Pioneer ships first Blu-ray drives

Pioneer announced this week that it has started shipping world's first Blu-ray Disc -compatible PC drives. The drive will be capable of burning 25GB single layer BD discs and sells for about $1,000 in the U.S. according to various retailer sites.

The drive, called Pioneer BDR-101A is extremely costly by many standards, but compared to most offerings by its rivalling HD-DVD camp, the ability to burn discs in addition to reading them, is a huge bonus to many professionals and enthusiasts. And of course, it wasn't that long ago when recordable DVD drives used to cost more than a budget PC.

The drive will ship with blank BD disc from TDK and with Blu-ray -capable software bundle from Roxio that includes tools for authoring and burning HD content to Blu-ray discs. Blank single layer Blu-ray discs cost currently appx $25 in the United States.

Source: Pioneer press release

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 18 May 2006 23:00

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25 comments

Mik3h

Prices of both drives and discs will fall wayy down when there is a huge demand for them.

-Mike

19.5.2006 04:02 #1

AIM2Shame

If theres ever a huge demand for blue ray.

19.5.2006 04:56 #2

sanders66

Well, It's a start...

19.5.2006 12:24 #3

Pop_Smith

A couple of bad things with this.

One, the disks are made by TDK. They can't even make correctly burnable DVDs let alone a 25GB behemoth with a micro laser.

Two, the players are another 1k so thats 2k just to get a player, burner and ONE disk.

But, on the positive side, at $25 a piece thats not too bad ($1/GB). Its seems a bit much but blank DVD+/-R DL disks are still about $10-$15.

Lets just hope Ritek, or better yet Verbatim, makes the HD-DVD disks if the HD-DVD camp makes it that far.

19.5.2006 13:27 #4

flyingv

I believe i'll wait a couple of years when the price comes way down the way DVD recorders did!!! LOL!!!

19.5.2006 14:50 #5

Cinnjerm

"DVD+/-R DL disks are still about $10-$15..."-

Guess you never been to Sams Club. I got thirty DL discs for 60 dollars ( 2 bucks a disc). Holla at ya boy!

19.5.2006 18:16 #6

bobiroc

or www.allmediaoutlet.com got my DL discs for $1.76 each.

I will either wait and see what format takes off or when and if they make hybrid player and/or burner. A little expensive for my taste yet.

19.5.2006 18:34 #7

plutonash

Roxio is the Easy CD/DVD crap right? Their sortware is terrible for burning anything let alone a 25 dollar disk.

20.5.2006 01:10 #8

sammorris

I've never had any problems with TDK discs. Are you sure that drive burns them and doesn't read them? Sounds a bit stupid to me. Why would they do that?
Admitteldy Roxio isn't the number 1 burning software out there, but if Windows used it's CD burning tool it can't be too bad.

20.5.2006 01:35 #9

trkcar

I use roxio 7.5 and it works great for me once in a blue moon I get a bad burn. But it is a bad disk that causes that. Because I try again with another disk and it is successefull. I have tried Nero and had more failure's with it, pluse it is not as easy to use as roxio.

20.5.2006 05:36 #10

mcintosh

Better off waiting for a dual format, blue ray/HD DVD, same thing that happened with +/- R is going to happen. And the burner better be backwards compatable.

20.5.2006 05:47 #11

sammorris

Not likely, they're proprietary formats, +/- are just different technologies. Think less DVD+/-R, more VHS and Betamax.

20.5.2006 05:52 #12

Rob1026

i hope slysoft works something into clonedvd2 and AnyDVD for all of this new stuff!

20.5.2006 05:56 #13

flyingv

I use Roxio 7.0 and have never had problems with it. I've never been able to get anywhere with Nero, but I've only used the free versions that come with the drives. As to TDK disc, I've never had problems with thrir CD's or DVD's. I guess it's just what burner you use. LOL!!!

20.5.2006 10:08 #14

dsgtrain

I use both Roxio 7 for DVD Video burning and Nero 6 for General Data and CD's. Both work to perfection.
Ummm... I wonder weather it can burn good old Cd's.

20.5.2006 11:15 #15

sammorris

I never had any problems full stop really, other than with some Pinnacle EasyCopy thing that I didn't understand, so it's probably my fault. Only issues I've ever had concern Acer/Benq Drives.

20.5.2006 12:11 #16

tekno5

"The drive will be capable of burning 25GB single layer BD discs"

I think I'll wait for the multi layer drives and discs
just like what they did with the Dual layer DVD burners and discs.
which when they were first out in single layer form cost $500+

20.5.2006 12:20 #17

flyingv

dsgtrain:

Roxio 7.0 burns CD's GREAT!!! I've used their products since I first got started burning CD's and it, by far, is the best version to date that I've used. LOL!!!

"...Just another brick in the wall" -Pink Floyd.
Please, don't become another "Brick!!!"
If you have a brain, think -use it!!!
...and justice for all!

20.5.2006 14:30 #18

searchers

Why would anybody buy DL DVDs for $1.50-$2.00 each when you can buy regular DVDs for around 25 cents each?

21.5.2006 21:17 #19

lajr1980

I 'll get one in five years...

22.5.2006 00:46 #20

sammorris

Quote: Why would anybody buy DL DVDs for $1.50-$2.00 each when you can buy regular DVDs for around 25 cents each? Other than for burning lots of stuff on a single disc or burning a long DVD film? Not sure. Lol. As opposed to data, sure, just use regulars, but there is a point to DL DVDs or they wouldn't make them.

22.5.2006 01:42 #21

MckinneR

I don't know much about the Blu-ray but I know that IO have been a faithful Roxio user even as far back as the Adpect days and I have never had a issuse with any of there software untill Roxio, I thought Roxio 7 was the best, I use Nero as well ( in accordance with DVD Shrink) but 25GB is what should be expected, with the sizes of hard-drive, and portable memory(flash stick) I jst hope that they don't start using puppet block and them right off the bat.

22.5.2006 08:39 #22

jweissen

"Why would anybody buy DL DVDs for $1.50-$2.00 each when you can buy regular DVDs for around 25 cents each?"

DL DVDs do have their benefits. For example, you can use them to make an exact copy of your source DVD without having to split the result onto 2 discs. This saves the hassle of switching discs (a slight annoyance) and also saves storage space.

Alternately, DL DVDs allow you the luxury of not having to bother with compressing your source DVD when backing it up. As you know, when you take an 8 GB DVD and put it onto a 4.7 GB DVD+/-R, you either have to strip your source DVD to a bare bones minimum or compress the hell out of it (or a combination thereof). And too much compression sucks.

Of course, this logic only applies when your source DVD is large enough to warrant it. Only my cousin Ted would use a DL DVD to copy a 3.5 GB DVD. And you don't want to know my cousin Ted. Trust me.

24.5.2006 08:49 #23