-ray playback. Users simply plug the device into a USB port via Windows XP, Vista and 7 to view 3D Blu-ray movies or other 3D content. Naturally consumers will need a 3D-enabled PC or display to view the content.
According to the specs, the portable drive measures 5.39 x 5.78 x 0.78-inches and weighs 340g. The Blu-ray drive writes data on BD-R/RDL6 discs at 6x, and on BD-RE/RE DL discs at 2x. The drive will cost around $354 and is expected to hit Japanese stores within the month.
So far a North American release has not been announced, however Buffalo devices typically come to the States after a Japanese release.
Recently Buffalo made the larger MediaStation 12x external USB 3.0 Blue-ray writer available to consumers in the States. Deemed as the fastest external drive on the market, the optical drive measures 6.3 x 2.0 x 8.7-inches and is capable of writing speeds of up to 12x for BD-R (SL/DL), 2x for BD-RE (SL/DL), 16x for DVD-R/+R, and more. The drive also comes bundled with software that supports 3D Blu-ray.
Expect to hear more about the thinner BG3D-PI6U2-BK optical drive next month.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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burnley14 Will this work properly on USB 2.0? I could be totally off but I thought the data rate required for Blu-ray was higher than USB 2.0 standards.Reply -
nukemaster Nope, you can watch a bluray movies on a 54megabits/sec(54/8=6.75 megabytes/second), USB 2.0 should be good for 216megabits(27 megabytes/second) or 6x BD. the next speed increase would push past what most usb controllers can handle(despite the USB specs of 480 megabits/sec overheat puts it much lower).Reply -
scifi9000 and another thing, is there a working 3D solution for ATI/AMD yet? Bit Cauldren have been promicing.. but no one is delivering.Reply -
eddieroolz Nice to see we've reached the point of having external Blu-ray drives. These things are really coming down in price now.Reply -
elbert I think a PS3 is portable enough for a lower price. This device cant even play games, network, or access netflix.Reply -
NotYetRated haha this price point is simply amazing. /agree with @Elbert. Would MUCH rather just have another PS3. Not the 3d is worth is additional cost yet anyways.Reply