Lite-On America has officially announced their first Blu-ray Disc triple writer, the LH-2B1S. Along with 12x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 4x DVD±R DL writing speeds, the LH-2B1S can read and write to BD-R and BD-RE media at 2x.

LiteOn IT, the world's leader in optical storage solution proudly announces the LH-2B1S, the company's first Blu-ray Disc (BD) triple writer. The LH-2B1S uses the revolutionary blue laser technology instead of red laser existing in today's optical drives. The new technology provides an extremely precise laser focus and greatly increases storage capacity. LH-2B1S can store up to 50GB of data on a double-layer BD disc, equivalent to 9 hours High-Definition (HD) video or 23 hours of standard definition content or 72 CDs on a single disc. The new LH-2B1S triple writer will be available in September 2006.

The new LH-2B1S is ideal for professionals who have a growing need of archiving large files and content on a single disc. Commercial advertising, studio and catalog photographers, movie makers, and IT managers will greatly benefit from this technology as it plays back High-Definition (HD) content and archive massive data to reduce physical storage space.
According to our contacts at Lite-On, the LH-2B1S has a suggested retail price of $649.00. While not exactly cheap, this is a good $350 less than the drives from the competition. If you'd like to read more, Lite-On's entire press release can be found here.