LAS VEGAS, NV (April 23, 2001) LaCie, a leading producer of storage and display devices for the content development
industry, announced today the first external DVD-R/CD-RW drive with high-speed FireWire connectivity. Priced significantly
lower than single-function DVD-R drives, the combo drive provides the convenience and savings of using a single drive to write
and read DVD-R General discs as well as CD-R and CD-RW discs. LaCie will begin shipping the new drive in June.
Designed to store and deliver digital data, video, and audio, the LaCie DVD-R/CD-RW drive records to 4.7GB DVD-R
General Use discs at 2x (2.6 MB/sec) speed and provides 6x (7.8 MB/sec) read performance for DVD-R, DVD-Video and
DVD ROM discs. Smaller files can be stored on lower-cost 650MB CD-Rs at 8x speed or on CD-RW discs at 4x speed. CD
playback is at 24x.
Our new dual-function drive provides Mac and PC users with a fast, easy and economical means of producing and sharing
digital content on both DVD and CD media, said Guillaume Mazieres, LaCie Vice President of Marketing & Sales. Users will
be able to choose from 650MB CD-R, CD-RW media or 4.7GB DVD-R General discs to meet their specific application needs.
In addition, they’ll be able to read all CD formats as well as DVD-ROM, DVD video or DVD Audio with the drive.
Mazieres noted that users will choose the media based on the volume and type of data being stored as well as the final
application. For example, with standard 650MB CD-R and CD-RW media, users can store up to 650 color photos, 30 minutes
of MPEG-2 video, 4 hours of MP3-compressed audio or up to 50,000 documents on a single disc.
With 4.7GB DVD-R General media, users can store up to 14 hours of MP3 audio, two hours of theater-quality video, 4,700
color photos or more than 500,000 documents. DVD-R General discs are ideal for a wide range of applications because they
can be played back on most DVD-ROM drives and DVD players. The high-capacity, write-once DVD General media also
provides secure, removable storage for business, financial, and legal records, as well as healthcare and government records that
cannot be altered or erased.
By incorporating FireWire connectivity, the LaCie DVD-R/CD-RW drive can be quickly and easily connected to the Apple
FireWire ports on Macintosh G4 workstations and Cubes, PowerBooks, and iMacDV systems. In addition, the drive can
be used connected to the 1394 ports of a growing number of PCs running Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows 2000
(such as new models from Compaq and Sony).
Pricing, Availability
The LaCie DVD-R/CD-RW drive will be available in June through LaCie’s accredited resellers and mail order partners with
prices starting at $999. The external drives ship complete with a FireWire or SCSI-3 interface, and an international power
supply, as well as three 80-min.CD-R discs. The LaCie Recording Utilities CD package is also included which provides all of the
necessary software on a single CD-ROM for both PC and Macintosh environments: Adaptec Toast 4.1.2 for Macintosh systems,
and Adaptec Easy CD Creator for Windows 98SE/NT/2000/ME. With the release of Linux 2.4, FireWire is supported in the
Linux operating system. Other Linux users may download X-CD-Roast from the Internet. LaCie also offers 4.7GB DVD-R
General media at $15.
