Addonics releases external drive with Blu-Ray player, DVD burner
The new Sapphire Combo Blu-ray/HDD drive connects to desktops, laptops or other enabled devices via an eSATA or USB 3.0 port.
The DVD model is equipped with a DVD burner and both models can play movies or access data stored on all popular optical media and allow users to burn video or data onto DVD or CD discs.
An additional model, which has a Blu-ray burner, is expected in the near future, according to Addonics president Bill Kwong.
Both the DVD and Blu-ray models have a single bay that allows any 3.5-in. SATA hard drive to be plugged into the Sapphire drive.
Addonics said the drive can also secure data stored on it via an AES 256-bit encryption algorithm that can be added by installing the optional Addonics CipherUSB between both products and the USB port of the PC. There is no additional software to install or password to remember to use the CipherUSB.
"Once encrypted, the information on the disc will be invisible in any Blu-ray or DVD/CD player," Addonics said in a statement.
The new drive supports Windows, Mac OS X and Linux Kernel 2.4 and above. The bundled Blu-ray playback software is for use with Windows only.
The Saphire drive is currently available at a retail price of $269 for the Blu-ray/HDD model.