MCE ships 8x Blu-ray burners for Mac Pro, Power Mac

MCE is now shipping its 8X Blu-ray Recordable Drive, which supports burning to Blu-ray, DVD and CD media. The burner writes to BD-R media on systems with Mac OS 10.5.2 and higher, and using Roxio’s Toast 10 software, supports burning HD content that can be viewed on dedicated Blu-ray movie players. It is designed for use in Mac Pro and Power Mac systems, with one version being designed specifically for the 2009 Mac Pro. An external model supports both USB 2.0 and eSATA connections. The drive burns at 8x for all BD-R discs, and at 2x with BD-RE media. Most DVDs are burned at 16x, while dual-layer DVDs are written at 8x, and CD-Rs are burned at speeds up to 48x. The basic Mac Pro/Power Mac version of the drive costs $450, while the 2009 Pro edition is $430, and the external option is $530.

Each model ships software for Boot Camp playback and a 25GB BD-RE disc. Software bundles including Toast 10 or Adobe Premier Pro CS4 Encore are available as well. Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later is recommended.