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LaCie Cranks Up d2 Blu-ray Drive

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LaCie Cranks Up d2 Blu-ray Drive
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Accessory and peripheral maker LaCie has launched a revised version of its external d2 Blu-ray drive, doubling burn speeds to 4× and offering an updated software suite to help people get started archiving their video, media, and data.

“Burning up to 50GB of data can take a reasonable amount of time, so doubling burn speeds not only increases work performance, but provides a cost-effective, long-term archival process for storing data to sturdy scratch-resistant media,” said LaCie Business Development Manager Patrick Salin, in a statement.

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The d2 Blu-ray drive features both USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 ports, and can burn either single- or dual-layer BD-R discs at 4×, and single- or dual-layer BD-RE discs at 2×—at 4× speeds, the burner can crank through a 50 GB dual layer disc in about 45 minutes. The drive can also handle DVD±R at 16× and both DVD±RW and double-layer DVD±R at 8×, along with standard CDs at 40× and CD-RW at 32×. The d2 Blu-ray Drive now comes with Roxio’s Easy Media Creator for Windows and Toast Titanium for Mac.

The d2 Blu-ray drive is available now at a suggested price of $649.99.

Geoff Duncan
Former Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
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