Published: Wednesday 4th February, 2009 | Author: Parm Mann
Products: d2 Blu-ray Drive
Companies: Lacie (All Lacie content)
External reviews: Lacie d2 Blu-ray Drive
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email to a friendLaCie has launched its fastest external Blu-ray burner, the d2 Blu-ray Drive.
The drive, pictured below, offers 8x Blu-ray burning for both single-layer and 50GB dual-layer discs. Sporting both USB 2 and FireWire connectivity, it's suited to both PC and Mac users but USB users should note that BD-R write speeds are limited to 6x when utilising a USB connection.
Priced at £409, the drive aims to be the ultimate solution for video professionals wanting to backup or store large quantities of data.
It'll come bundled with two pieces of software - Easy Media Creator 10 and Toast 9 Titanium - but as with a number of Blu-ray drives, it's still priced out of reach for the everyday consumer.
The complete read and write speeds for various forms of media break down as follows:
| Write speeds | Read speeds | |
|---|---|---|
| LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive | BD-R (single or dual layer) 4x to 8x (limited to 6x with USB2.0) BD-RE (single or dual layer) 2x DVD±R 16x DVD±RW 6x DVD±R DL 8x CD-R 48x CD-RW 24x |
BD-ROM 4x to 8x (limited to 6x with USB2.0) AACS BD-ROM (content protected) 2x BD-R 4x to 8x DVD±R 16x DVD±RW 8x DVD±R DL 8x CD-R 48x CD-ROM 48x CD-RW 32x |
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6x are not available anywhere in the uk (or at least I cant find) and are silly money in the USA. (same price as a small HD for 1 blank)
4x cost around £5-12 depending on brand.
8x coasters are going to be a financial nightmare.
I fail to see the point in these until media costs come down by a huge %.Quote
8x BD-R disks don't exist.
6x are not available anywhere in the uk (or at least I cant find) and are silly money in the USA. (same price as a small HD for 1 blank)
4x cost around £5-12 depending on brand..
Its always been the same though...the burners hit the market and the media follows. It just takes time.Quote
The drive is aimed for
video professionals wanting to backup or store large quantities of data.
A video pro will be working with uncompressed data that is around 10gb per min for HD video. So firstly they will have to split the data up into 5 min chunks to fit into the 50gb barrier.
The 50gb dual layer discs cost approx £15-20 for a dual layer 4x speed disk. and will take approx 25 mins to write.
So for a basic 30 mins of footage it will take you over 3 hrs just to write the data, and around £100 in consumables.
It's not even remotely viable.
Whilst a hard drive will backup the data in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost.
When blank cd's and dvd's came out first, sure they were pricey, but the price was still reasonable especially in comparison to alternative backup methods. The price fell due to many people using using them.. I cant see this happening with blu-ray media soon, as why would anyone want to use such a slow and expensive system when faster cheaper methods are available.
The only thing that could be in bd-r's favour is the long term life of the disc.. which is yet unknown.. They are using non organic dies, so maybe they don't fail (unlike cd's/dvd's) over time when kept in safe archive conditions.Quote
BTW is there 6x media available at bargain prices?Quote
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