Friday, October 9, 2009

Samsung Announced Its First Internal Blu-ray Disc Combo Drive

Samsung has launched an internal Blu-ray disc COMBO, the SH-B083, which marks the company's first attempt to enter the market of Blu-ray drives for PCs.

The Samsung Blu-ray disc (BD) drive is available with capacities of up to 25GB for a single layer disc and 50GB for a double layer disc for use in PCs. The drive reads BD-R and BD-ROMs at up to 8x speeds. The COMBO drive also reads CDs at up to 40x and DVDs at up to 16x.

Samsung?s fast dual layer jumping algorithm, the new SH-B083 COMBO drive features an average access speed of 350ms which is much faster than any other drive on the market. The new drive reads Blu-ray discs and reads and writes CD/DVDs.

"With Samsung?s new BD drive, users can not only watch HD movies on their PC but they can also record HDTV broadcasting on to a DVD with the bundled software Cyberlink Powerproducer. They also can record HD camcorder movies to a DVD disc with Powerproducer," said John Suh, director of OMS sales and marketing.

The higher precision Blu-ray technology dictates the need for more advanced reliability features to ensure HD viewing. The SH-B083 is equipped with two lenses for more stable reading and writing: one lens for BD read and the other lens for CD/DVD read/write. Spherical aberration compensation technology (SACT) improves reading quality on a BD drive whose protective layer does not have a uniform thickness. Also, precision step control technology (PSCT) accommodates the higher resolution in the optical pickup head unit (OPU) position control system that the smaller track pitch of BD demands.

For more precise BD drive reading, Samsung?s drive includes a four point skew adjustment instead of the typical three point skew found in regular DVD writers. For increased thermal reliability, an optical pickup lens cooling system reduces heat buildup.

The new eco-friendly drive features low power consumption and an aerodynamic frame design to lower acoustic noise by preventing pressure concentration in several areas of the bezel and door.

Samsung has also paid attention to the design of its BD drive, which comes with a mirror front door design and blue LED.

The drive will ship in the U.S. with Cyberlink TrueTheater software, which allows users to upscale a DVD resolution movie to full HD resolution. Like all the other Samsung ODD drives, the BD drive supports Firmware Live Update which allows users to ensure they always have the latest BD drive firmware version.

Samsung has delayed the introduction of BD drive for PCs for quite some time now. The company's policy could make sense, considering the slow expansion of the format itself. Despite a rapid rise in the sales of consumer Blu-ray players, Blu-ray Drives (BDs) in PC systems have been left singing the blues.

According to iSupply, by 2013, BDs will be found in only 16.3 percent of PCs shipped, up from 3.6 percent in 2009. The research firm predicts that BDs won't be replacing DVDs as the primary optical drive in PC systems through at least the year 2013. The two main reasons hampering the adoption of Blu-ray drives in PCs include costs as well as the lack of a library of movies that justifies the need for consumers to move to a different drive in their PCs.

The SH-B083 is available from November in the US through retail and eRetail channels like amazon.com and newegg.com.

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