"Blu-ray has reigned supreme from the drawn out format war. Then, it was evident it wouldn’t stop here and fittingly the introduction of the first external Blu-ray Disc Drive will have the fans drooling. HTPC’s or laptops are the certain favorable targets for the device which is set to arrive during 2nd quarter of the year. Connected via USB 2.0, the drive allows the ability to read/playback Blu-ray Disc media at 4X, also supporting single-layer DVD at 12X, dual-layer DVD at 8X, and CD media at 32X maximums. Due to copy protection issues and lagging software development, the drive will only play user-recorded high-definition content from a digital camcorder, and not commercial movies released under the Blu-ray Drive format. One reason for this is the fact that commercial content is encrypted with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which can only be decrypted using a HDCP-compliant graphics card that offers DVI or HDMI connections. Since there are currently no PCs for sale offering graphics chips that support HDCP, this isn’t yet possible.
Another reason is that Blu-ray Drive playback software that can decrypt HDCP hasn’t been released as a saleable item yet. Today, the only HDCP-supporting BD playback application is the OEM version of Intervideo WinDVD BD that’s grouped together with Sony’s VAIO VGN-AR18GP notebook. The AR18GP also offers an HDCP-compliant HDMI connector, which makes it capable of playing commercial movies without issue. Despite not being able to play commercial content, the drive can still be used as a storage device, particularly for those looking to create and distribute their own high-definition home movies on BD-R and BD-RE drives.
Source:
T3"
