Pioneer Rolls Out Blu-Ray DVD Burner

Expected in Q1 2006.


Pioneer press release:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...704979,00.html

The company name befits the news today.

Don't get *too* excited...it's limited to single layer BD-R and single layer BD-RE, read and write. Something fell apart somewhere in the process...it was originally spec'd to support dual layer on both counts.

I don't mind that its only a layer, enough for a full length movie anyway. Also a storage improvement.


Vaporware was all what we had to deal with until now.

agreed, I'll take the gamble & buy it, depending on price. That is even enough space to archive most sports events. My USC/Notre Dame game is only 22 gigs and that's with commercials & halftime.

25GB on a single-layer disc-I can't wait. But... "targeted primarily to professional users and serious enthusiasts". I think that is a way of saying "It will cost US$1000-1300". I remember driving to find my first DVD+R/RW drive when they went "down" to US$300, and now they are fifty bucks.

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Until they show up in stores, they are still vaporware. And since they won't be able to play the dual layer 50 meg disks that are supposedly coming out in the second half of the year, they will be very expensive $1000 door stops in a very short time.

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It's a lucky thing we didn't collide that day.

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I think the issue will be the media cost. ie: If the media stores 5x a DVD-R and costs only 5x - 6x the price of blank DVD-R, then I would be in, no matter what the cost of the drive.


However I think the reality will be that blank media will for quite some time be prohibitively priced for people looking to this drive for archival purposes (just like in the early days of CD-R versus DVD-R). Also, the relative reliability of BR writable media for archival storage has yet to be determined. In the early days of DVD-R media, I would not trust my backups to a DVD-R disc compared to CD-R.


ie: I think the drive will only be purchased by professional users (and serious enthusiasts) for the sole purpose of mastering actual Blu-Ray Video Discs.

Do a "Blu-Ray" search on Ebay, and you can see Disks and Sony drives for sale.

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$53 each?!

those are imported from japan prices, I can only wonder what Disc prices will be over here ??


-Gary

To be mental enough to buy it at $1000 or more I don't think the mere cost of the blank media is going to deter such person from buying it.


I bought a Sony DVD player in the 90's for over $ 1000, all it did was to get me looking for any DVDs at any cost- back then there was not many half decent selections.


So the cost of the media is not an issue at all.

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Me too, the Sony DVP7000 and I still have the machine. An EXCELLENT machine for sure.

Some pix of the unit.

http://www.dvdrwinfo.net/bbs/zboard....&cg=&no=98&cg=

Boy, that looks familiar

http://www.dvdrwinfo.net/bbs/data/we...2477588499.jpg


Think there's a little profit margin there ?

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Though its first generation, I still enjoy the pictures even up against the upconverting player I now have when viewed at 106"diag.


They don't make players like this one unless I have to cough up some $ 2-3K