LaCie is set to introduce an external Blu-ray Disc burner in the UK later this month, despite the fact that it's not able to play protected BD movies. It's intended for use on Mac and Windows PCs with USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 connectivity and will be priced at £799 (inc VAT).

The company claims that the d2 Blu-ray Drive will be the first shipping pro external solution for the two platforms and says it records, rewrites and reads 25GB or 50GB BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable) media, as well as DVD±RW DL and CD-RW.

But, although the unit comes with Blu-ray-Disc-compatible software for both operating systems - special versions of Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 for Windows and Roxio Toast 7 Titanium for Mac - it is not yet able to play commercial copy-protected Blu-ray Disc movies.

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