If computer owners cite the “what about my CDs and DVDs?” excuse for not switching to Blu Ray, we can’t blame them, but looks like Samsung is doing its bit to make things easier for both users and Blu Ray. Samsung Electronics Co.’ s SH-B083 COMBO is its first dual-function internal Blu Ray drive. Besides reading Blu ray discs, it can also write to DVDs and even CDs.
The Samsung SH-B083 Blu Ray COMBO drive is made available in up to 25GB for a single layer Blu Ray disc and 50GB for a double layer Blu Ray disc. It also has up to 8X read speeds for BD-Rs and BD-ROMs, 40x read speeds for CDs and 16x for DVDs. Samsung claims that with the COMBO drive, they’ve come up with the fastest internal optical drive to ever hit the market, with an access time, on an average, of 350 milliseconds.
It also comes bundled with Cyberlink PowerProducer and Cyberlink TrueTheater, so that besides just watching HD movies on the PC, users can record HDTV broadcasts to a DVD using the software. Even HD Camcorder movies can now be burned onto a DVD with the help of the COMBO drive and PowerProducer.
With Cyberlink TrueTheater, the PC user can now upscale a DVD quality movie to higher HD and Full HD resolutions, getting more high-def out of everything.
COMBO drives usually suffer from problems caused by multiple lasers in the small package. The Samsung SH-B083 COMBO drive, though, has been designed with two lenses for problem-free reading and writing of optical discs. One lens is exclusively for Blu Ray read/write operations, while the other takes care of the DVD and CD-ROM functions of the drive.
Samsung has also equipped the drive with a new “Spherical Aberration Compensation Technology (SACT)”, which provides better reading quality on Blu-ray discs with a protective layer of non-uniform, uneven thickness. For the narrower track pitch in Blu Ray discs, the drive features a better resolution of optical pickup head unit (OPU) position control system via “Precision Step Control Technology (PSCT)” , which translates to better transmission of the track pitch.
Though Samsung is yet to put a price on this dual-function Blu Ray drive, they did disclose that in November, the SH-B083 can be expected on retail shelves, both offline and online, such as via amazon.com or newegg.com.
The director of Optical Media Solutions Sales and Marketing at Samsung, John Suh, who revealed this huge list of features, said that Blu Ray technology offers much more to consumers compared to older Optical Disc Drive solutions such as DVD and CD-ROM, since Blu Ray improves the high-def experience for PC users.
In the press release by John Suh, Samsung also stressed on the COMBO drive’s streamlined frame design that reduces acoustic noise, as well as its lower power consumption.Other features of the drive’s design include a smaller, lightweight body when compared to previous Samsung Blu Ray drives, so that internal heat is minimized, and disc loading made more efficient.
The drive’s mirror front door front bezel and blue LED also score brownie points in the looks department, which is a lot for something like an internal disc drive, which, save for the front bezel, isn’t even visible from outside the computer.
