The Long Beach, Calif.-based company said the launch of DVR-S606, its first external drive, was in response to consumer demand that DVD writers should handle various formats in order to reduce confusion in the marketplace. The drive supports discs using DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW formats. It works with both IEEE 1394 (FireWire) and USB 2.0 ports.
Pioneer said the drive has the same high-capacity, optical-storage system as its internal recordable drive. The bundled software allows people to import content, record and edit videos and DVDs, play movies and test recorded DVDs. A data-recording application is also provided.
The new drive's speed varies with media one uses for recording. For instance, the write speed for DVD-R discs could be up to 4x, whereas the speed for CD-R media could hit 16x.
DVR-S606 will be available in mid-September at a suggested retail price of $299.
