Last month at Macworld, FastMac showed me their upcoming external Blu-ray drives, which I was excited about, and it appears they’ve made their way onto the site.
The entry-level slimline drive only reads Blu-ray discs at 2x, but it does have SuperDrive Multi Functions like:
* 2X BD-ROM reading
* 5X DVD-RAM Writing
* 8X DVD-R Writing
* 2X DVD-R DL Writing
* 4X DVD-RW Writing
* 8X DVD+R Writing
* 2.4X DVD+R DL Writing
* 4X DVD+RW Writing
* 8X CD-R Writing
* 8X CD-RW Writing
This one normally retails for $150, but it’s on sale for $99 and at that price it’s a cheap Blu-ray player.
The step-up model to that is the 1x writer model that retails for $300.
Write speed:
1X BD-RE Blu-ray
1X BD-R Blu-ray
1X BD-RE DL Blu-ray
1X BD-R DL Blu-ray
8X DVD+R,DVD-R
4X DVD+RW,DVD-RW
2.4X DVD+D9(DL)
2X DVD-D9(DL)
5X DVD-RAM
8X CD-R
8X CD-RW
Read speed:
24X CD-ROM
8X DVD-ROM
1.6X BD-ROM
The pinnacle of the slimline Blu-ray drives is the 4x model, which goes for a whopping $400. But all three drives work with both PC and Macs.
Write speed:
4x BD-R
2x BD-RE
2x BD-R DL
2x BD-RE DL
8x DVD-R
6x DVD-RW
8x DVD+R
8x DVD+RW
4x DVD-R DL(D9)
4x DVD+R DL(D9)
5x DVD-RAM
24x CD-R
16x CD-RW
Read speed:
4x BD
24x CD
8x DVD