Asus Middle East has unveiled its Impresario SBW-S1 Pro, the first external Blu-ray drive with a built-in sound card that provides 7.1-channel audio output and functions as a 600-ohm headphone amplifier.

The drive is a full-featured PC entertainment solution, providing immersive true 7.1-channel and virtual surround-sound capabilities, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D movie playback, and DVD playback with full HD upscaling and 3D conversion.

Impresario SBW-S1 Pro is also a robust PC backup solution with an optical disc writer that burns high-capacity recordable Blu-ray discs at 6X speed, and offers optional security features such as 256-bit disc encryption to keep sensitive data private. It supports both PCs and Mac computers.

Asus Impresario SBW-S1 Pro functions as an external sound card with true 7.1-channel output, making it fast and easy to add immersive surround sound to almost any PC — simply connect Impresario SBW-S1 Pro to a PC via USB and then connect a 7.1 speaker system.

For those without surround-sound speakers, Impresario SBW-S1 Pro features a dedicated digital signal processor (DSP) that enables it to deliver truly-engaging virtual surround sound using only stereo speakers or headphones.

Impresario SBW-S1 Pro also comes with a built-in 600-ohm headphone amplifier that is capable of driving almost any pair of headphones. It reveals an incredible level of detail in music and movies, enhancing both high and low frequencies and delivering 16X-clearer audio than average onboard audio solutions for rich, dynamic sound that far surpasses onboard PC audio alone.

It also brings theatre-quality movie experiences to PCs with its built-in optical disc drive that plays Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD, as well as media files stored on recordable Blu-ray and DVD discs.

Impresario SBW-S1 Pro lets users enjoy Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D movies in captivating full HD detail and even converts regular DVD video from 2D to full HD 3D for the ultimate movie-watching experience.

It is built with specially-designed dampers at the corners of the optical disc drive mount. These reduce vibrations and drive noise by up to 8dB to prevent users from being disturbed by distracting mechanical noises while enjoying movies.

Even when the drive is spinning at maximum speed, the noise level is only 36.3dBA — approximately the same noise level as a library.

Impresario SBW-S1 Pro decreases the noise level even more when playing commercial Blu-ray movies, DVDs, and music CDs by reducing the drive speed as low as possible, resulting in truly quiet entertainment experiences.

In addition to its entertainment capabilities, Asus Impresario SBW-S1 Pro is a 6X Blu-ray writer that makes it fast and easy to create backups of important data. With BDXL format support, Impresario SBW-S1 Pro lets users store incredibly-large amounts of data on a single Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R) — up to 100GB on BD-R TL discs and 128GB on BD-R QL discs.

It supports the highest security standards, including password-protected 256-bit disc encryption and encoded file names. - TradeArabia News Service