Lite-On Europe sent out a press release earlier this week, announcing its new Blu-ray combo drive. The iHES208 reads single layer Blu-ray discs at 8x and is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds. The drive is scheduled to ship in April for a suggested retail price of 169 euro.

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Lite-On proudly introduces its 8X internal Blu-ray Disc Combo, iHES208. The new Blu-ray Disc Reader plus DVD Writer provides consumers an all-in-one solution to playback high definition content, while maintaining the capability of archiving data onto CD or DVD.

The Lite-On iHES208 with Serial ATA interface is a great solution for enthusiasts who wish to enjoy the advanced technologies of Blu-ray in home entertainment. It will not only allow them to play high-definition content such as Blu-ray movies, it will also provide users all the advantages of a DVD Writer.

The iHES208 is capable of recording on today’s most popular DVD and CD media in the market, and playback from media such as Blu-ray Discs, DVD, and CD. The drive can read BD-R/RE/ROM discs at 8X (Double Layer at 4X). It can write DVD±R at 16X, DVD±R DL and DVD+RW at 8X, DVD-RW at 6X and DVD-RAM at 12X.

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I-O Data Japan has announced a pair of internal 24x DVD writers based on the Sony Opitarc AD-7240S. The DVR-SN24GS (white) and DVR-SN24GSB (black) are capable of 24x DVD±R, 12x DVD-RAM, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. The two drives come bundled with WinDVD and DVD MovieWriter 5 SE from Corel as well as Nero Express 8 Essentials. The DVR-SN24GS and DVR-SN24GSB should hit store shelves at the end of April for about 5,800 Yen ($58US).

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tmpgenc logo.pngPegasys, Inc. (http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com), the company that makes digital video easy, announces the upcoming availability of the TMPGEnc SpursEngine™ Movie Plug-in for TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress. A release date for the Plug-in has yet to be announced. The Plug-in enables high-speed, hardware encoding on devices embedded with the SpursEngine Media Streaming Processor from Toshiba®. The combination offers blazing fast transcoding and encoding from standard video to high-resolution H.264 and MPEG-2 video.

"We are pleased to offer cutting-edge SpursEngine video processing technology support for our TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress software. TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress plus Toshiba’s SpursEngine technology is a hard-to-beat combination for the fastest H.264 and MPEG-2 processing available today," commented Tak EBINE, Pegasys CEO.

Toshiba’s SpursEngine, a co-processor that uses four Synergistic Processing Element (SPE) cores based on "Cell Broadband Engine™”, offers high-speed calculations to perform the huge number of processes to transcode/encode standard video into crystal clear 1920×1080 High Definition (HD) video. It offers high performance media streaming, with a fast clock frequency of 1.5GHz, and a low power consumption range of 10W to 20W. It can also off-load decoding and encoding of MPEG-2 and H.264 from the CPU to SpursEngine devices. Currently supported SpursEngine devices include LeadTek’s WinFast PxVC1100 transcoding card, Canopus’ Firecoder Blu card and select Toshiba Qosmio series laptop computers.

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Other World Computing (OWC®) http://www.macsales.com, a leading PC and Mac technology company, announced today the new Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 for the ultimate in flexibility and convenience in a Plug and Play desktop hardware RAID storage solution. Featuring a “Quad Interface” of FireWire® 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA ports; 4 Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive bays; and 4 user selectable hardware RAID settings, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 offers up to 8TB of total storage capacity and data transfer speeds up to 300MB/s for the ultimate professional grade RAID storage solution.

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Built for performance-intensive applications, such as A/V, HD-video, digital photography, professional music, graphics, and redundant backup, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 is beautifully designed for both Mac and PC with a shock resistant, heat dissipating aircraft-grade brushed aluminum housing preconfigured with up to 8TB of storage capacity. Its front panel LEDs gives quick, at-a-glance system status, while the removable key lock ensures the installed hard drives remain secure. 

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Verbatim® Americas, LLC joined its parent company, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (Verbatim/MKM) today in announcing that the first shipments of its new 60GB UDO2 (Ultra Density Optical) Write-once (WORM) media are expected to begin in May. Based on the license agreement with Alliance Storage Technologies, MKM will start producing UDO2 WORM in April at its optical disc manufacturing facility in Mizushima, Japan. MKM, a key developer and manufacturer of UDO media, has been manufacturing premium-quality 30GB UDO1 WORM and RW (rewriteable) media at this factory since 2004 and will continue to do so. Verbatim/MKM will also offer 60GB UDO2 RW media and expects to begin shipping in June.

The new Verbatim/MKM UDO2 WORM media can be used with Plasmon brand libraries and drives, now developed, manufactured and serviced by Alliance Storage Technologies (www.plasmon.com), HP and other UDO2 drives and optical libraries

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To the delight of creative consumers and professional authoring providers, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. today introduces its new BDR-2203 Blu-ray Disc®/DVD/CD internal computer writer. Delivering on the promise of a comprehensive solution for large file storage and high definition film functionality, the new device features an impressive 8X write speed capability for dual-layer BD-R Blu-ray Disc media. With the new writer, users can take advantage of the substantial 50 gigabyte (GB) storage capacity from Blu-ray Discs to ensure fast and successful preservation of standard and high definition data content along with the confidence that comes with using a Pioneer® optical disc product. The multi-format BDR-2203 comes packaged with specialized software to fulfill the array of creative and professional needs of PC users. The Pioneer BDR-2203 Blu-ray Disc internal computer writer begins shipping in April for a suggested price of $249.99.

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Through extensive write speed testing, the company’s engineering group found that it will take users approximately 15 minutes to write 25 GB of information to a single-layer BD disc and about 30 minutes to write 50 GB worth of information (the equivalent of more than 10 single-layer DVD-R discs) when using the new writer.

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Today LaCie announced the Rugged XL, a super-sized expansion to LaCie’s award-winning line of Rugged hard drives. Showcasing more than just its extra-large exterior, the Rugged XL doubles capacity to 1TB, and will surely amplify the style of any creative desktop.

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Rugged XL leverages the design and durability of the popular Rugged drive, offering aluminum casing for superior protection on your desktop, as well as the signature orange rubber sleeve. Taking advantage of the Rugged’s reputation for resilience, the Rugged XL also features an internal bumper and heat dissipating features, making the LaCie Rugged XL able to withstand the challenges and blunders that can occur on anyone’s desk.

Suited for speed-intensive applications or for large-scale backups, the Rugged XL is versatile and compatible with both Mac and PC environments. In addition, it supports two key interfaces: Hi-Speed USB for universal compatibility, and the extreme speed of eSATA 3Gb/s. The new drive also includes a complete software bundle for easy formatting with LaCie Setup Assistant, as well as Genie Backup Assistant software for Windows users and Intego Backup Assistant software for Mac users.

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SandForce™ Inc., the pioneer of SSD (Solid State Drive) Processors that enable commodity NAND flash deployment in enterprise and mobile computing applications, today emerged from stealth mode and unveiled its first product, the SF-1000 SSD Processor family. These highly-integrated silicon devices address the inherent endurance, reliability, and data retention issues associated with NAND flash memory, making it possible to build SSDs that deliver unprecedented performance over the life of the drive with orders-of-magnitude higher reliability than enterprise-class HDDs (Hard Disk Drives).

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The SandForce patent-pending DuraClass™ technology promises to accelerate mass-market SSD adoption. Leading OEMs are expected to release both SLC (single level cell) and MLC (multi-level cell) flash-based SSDs using SandForce single-chip SSD Processors later this year. IDC expects worldwide shipments of SSD's in the Enterprise and PC markets will exceed 40 million units in 2012, representing a CAGR of 171% from 2007-2012. (IDC, Worldwide Solid State Drive 2009-2012 Forecast Update, Doc # 216054, January 2009)

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CalDigit is excited to introduce the CalDigit VR mini, an innovative, compact and bus powered two drive RAID system, supporting a quadruple interface for easy connectivity. The CalDigit VR mini's modular design provides two removable drive modules and an easy to read frontside LCD. With support for RAID 0, 1, and JBOD the CalDigit VR mini can reach speeds fast enough for high definition video editing. It includes easy to use software allowing for firmware updates, configuration, monitoring and even supports email notification. The CalDigit VR mini packs a ton of performance into a small package, making it a truly portable storage solution that can fit in the palm of your hand.

“The increasing demand for mobile editing has inspired us to create a product thatʼs not only incredibly small, but powerful. Itʼs hard to imagine what the CalDigit VR mini is capable of when you pick it up. The speed that this small RAID can provide is truly impressive.” Jared Picune VP of sales and marketing for CalDigit.

The CalDigit VR mini is bus powered via FireWire, so no extra power supply is needed. When additional speed is needed use eSATA for data and FireWire for power. The CalDigit VR mini is smart enough to know which port to use, so you never need an additional power supply.

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GMC X7 X-Station Gaming Case @ [OC]ModShop
iBuyPower Gamer Paladin F970 System @ HotHardware.com
Kodak EasyShare Z1285 12.1MP Digital Camera @ ThinkComputers.org
Logitech MX1100 Cordless Laser Mouse @ Phoronix
Patriot Xporter Magnum USB Flash Drive @ Rbmods
Rosewill RNX-N4 Wireless N Router @ HardwareLogic
Trendnet Managed & Unmanaged Gigabit Switches @ BCCHardware

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