Samsung S204S burns without hard drives

Samsung has introduced a new DVD burner, the TruDirect SE-S204S (not pictured). While it plugs into desktop or notebook PCs, the S204S is unusual in that it does not require hard drive access; it can burn videos and photos directly from devices attached to a computer, without first demanding any pre-mastering, multiplexing or buffering. The on-board technology is also said to improve copying speeds in general, since a one-hour video stream can be burned directly in an hour and five minutes, or 30 minutes if copied to a hard drive first.

DVD-R/DL and DVD-RAM discs are written at up to 12x speed, while DVD+R/DL discs are written at 16x, and regular DVD+/-R discs copy at 20x. The S204S should out across the US for $160.