Buffalo's "all the cool kids are doing it" Blu-ray burner

They're just stuffing that Panasonic OEM drive into a USB 2.0 case like everyone else is, but Buffalo has the distinction of selling their external BR-H2U2 Blu-ray drive for $1012, along with black and white internal versions for the equally steep $916. The drives will be shipping (in Japan, at least) early this June, so early adopters looking for a little abuse between now and then can feel free to drop by our place to be kicked in the head and have your money lit on fire.

[Via Akihabara News]

[John from Buffalo @ Apr 26th 2006 8:22AM]

New BUS needed to handle the larger bandwidth push. Ok, so we can have 10-20-30gb drives that can move stuff in about 10-15m at MAX USB transfer rate, but we are going to need a new interface to handle this or a HUGE jump above the 480mbps that USB 2.x handles.

Its crazy to think that blue-ray disk access is going to catch on w/o it. Its just going to be another storage device for computer use. The reason why I say THAT is, because that's the legal-eze required.

I'll buy one after the standards are broken (give it a year or so).

[Eric @ Apr 26th 2006 8:45AM]

Like all early adopters, they'll get ripped off as i found out when CD burners first came out.

[TC @ Apr 26th 2006 10:16AM]

John: Blu-ray (1x) operates at 36Mbps, you would need a 13x Blu-Ray drive before bus restrictions on USB2 become an issue. Those sort of speed drives won't be seen for a couple of years yet. What do manufacturers do? wait for new Bus standard to come along? Surely that's more crazy than releasing a device which supports a Bus that is available on almost every modern PC? And yes, Blu-Ray is just going to be another storage device for computer use, what else would you use it for (except watching movies)?

[Jeff @ Apr 26th 2006 10:59AM]

hmm.. i think i still have a Betamax Player.... Maybe i can add one of these to my collection..

[Raymond Wolfe @ Apr 26th 2006 5:49PM]

burning one blu-ray disc will still be easier and faster than having to backup ten regular DVDs.

of course, a dvd +/- burner is less than 10% of the price of a blu-ray burner, when it is finally available.

[polyh3dron @ Apr 26th 2006 11:37PM]

There already is a better bus standard, FireWire 800. It's been standard on G5 Macs since their inception.

[Jason @ Apr 27th 2006 3:05PM]

"6. There already is a better bus standard, FireWire 800. It's been standard on G5 Macs since their inception."

And what percentage of computer users have a mac? Exactly.

[Jason @ Apr 27th 2006 3:06PM]

Using firewire would just make people have to out and buy a seperate PCI firewire card, which wouldn't go over that well with customers.

[chess pieces @ Apr 28th 2006 9:00AM]

Firewire is available on almost all newer motherboards.

[James @ Apr 28th 2006 5:08PM]

4. hmm.. i think i still have a Betamax Player.... Maybe i can add one of these to my collection..

you can join the other idiots who think blu-ray will fail. it has huge support. even more than hd-dvd.