External Blu-ray and DVD drives Reviews
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LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional review

£349 inc VAT

Manufacturer: LaCie

Our Rating: We rate this 3.5 out of 5

By | Macworld.com | 01 October 09

The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional BD-R, BD-RE Drive is an external optical drive that can burn data to Blu-ray discs, as well as single and dual-layer DVD and CD media.

The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional BD-R, BD-RE Drive is an external optical drive that can burn data to Blu-ray discs, as well as single and dual-layer DVD and CD media.

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The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional drive connects via FireWire 400 or USB 2.0, though we had some trouble using the USB 2.0 connection with the included Toast Titanium 9 software. (We also had issues with Toast Titanium 10.) The FireWire connection gave us no trouble.

Using the company's stackable d2 case design, this external Blu-ray drive uses Pioneer's BDR-203 mechanism and requires external power to operate. The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional can burn 25GB single-layer Blu-ray (BD-R) discs as well as 50GB BD-R DL discs at speeds up to 8X.

You can burn high definition Blu-ray discs to watch on your home theatre component Blu-ray players, and some software allows you to watch Blu-ray movies on your PC.

Aside from Blu-ray media, the LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional drive can burn all flavours of DVD, +/-, RW, DL, as well as CDs and CD-R discs.

In our timed tests, the d2 Blu-ray Drive was a decent but comparatively slow performer, posting third-place finishes when compared to the results of four other recently tested external Blu-ray burners. LaCie isn't the only company whose drives failed to complete burns with Toast over USB; other drives using the Pioneer BD-203 mechanism had problems as well. Hopefully, the problem will get resolved soon.

NEXT: our expert verdict >>

Macworld.com

LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional Expert Verdict »
Post Review
Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and FireWire
write speeds: BD-R (single or dual layer) 4x to 8x, BD-RE 2x, DVD±R 16x, DVD±RW 6x, DVD±R DL 8x, CD-R 48x, CD-RW 24x
read speeds: BD-ROM? 4x to 8x, AACS BD-ROM 2x, BD-R 4x to 8x, DVD±R 16x, DVD±RW 8x, DVD±R DL 8x, CD-R 48x, CD-ROM 48x, CD-RW 32x
172.8x44.8x251.1mm
1.4kg
  • Overall: We give this item 7 of 10 overall

If you're looking to add an external optical drive, the LaCie d2 Blu-ray Professional BD-R, BD-RE Drive is worth considering, especially if you have other LaCie d2 drives on your desktop. It's an average performer.

There are currently no price comparisons for this product.
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