CDRLabs has taken a long overdue look at Silicon Power's Stream S10 USB 3.0 portable hard drive. Available in capacities ranging from 320GB up to 1TB, this lightweight drive sports a simple curvaceous design as well as an eye catching, metallic paint job with a fingerprint free finish. The Stream S10 also features a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface which allows transfer speeds up to 10x faster than USB 2.0. To top it all off, the drive comes with a carrying case, Silicon Power's SP Widget backup and security software, and is also covered by a 3-year warranty.

CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Sony's new portable 6x Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDX-S600U. This sleek and lightweight drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. On top of that, it offers support for 3 and 4-layer BDXL media, which can hold up to 128GB of data on a single disc. The BDX-S600U is also designed to be powered completely off a computer's USB bus and includes features like a 6MB buffer, Power-Burn buffer underrun protection and CyberLink's Media Suite 8.

CyberLink Corp. today launched the new PowerDVD 12 Ultra, the latest version of the world’s leading Blu-Ray and Media Player. With its new companion apps PowerDVD Mobile v.4 and PowerDVD Remote v.2, PowerDVD 12 is the ideal single solution for the multi-platform home, as the world’s only universal multimedia player to provide a unified solution for the Windows, iOS and Android platforms. Now, users can easily stream, store and share their multimedia content across any device in their home—including iPhones, iPads and Android tablets and smartphones.  With enhanced TrueTheater® technology, users can enjoy a unique experience and enrich any content to its best possible HD & 3D quality, including DVDs, low-resolution videos and content from popular social media sites.

“PowerDVD 12 Ultra delivers the total freedom to enjoy all types of media content in enhanced quality on any device at home or on-the-go,“ said Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. “With the proliferation of devices and operating systems, PowerDVD automatically converts videos at the optimal quality to play on iPads, iPhones and Android devices. PowerDVD 12 Ultra is truly a premium media experience for the consumers.”

The latest version of PowerDVD comes with more than 30 new features and additional media format support, including the ability to intelligently sync media gallery content with Android devices, convert Blu-ray movies from 2D to 3D, and deliver 7.1 channel surround sound audio from DTS and Dolby, together with new lossless audio format support for OGG and FLAC files.

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Pioneer Japan sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new professional-grade Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-PR1. Designed for businesses, libraries and museums looking to archive important data to Blu-ray Disc, the BDR-PR1 features like a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds. The drive also comes with software which can be used to check the recording quality by measuring the RSER (Random Symbol Error Rate) and the number of Burst Errors. The  BDR-PR1 is scheduled to ship at the end of January and, while a price has not been announced, its expected to cost about three times as much as a consumer grade Blu-ray writer ($300-$400).

In support of Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer, Mitsubishi Chemical (MKM) has released its new professional, archival-grade 50GB BD-R DL media. Designed to work with the BDR-PR1, these new discs have a lifetime of more than 50 years when stored at room temperture (25° C) and 80% relative humidity. Contrary to earlier reports, Mitsubishi's archival-grade BD-R DL media has been developed in-house and will continue to be manufactured in the company's own factory.