The Future of eSATA Optical Drives

I have been researching purchasing a new ultraportable notebook recently and have my eyes set on the Asus U3 (now only ~$1,299!!) which has eSATA , Firewire port, and even an HDMI port, yet no internal optical drive like some other newer ultraportables (ie macbook air).

My idea is just to purchase an external optical drive and run it through one of the two I/O ports listed above.

Question: Is it possible, or perhaps in the near future, to purchase an external Bluray drive, run its input via eSATA or Firewire through my laptop and output via HDMI to a monitor at 1080p?

Not the easiest question so major kudos to anyone able to answer!!

 

I would assume so, any video the laptop is displaying can be sent out via HDMI. You just need to find a esata optical drive. I dunno if they have them or not I have only seen and been focused on esata hard drives because the interface is fast enough not to bottleneck a good drive like usb and firewire does.

 

So what you are saying is that the input would not be bottlenecked either? HDCP is uncompressed, so the input video signal from the eSATA external drive shouldn't be a problem?

EDIT: in browsing I found this solution: http://www.addonics.com/products/external_cd/mobilehd_dvd_rrw.asp

It appears this would solve the problem, would you agree?

 

no esata is more than fast enough. E SATA is External SATA and its based on the newer SATA2 spec.

As for as HDCP besides the fact its really not implemented and may be thrown out the door, can be gotten around by various means. I would not be worried about that. Its mostly there to prevent HD recording so unless it detects a recorder and not a display (dunno if it can actually do that) I dont see it kicking in.

HDCP is more of an issue with standard equipment like players/recorders but not computers.

ESATA Optical would function just like an internal drive on the computer, except its outside of it lol. So the easiest way to confirm or deny the HDCP problem would be ask anybody with a BR or HDDVD drive in there computer if they can output HD to there TV. I have not heard anybody complane about it yet so I assume its working.

 

Yo thanks much for the explanation.

 

Your welcome, and i just realized the answer to the one part I didnt have one for a second ago.

It doesn't know if its a TV or a recorder its hooked too, it only knows if the device is HDCP compliant, thats how it knows.

If it does its good ol' hdcp handshake with the display you have it hooked to your golden, if its an older device that does not have it, or if your going thru a recorder or something then it would maybe kick in and lower the resolution or block your video.