Plextor's new external DVD burner works with TVs, no computer required

By Michael Gorman posted Jan 13th 2012 10:47AM

Plextor's been plenty busy this week, announcing its new M3 Pro SSD and PlexEasy external DVD burner, but the company's not done unveiling new products just yet. Plextor's newest offering is another external DVD burner, the easily remembered PX-612U. Like the PlexEasy, it connects via USB and works with TVs and media streamers without needing a PC. That's possible thanks to some secret sauce called PlexTV (not to be confused with the media client), which acts as a code translator to make the PX-612U's output mimic a HDD. It'll be available the first quarter of this year, for an as-yet-unknown number of dollars.

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Plextor Introduces New DVD/CD Writer with PlexTV

The PlexTV feature enables TV Compatibility via USB connection.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fremont, CA, January 12, 2012- Plextor (www.goplextor.com), leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media and storage equipment, announces the release of its latest External Slim DVD/CD Writer, PX-612U, with PlexTV at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas today.

PlexTV is a new feature enabling Plextor's DVD/CD drive to work with televisions, media players, and other USB-enabled devices. The external drive connects directly to the desired display via USB cable and the user is able to access information stored on a CD or DVD without a PC. PlexTV will be available exclusively with the PX-612U during the first quarter of 2012.

Currently, HDTVs are compatible with a wide variety of devices via USB connection, including hard drives, cameras, and flash drives, but they do not support optical disk drives built for computers. PlexTV enables the use of Plextor's PX-612U drive with these previously unsupported devices by translating signal output to mimic a hard drive.

"It seems counter-intuitive that a USB-supported DVD Drive wouldn't work with a TV, but it has to do with the code that the devices use to communicate," explains Kathy Huynh, Product Marketing Manager. "PlexTV uses a code translator to make the PX-612U appear as a hard drive to the television, making the two devices compatible."

Developing a head-turning innovation such as PlexTV is a Plextor tradition. Plextor has delivered generations of best-in-class and award-winning products since the early Nineties, including CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW and Blu-ray optical disk drives, digital video converters and multimedia products, and solid state drives.

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