The new device will allow Apple Mac users to use a USB 2.0 or eSATA port to connect the new MCE 8X Blu ray Disc External Recordable Drive, which is a desktop optical drive.
Blu ray discs as well as dual-layer DVDs and CD-Rs can be burned by the MCE drive and while it is both a reliable and fast burner when connected using the USB port, using the eSATA connection can sometimes create problems.
Cosmetically the MCE 8X Blu ray disc External Recordable Drive has a gray-tinted plastic on the back and front, whilst its bulky and unattractive case is rough and metallic. Even when the drive is not being used the small fan that is used inside the case can be quite noisy.
Speeds of up to 8X can be achieved by the drive when burning both 25GB Blu ray (BD-R) and 50GB BD-R DL discs. Both OS X’s finder and any one of a range of third party applications like Roxio Toast provide support for the burning of data onto a BD-R/RW disc. With the use of the latest version of Apple’s Compressor or the High-Def/Blu ray disc plug-in for Roxio’s Toast Titanium users are able to burn high definition Blu ray discs that can be watched on either component Blu ray players or on a home theatres.
According to advice provided by a popular MAC site “The MCE 8x Blu-ray Disc External Recordable Drive is a relatively speedy optical drive. Its USB 2.0 connection worked flawlessly, creating no expensive coasters during our testing. Its eSATA performance was no faster than USB and the drive couldn’t burn discs with Toast when connected in that way. If you intend to use the drive with USB, it’s worth a look.”
Source - News.IDG