Product Alert: Sony BDX-S500U Blu-ray 6x Writer
Electronic giant and Blu-ray ally Sony is banking on slim and fast for its latest rewritable drive—the Sony BDX-S500U. It’s designed to be a comprehensive Blu-ray addition for PCs, notebooks and even netbooks that will record up to 50 gigabytes of data. Additionally, the device’s slim, compact design makes it easy to use and cohesive with your smaller computer models.
For single-sided BD-Rs, it will write at 6x or 27 MBps on corresponding 6x recordable Blu-rays. This speed translates to writing a 25 gigabyte disc in 20 minutes. It has the capability to be shared between all of your home or office computers. The Sony BDX-S500U also includes a software suite by CyberLink so you can use added features like authoring, editing and high definition playback.
Such a device is a next logical step as a successor to your old DVD drive, but it can do a lot more by offering the high definition and 3D perks of Blu-ray and HD playback. Its backward compatibility with DVDs and CDs means you can still get the most out of your older media formats—they don’t have to be tossed or thrown into the darkest recesses of your basement or attic.
According to one article however, this slick, fast Sony Blu-ray writer may encounter a speed bump in real-life applications. The USB 2.0 connection in general that this writer uses has an ideal or theoretical speed of 60 MBps, but when put to the test does not measure up to even half of that. A laptop test by Techworld revealed that a USB 3.0 chipset will write a 2.0 speed of only 11 MBps—compare that to Sony’s touted 27 MBps. The question remains whether your computer and the use of all of your other needed peripherals will fall behind in the race to keep up with the Sony writer’s speed.
Considering its features, you can only hope it fully optimizes high-definition, 3D and small volume copying. Official retail cost has yet to be released, but it is expected to be competitively priced somewhere around $200 to $240.
What do you think about Sony’s Blu-ray writer? Are you willing to give it a try?
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