The Blu-ray team has announced a new, sub-$200 Blu-ray drive that may very well sway some buyers away from the HD DVD proposition this holiday season. The new drive is made by Philips and Lite-On, and it's launching with a price tag of $199. This isn't a burner, mind you: the PLDS DH-4O1S drive can only play back Blu-ray, DVD, and CD media at maximum speeds of 4X, 12X (8X for rewritable DVDs), and 32X, respectively. Those looking for a Blu-ray burner to back up their Linux ISOs will need to pony up a little extra for a burner like Lite-On's $460 LH-2B1S. Nonetheless, the PLDS DH-4O1S has the advantage of being an internal, 5.25" drive and of being bundled with a copy of Cyberlink's PowerDVD software.

Spec-wise, the drive reads either single- or dual-layer BD-R/RE/ROM discs at up to 4X speeds, while single- or double-layer DVD±R or DVD-ROM discs can be read at 12X and single or double-layer DVD±RW discs can be read at 8X speeds. DVD, Single-layer or Double-layer media at 4X maximum. Single Layer DVD ±R or DVD-ROM can be read at 12X max, while Double Layer DVD±R and Single Layer DVD±RW can be read at 8X max. CD-R/RW/ROM has a maximum read speed of 32X.