The next shot in the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD format wars has been fired this time by the Philips/Lite-ON alliance.  The two companies have worked on producing a $200 Blu-Ray player but there’s a catch and it’s a big one.

This player will come branded under the Lite-ON name but the DH-401S is not a standalone player, it is an internal Blu-Ray drive that goes in your PC.  It is also capable of playing back every format of DVD, CD and will support BD-ROMs.

It features a SATA (Serial ATA interface), can read BD-R/BE/ROM discs, single-layer or double-layer media at 4X, DVD read speeds vary from 8X to 12X and the CD-R/RW/ROM reads at 32X.  Sadly, there was no mention of burning capabilities even in the plain old DVD or CD realm and that would be a serious omission, if you ask me.

The drive is set to hit retail shelves later this month with a suggested retail price of $199 at which time our remaining questions about the drive should be answered.  That price also includes a copy of Cyberlink Power DVD for playing back Blu-Ray media.

Note that to make full use of the drive you will need an HDCP compliant video card and monitor.  Those wishing to use the drive with a TV will have to run an HDMI cable from the computer to their TV.

For those who may be wondering, the $200 price isn’t so outrageous since I was able to find internal Blu-Ray PC drives priced between $240 and $280 including DVD-R burning features so it’s likely (though not confirmed) that the DH-401S will have burning features.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 4:44 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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