Fastmac today announced the first & only sub-$500 Blu-Ray drive burner for Apple’s Mac Pro & PowerMac G5 computers. The new 5.25-inch, tray loading drive uses one of the fastest & most compatible Blu-ray mechanisms to provide up to 50 Gb of storage on 1 disk, without sacrificing compatibility with standard DVD & CD recordable media. Fastmac’s Blu-Ray optical drive has been tested and certified compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 video production software. The drive is available now for order from http://www.fastmac.com for a special introductory price of $499.95. Each drive carries a 1-year warranty and a 30-day money back guarantee .
Fastmac’s new Blu-Ray drive has been tested and certified compatible with Adobe’s forthcoming Premiere Pro CS3 video production software that includes Adobe Encore CS3 and is part of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium Collection. Adobe Encore CS3 integrates with Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Premiere to provide a rich set of creative tools for the production and output of full-featured, menu-driven DVD and Blu-Ray Discs. It is the only video production and editing software available for the Mac OS that supports built-in Blu-Ray Disc authoring for playback on stand-alone Blu-Ray DVD players & the Sony PlayStation 3.
Fastmac’s line of Blu-ray recordable drives give photographers, videographers & musicians the ability to save large amounts of data in a compact and portable form factor, ideal for separating production files by clients and/ or project. System and database administrators can archive and retrieve large amounts of data on 1 convenient disk. And consumers can now watch today’s latest HD content in true high definition with surround sound. Recently released data (based on unit sales of players & movie titles) & ongoing industry research clearly shows Blu-ray winning the high definition format war with HD-DVD.
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disk (BD), is the name of a next generation optical disk format developed by a consortium of electronics and computer manufacturers including Apple, Dell, HP, JVC, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony & TDK. The format was designed to enable the recording and playback of High Definition (HD) content and to allow storage of large amounts (up to 200 Gb) of data. While current optical drive technologies rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser (hence the name, Blu-ray). The blue-violet laser has a 38% shorter wavelength (405nm) than a red laser (650nm), allowing the drive’s optical pickup unit to focus more precisely than ever before. Data can then be packed more densely on standard sized disks. Despite using a new type of laser, Blu-ray drives are compatible with standard DVD and CD media through the use of a combined red, blue & violet optical reader and writer.
In addition to broad support from the electronics, music, computer & video game industry, 7 out of 8 of the major Hollywood film studios support Blu-ray media and 5 out of those 7 (Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, MGM & Sony) have decided to release their movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. Ninety percent of the Top 20 selling DVDs of 2006 were released by studios that are publishing their movies on Blu-ray Disc. According to Home Media Research, Blu-ray is the 1st high definition format to sell more than 1 million discs, a milestone that was achieved in less than 1 year. An overwhelming majority (3 out of every 4) of high definition movies sold in March 2007 were on Blu-ray disc, including 8 of the Top 10 sellers. With its forward and backward integration with new and old media, Blu-ray is destined to become the successor to today’s DVD format.
Fastmac’s tray loading Blu-ray optical drive supports reading, writing and re-writing to single and dual layer Blu-ray media at 2x speeds. The drive is also compatible with standard DVD and CD media and can write to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 8x speed in single layer and 4x speed in dual/ double layer mode. It can rewrite to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 6x speeds. The drive also supports DVD-RAM reading and writing at up to 5x speeds and standard CD-R and CD-RW burning at up to 24x speeds.
Fastmac’s tray loading Blu-ray optical drive requires Mac OS X 10.2.8 or higher and is compatible with the following Apple computers:
• eMac
• iMac G4
• Mac Pro
• PowerMac G3
• PowerMac G4
• PowerMac G5
Blu-ray burning requires Blu-ray media (sold separately) & 3rd-party software such as Adobe Premiere CS3 or Roxio’s Toast 8 Titanium, which enables Blu-ray disk support in the Mac OS Finder. Native support for Blu-ray burning within iLife & iTunes is expected in the future via Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but cannot be guaranteed at this time.
More info: http://www.fastmac.com
fuckin’ A!!!!!!!
-Pi
Good to see the initial price — just knowin’ it will come down as time goes by ..
http://mytop-in.net/go/030207160042.html
http://www.topping.com.ua/go/030207160042.html
No macbook model, everything but. alas…
Anybody got any info on the “apple” link above? Some dipwad keeps posting a link to a russian website on MDN posing as someone different every time.
What gives with this guy?
It’s not sub-$500 considering shipping or tax
When 9x DVD burners hit the street, they were over $300. Today, you can buy them for $40.
I’ll wait.
Will Final Cut Studio (esp. DVD Studio Pro) write to this thing via its “Blue Laser” output format? Anyone know?
At less than $500 doesn’t that make it the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market? Is there reason why you wouldn’t want to just take that old G5 and use it in your entertainment center for high-def movies?
This is key for Blu-Ray adoption. Sub-$500 is getting close to mass market.
Jim-TIV,
I think that’s one of those sites that infects Winblows PC’s with a shitload of spyware. The posts are annoying, but it may keep the PC trolls away.
“An overwhelming majority (3 out of every 4) of high definition movies sold in March 2007 were on Blu-ray disc”
Does that include porn? As I understand it porn outsells regular movies quite well.
@ Culbert @JIM-ITV
All MDN readers –
DO NOT click on that link!
It is an attempt to install JAVA vulnerability on Mac’s!
Make sure you have Java disabled in your browser preferences!
MDN – please delete that link!!!
Matrix,
Are you sure? This person was posting the exact same link way before the “PWN To OWN” contest. Or, are you talking about some other vulerabilityy?
All I know is that the website tried to install about 60 spyware programs on my suck-ass PC at work.
FSCK’ers!!!
to it being the cheapest blu-ray dvd player, its the same as PS3.
and to the question about weather apple will adopt it in final cut pro ect. I dont see why they wouldn’t due to the fact that they are one of the companies backing it.