While the speed, capabilities and reliability of optical
drives have largely homogenized over the years, Plextor has managed to retain a
loyal following who insist that the long-time optical recording specialist
remains head and shoulders above the competition. Whether that's true or just
good marketing is another question altogether... As a general rule, PCSTATS
doesn't buy into "brands," its the specs and benchmarks that really matter.
In any event, on the PCSTATS test bench today is Plextor's PX-B310U external
Blu-ray drive. In addition to Blu-ray playback (but not burning), this
full sized external ODD, which connects to the PC over USB2.0 cable,
doubles up as a DVD and CD burner. The PX-B310U supports DVD reading and writing
in both the + and - formats, as well as reading and writing to DVD-RAM and
Dual-Layered DVD discs. Naturally, it can also handle and CD-R and CD-RW
formats.
External Blu-ray drives make it easy to
turn pretty much any PC into a home theatre PC. With more and more
HDTVs supporting PC inputs (DVI, S-Video or HDMI), it's easy to connect a drive like this to
a laptop, pop in a movie and pipe the display through to a big screen TV.
Blu-ray can store a massive amount of data, 50GB per disk in
fact.
For around $220 CDN ($160 USD £125 GBP), the PX-B310U can bring Blu-ray playback and external CD and
DVD authoring to almost any PC. Is the PX-B310U a worthy upgrade for that desktop or
laptop that could use a little HD loving?
The PX-B310U is an external drive, which makes it a
little bulkier than a standard optical drive (it's essentially an internal
optical drive wrapped in an external case). The drive measures 22 x 16 x 4.5cm, so it's fairly easy to fit it next to a laptop or
on a table beside a desktop. Power is supplied by the included
CD power adaptor, and the PX-B310U connects to the PC via USB 2.0 cable. A
clear plastic stand is supplied for vertical mounting, which helps save a little desk space.
The front of the dive has one blue LED status light, and an eject
button.
The rear of the PX-B310U features the USB-B data port,
a power switch and the DC power jack. The chassis is
finished in a shiny black coating that looks fantastic, but attracts dust and fingerprints like
a magnet.
Since this is an external optical drive, chances are you'll be touching it
frequently as you move it between computers, or to pop in media. It's
probably a good idea to invest in a bit of Windex and a micro-fiber cleaning
cloth.
|
Plextor PX-B310U Supported
Media |
|
|
Blu-Ray |
DVD-RW |
DVD-R |
DVD-RAM |
DVD-R DL |
CD-R |
CD-RW |
|
Read: |
5x |
8x |
16x |
12x |
8x |
48x |
32x |
|
Write: |
no |
6x |
12x |
5x |
4x |
24x |
24x |
Writing modes for DVDs on the PX-B310U include DAO (Disc-at-Once) and
Incremental Recording, as well as restricted overwriting and sequential
recording. CD writing can also support TAO (Track-at-Once) and SAO
(Session-at-Once) recording, in additional to mutli-session recording.
The PX-B310U's USB 2.0 interface makes it easy to
hot-swap between computers. USB 2.0 has just enough bandwidth to play
back Blu-ray discs, so as long as your PC has adequate
processing power playing back Blu-ray video shouldn't be a problem. Let's take a
closer look at Blu-Ray technology then move along to the benchmarks...
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