With Blu-ray emerging as the winner in the "format war" Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions (PLDS) is trying to to become an industry leading company in the market of Blu-ray Optical Disc Drives.

In 2006, Lite-On IT wisely positioned itself to compete in both formats by first signing an agreement with Toshiba to license its use of HD-DVD patents. Later that year Lite-On IT acquired BenQ?s Optical Storage business and the existing joint venture between BenQ and Royal Philips Electronics (PBDS) was renamed Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions. Since Philips is a board of directors? member of the Blu-ray Disc Association and owner of various Blu-ray Disc related patents, the new partnership gave Lite-On IT access to numerous patents which allowed the company to begin R&D and ultimately production of its current line of Blu-ray Disc products.

PLDS is one of the few companies in the ODD industry that has access to an extensive Blu-ray patent portfolio and a large Optical Disc Drive production facility. Combining these two aspects makes PLDS a leading company in the Blu-ray Optical Disc Drive marketplace. Other traditional ODD manufacturers will need to pay Blu-ray royalties to the original patent holders or outsource their production of BD drives to other manufacturers.

"The Lite-On brand has a long history and reputation in the ODD market and we are very exited to continue to offer high quality Optical Disc Drives at a competitive price to the consumer, with Blu-ray as the future standard," says Jelmer Veldman, European Marketing Manager at PLDS .

Under the Lite-On brand PLDS was one of the first companies to introduce a Blu-ray writer: the LH-2B1S has been on the market since November 2006. The 2x LH-2B1S Blu-ray burner is still a choice for early adopters who are ready to upgrade their system with Blu-ray reading and writing capacities.

To make the Blu-ray format available for a wider audience, PLDS introduced the Lite-On DH-4O1S in 2007. This is a BD-ROM drive that allows users to playback Blu-ray discs from their PC at home. The competitive price point (&euro7160) of the BD-ROM makes it an attractive option for users who are looking for an economic solution for Blu-ray playback.

In the 2nd quarter of 2008, PLDS will introduce an external version of the Lite-On BD-ROM. The DX-4O1S is an external BD-ROM drive that allows users to playback their Blu-ray Disc on any PC through a USB 2.0 connection. The stylish external drive supports reading of Blu-ray, DVD and CD media. The Lite-On DX-4O1S can read BD-R/RE/ROM, single layer and double layer, at 4X maximum. It can read single layer DVD±R or DVD-ROM at 12X max, while double layer DVD±R and single layer DVD±RW can be read at 8X max. CD-R/RW/ROM can be read at 32X maximum speed.