Philips & Lite-on Digital Solutions has announced its first external Blu-ray drive solution for computer users. The DX-401S external drive is a BD-ROM reader that connects to the PC via USB 2.0 and allows the playback of Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray media discs.

“Due to recent market developments we can expect an increasing volume of movies to be released in high definition on Blu-ray Discs”, says Jelmer Veldman, European Marketing Manager at PLDS. “The market adoption of Blu-ray as the optical disc standard for High Definition content results in a growing demand for Blu-ray playback solutions. The portable external Lite-On BD-ROM drive allows users to playback their Blu-ray discs on any PC via a USB 2.0 cable* ”, Mr. Veldman adds.

The device is able to read BD-R/RE/ROM single and double layer media at 4x maximum speed. The drive can also read DVD+-R or DVD-ROM at 12X max and dual layer DVD+_R and single layer DVD+-RW at 8X. CD media is read at 32X speed. Pricing for the drive is not yet announced and it is expected to be available in the UK in Q2 2008. There is no word at this time on availability in the US.

Via Lite-on