Part of Sonys new Optiarc lineup, the BDX-S500u is their new external USB Blu-ray burner and player that’s both Mac and PC compatible. This new burner gives you a speed of 6x for single layer BD discs and 4x for duel layer BD discs. This means that you can burn a 25GB BD in about 20 minutes although that can vary depending on your motherboard and the USB chipset. Another wonderful feature of this is 3D playback as well so for anybody who has a 3D TV or monitor, all you need to do is hook up the computer and voila, you can now play back 3D.

As I mentioned, this is both Mac and PC compatible but with a small caveat. For PC owners, all you need to do is install the given software and Windows XP and above (Vista & Windows 7) will gain all the features I talked about. For Mac users, this works with Leopard and Snow Leopard to the extend that you will need to purchase Toast 10 (9 had this feature as well) to actually be able to burn files a blu-ray disc. This is great for those of us who have large iPhoto/iTunes libraries and would like to have a physical copy as well. The sad news is that there is no playback support. To be fair to Sony, this is not their fault, but there is a lack of BD playback in the Max OS. Look for a release by the end of this month with a low $200 price tag (various anywhere from $214 to $240 from different retailers I’ve seen). Consider me sold; my Mac has been needing some nice physical backups and my iPhoto library is around 90GB so DVDs for backups are out of the question.

Hit the jump as always for the full press release.

 SONY OPTIARC AMERICA ROLLS OUT SLIM EXTERNAL BLU-RAY DISC REWRITABLE DRIVE

Records up to 50GB of data and plays back 3D Blu-ray high-definition content

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 21, 2010 – Sony Optiarc America today announced its first slim, portable and external Blu-ray Disc® (BD) rewritable drive to compliment notebooks, netbooks or desktop PCs.

The new BDX-S500U model writes single BD-R media at up to 6X and dual layer BD-R media at up to 4X speeds, recording a full 25GB disc in about 20 minutes. The 6X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media, and one 25GB Sony BD-R blank disc comes included in the retail box. Also included with the drive is CyberLink’s Media Suite 8 for capturing, authoring, editing, backing up, viewing high-definition personal content and playing back Blu-ray Disc movies including 3D Blu-ray movies.

The portable drive offers quick and easy connectivity with a high speed USB (USB 2.0) digital interface for simple setup and maximum flexibility. It can be shared between computers for personal video, data, music or image backup, making it an excellent replacement drive for a standard DVD drive while offering all the benefits of Blu-ray Disc technology, including 3D Blu-ray high-definition playback capabilities.

The BDX-S500U drive can record up to 50GB of data for random access storage and backup on BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) discs, or up to 220 minutes of high-definition 24M bps MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video on a BD-R/RE 50GB disc.

The drive also records standard 4.7GB DVD+/-R discs at up to 8X speeds, 8.5 GB DVD+/-R Double/Dual layer at up to 4X, DVD+RW at up to 8X, DVD-RW at up to 6X, CD-R at up to 24X, CD-RW at up to 16X, and supports DVD-RAM recording at up to 5X speeds.

Availability

The BDX-S500U drive will be available through authorized distributors, resellers and select online sites starting this month.