Besides an increase of DVD writing speeds to 22X, the new Lite-On DVD writers will be packed with new features. One of them is SecurDisc. This technology, incorporated in the Lite-On drives and the bundled NERO software, offers various methods of data protection. Every method has its own security level, which allows users to store their data with the appropriate level of security. More info can be found at www.securdisc.net.

A new feature called SmartErase will be added to give users the possibility to permanently erase the content of CD-R and DVD±R (DL) discs. Data that the user does not longer wants to be retrieved can now be permanently erased without big efforts like breaking the disc. SmartErase has been developed by PLDS and will also be implemented in the future bundled NERO software package.

How does it SmartErase work? It overwrites the original data on a disc with random meaningless characters so that the original data can no longer be read by any drive. Once a disc is “SmartErased”, users don’t have to worry about someone accessing the confidential data that used to be stored on the disc.

“SmartErase is an ideal solution for companies or individuals that need to delete confidential data stored on a write-once disc,” says Jelmer Veldman, European Marketing Manager for Lite-On. ”Instead of physically destroying the disc, you can now simply overwrite the data, which makes he disc unreadable. After a full erase the data can not be recovered and this method is friendlier to the environment then physically destroying disc, which releases chemicals to the environment.”

SmartErase is not scheduled to be implemented on the Lite-On Blu-ray drives yet. For the Blu-ray market there are plans to introduce a Lite-On BD-COMBO later this year. At this moment Lite-On has three Blu-ray products on the market already. The BD-COMBO drive will be added to the product range that currently consists of a BD writer and two BD-ROM drives (internal and external).

Furthermore the company also revealed their plans to introduce a USB powered external slim DVD writer. This product is scheduled for mass production in June and will be available on the market from July. The USB power gives the mobile user more flexibility with their external DVD writer.

More detailed information about the upcoming products will be revealed in the next months.