Samsung SH-B022A, SH-B026A Blu-ray burners

Previously displayed only under glass, or doled out for review to the privileged few, Samsung has begun showing off some of the company's first Blu-ray burners, which are expected to hit retail shelves in April. Heading the pack is the SH-B022A, an internal drive that supports both 25GB single-layer Blue-ray discs and 50GB double-layer discs with 2x write-speeds (so, yeah, you should go grab a meal if you're burning a 50GB BD). The drive also supports DVD burning at 12x and CD burning at 40x. An external version, the SE-B026A, has similar features along with a swanky case. Pricing hasn't been announced, but earlier word was that the drives would go for about $500.

[Russ @ Feb 28th 2006 10:30AM]

Yeah, but how about the media?

Whose making it for the launch and how many months is the one disc that comes with the drive going to have to tide me over until I can go buy more?

[jc @ Feb 28th 2006 10:55AM]

C'mon Billy, make one of these for my Xbox 360.

you can do it...

[blankoboy @ Feb 28th 2006 11:07AM]

My level of interest = 0. Bring on holographic storage already...I'm not paying for stepping stone tech.

[Kamalot @ Feb 28th 2006 11:13AM]

25 gigs does not seem like a lot at all. :(

[sdwells @ Feb 28th 2006 11:16AM]

exactly, all that matters is the price of the media

now that we can get double layer dvd's for around two bucks a disk I can't imagin paying more than 10 dollars for a 25GB disk

[Bruce @ Feb 28th 2006 11:22AM]

I can buy 250GB SATA drivers for 99$. Thats 10$ for 25GB of storage.

If blank discs are 10$, Blu Ray is still a losing proposition ... because you've put out 500$ instead of 50$ for a SATA drive tray.

Too little too late Blu Ray. You missed the curve. You are too expensive compared to hard drives.

Wake me when the discs get to a 1$.

[ebob9 @ Feb 28th 2006 11:50AM]

Why oh why not give us a useful OS? Like WM5 or Linux or even Palm?

[Boycott-HD-Media @ Feb 28th 2006 12:01PM]

Blu-ray is sh*t and so is HD-DVD. Boycott the DRM infested, unfair use frisbies disguised as friendly media.

Dual layered discs are still a rediculous price, i can't even imagine how much it's going to cost for one blu-ray disc.

[Shmee150 @ Feb 28th 2006 12:01PM]

I'll have one.

If you want a high spec computer, you'll get one!

If ur making a budget computer... then don't get one!!!

ShMeE

[Corey @ Feb 28th 2006 12:05PM]

#6

Because everyone likes to carry around 250GB SATA drives in their pocket..

There is something to be said for being portable.

[Karl Viklund @ Feb 28th 2006 2:15PM]

Very nice. I guess I won't grap the first generation Bluray-burners but I might buy one when the second comes out.

[invaderluj @ Feb 28th 2006 2:20PM]

2x write speeds!?!

I will stick with double sided dual layered dvds with 16x write speeds...no need waiting a few hours for a disc to burn

[MuDoggy @ Feb 28th 2006 2:42PM]

LOL - you guys are retarded. "#9. 2x write speeds?!" uhhh, YEAH, it�s faster than 16X DVD speeds currently. 9mb/s makes burning a 4.7GB disc at 8 minutes, probably a minute faster than your current DVD burner that you CANT burn at 16X because double layer media cant go that fast.

Ohhhh, #5, you can't see paying more than $2 for 8.5GB media, so you immediately compare that to a fully HD next generation media. Good job, if we all did that, there's be no $2 DL media for you! The only reason they could get it that low is because production finally went up from people buying it when it was $10, and $8, and $5....

Sheeeesh.

[invaderluj @ Feb 28th 2006 3:48PM]

Wow sorry about that�I forgot about the write speed differences�I will shut my mouth now

[nizzy1115 @ Mar 1st 2006 1:56AM]

2x....yeah, my regular dvd burner was 2x (i was an early adopter back then foolishly and didnt burn a single disk till 2 years later...) I wont be buying these till they hit $150 or less and the media is under $50 for a 50 pack.

[bd @ Mar 1st 2006 1:50PM]

You are also forgetting that you can't store files that are over 9 GB on multiple discs, jackass.

It's also uncomfortable to carry around HUGE HDDs.

And holographic storage won't be priced friendly for the consumer for some time.

[neolex @ Mar 1st 2006 2:39PM]

I sincerely hope that both formats will fail and I think that is very likely. If we were to compare HDDVD and Blu-ray to DVD, it is pretty clear that DVD is superior to both of them. Here's why:

1) Price.
You can get DVD movies for as little as $5. BD and HDDVD will cost $30 or more, and will not go down for a while. Blank DVDs are dirt cheap, while the cost of BD and HDDVD blank media is likely to be higher than DL DVD.

2) Proliferation.
Almost every household has a DVD player and almost every computer has a DVD drive. There arent many idiots who will pay $1000 for a next generation player. Moreover, the PC drives are also likely to costs hundreds.

3) Size
The physical size of the media is very important for the purposes of mobile and PC applications. The new standards offer no advantage in that respect. Moreover, the durability issues with BD make a hard carrying case a must, only increasing the potential size. The flash media is already catching up with DVD. And in two years might be able to compete even with the new formats.

4) Convinience.
The reasons for the quick proliferation of DVD media were the added convinience over VHS and the ability to easily rip information from them. The new formats dont offer any added convinience. In fact they just reduce by making it impossible to rip movies.

For the above reasons neither of the formats will be widely adopted and people who invest in the are throwing their money away.

[Jason @ Mar 9th 2006 7:40AM]

wow... Im suprised there is so much hate for blu ray, the people who are hating on it must not be home theater enthusiasts like myself.

Compare a movie on DVD to the same movie presented in high definition and rethink everything. There is no comparison when you are (this is important) viewing the movies on HIGH END display devices, if I was to watch spiderman2 for example in High definition (it was on HBO HD a few days ago) and then on the DVD there is a night and day difference in quality, however I am using some pretty high end stuff (pioneer HDTV, and an optoma DLP projector) one being 58" and the other being over 110" the larger you go the more the difference between the SD and HD shines, its absolutely stunning imo, dvd is nice but its has been technology for those demanding the best cinematic experience they can get in their home, I am very excited about high-definition discs myself, I am viewing this subject from a pure home theater standpoint and not from a pc-user standpoint however, I cant complain about 25gb of data storage though either and DVD-R was just as expensive when it came out, I remember when the drives were $1000 and were slow, $500 for a first wave BD device is a lot lower.

Im a supporter for sure... been waiting for this technology to come out for a few years now, and its been too long.

[The Master @ Apr 10th 2006 4:40PM]

I look at Blu-ray and HD-DVD as I do Mini-Discs.
Take a look at mini-disc. Think about the benefits.
1. Smaller Than CD's
2. Same Quality
3. Eraseable, Writeable, and Re-Writable
4. Disc housing protects from scratches and damage.

So then, Why didn't mini discs take over the world ? Why doesn't every boombox, car stereo, computer, home-theatre, and walkman have mini-disc drives? I'll tell you why. Technology moves too fast for today's society. Now and days, people don't just spend their money on anything...especially when it comes to technology. It seems like no matter what you buy in the technology market..there is always something new to replace it soon there after. This makes people weary and is the reason why people will not embrace Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Reguardless of all the benefits over DVD, it just isn't going to happen. Burning any kind of disc in general is becomming "old-tech". Flash media and related devices seem to be more practical especially when deciding on what will be the REAL future of multi-media. The world revolves around TIME, and the only thing people will really embrace are prodcuts that give us what we want while saving time. Waiting half a day for a freakin blu-ray disc to burn isn't going to get anyone excited...not in this day and age...

[sushi @ Sep 3rd 2006 1:02AM]

how th hell do u think th price will go down if peple dont buy now

i mean... remember when DVD's came out back in the day... they were expensibe too... but people bought them... and th price got cheaper

people are hatin on blu ray only cuz they are not early adopters... if there are no early adopters.. then how the hell do u expect the damn price to get lower.. FOOLS!