Primera intros first Blu-ray pirating, er... duplication system

Primera has started shipping the world's first Blu-ray disc duplication system, the Bravo XR-Blu Disc Publisher, able to burn up to 50 discs in one session. The core of the unit is actually Pioneer's recently announced BDR-101A Blu-ray burner, but it's backed up by some sweet built-in robotics to keep the discs moving (we hope -- we've heard this things are a little buggy) and full-color direct-to-disc inkjet printing to ensure a professional-looking job. This being the first unit of its kind, however, it should come as no surprise that it only uses single-layer discs, able to store a measly 25 GB, but Primera says an upgrade will be available "shortly" to allow for dual-layer burning. And if you thought regular, single-disc Blu-ray burners were expensive, you better look away now, 'cause this beast will set you back a whopping $5295.

[Via CDRinfo]

[Danny @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:42PM]

Blu-Ray all the way.

[rgk-nyc @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:42PM]

i would say that is an endorsement of blu-ray...the first format to get ripped...

[John Iburg @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:50PM]

This should be great for all of the pirated movie sellers.

[Scabies @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:52PM]

Duplicators... I'm sure this was not developed for printing 50 copies of financial records or 50 copies of someones home video colletion... What else were duplicators designed for?

and what does this mean for HDCP and content encryption and such?

[David @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:55PM]

Unless someone comes up with a way to crack SPDC and BD+, which is unlikely though possible, these will be of no use to people attempting to copy commercial discs.

[Impossibilium @ Jun 22nd 2006 5:03PM]

if this is the start or the Blu-Ray pirate trade, then anyone without HDMI can kiss HD goodbye. The Image Constraint Token will only remain unused as long as piracy is low. So say the studios.

[Pritch @ Jun 22nd 2006 5:09PM]

Movie studios supporting the Blu-ray format include:

Sony Pictures/MGM; Disney; 20th Century Fox; Paramount; Warner Brothers; Lions Gate Home Entertainment; and Eagle Rock Entertainment.

These companies combined for 90% of the DVDs sold in 2005. Goodbye HD-DVD.

[Da Dime @ Jun 22nd 2006 5:18PM]

HD DVD is the King. Pretty much the pioneer of all that is great about any DVD you have ever seen. So Clear, So Clean, So HD it's sickening

[d_mented @ Jun 22nd 2006 5:38PM]

Why would anyone buy this unless they are planning on making some kind of pirated discs....
what kind of market is this thing targeting?

[LongshotX @ Jun 22nd 2006 5:40PM]

Blu-ray will crash and burn just like BetaMax did, and just like PS3 will.

[Hmmm @ Jun 22nd 2006 5:40PM]

HD-DVD doesn't stand a chance against the support Blu-ray already has. I don't believe we'll see Blu-ray dominating the market anytime soon (even though I expect it to be an interesting backup solution soon enough), but there is absolutely no reason that makes me think HD-DVD could win given the circumstances.

[Guruboy @ Jun 22nd 2006 10:44PM]

Does anyone realize that consumers aren't the people products like this are targeting? This is for people who actually have to burn 50+ discs quickly. If you think there are people who feel the need to spend $3000 (starting with the HDDVD burner) on a burner just to back up their video library for piracy, you've got the wrong view of what this industry is all about (making money, not necessarily making consumers happy).

I'm personally pro Blu-Ray because of the industry support it's got already, but that could change in a heartbeat. For now, neither technology is inherently better than the other. Why can't people wait for things to be released before they decide one sucks and the other rules?

[jopojelly @ Jun 23rd 2006 12:39AM]

$5295 is cheap

You can break even after a few days.

Say, if discs sell for $2 each, and you sell copies for $12 each, you get $10 profit.
$10 profit/disc * 50 discs a session * 2 sessions a day * 5 days = $5000! Whoa! Awesome!

But thats only if Blue ray takes off....which it wont....so dont buy it.

[Gr1zz @ Jun 23rd 2006 7:30AM]

THIS is targeted for indipendent movie producers, look at primerias website and you will see they are all about Music makers and Movie makers cutting out the middle man.

The company i work for uses 2 robotic DVD burners from primera, and will probibly upgrade to this in a couple years.

Disk has a lot of benifits over tape for us. Expecially if stored in a cool dark place. ;-)

[Amie Hoffner @ Jun 23rd 2006 9:54AM]

The Bravo XR-Blu Disc Publisher is not designed for pirating like this editor suggests. In fact, Primera Technology does not condone the use of its products for the purpose of illegal copyright infringement.

The Bravo XR-Blu Disc Publisher is designed for use by production studios, medical imaging facilities, government agencies, the military, banking institutions, insurance agencies and businesses who back up, archive and distribute mass quantities of data, video, audio, etc.

The Bravo XR-Blu allows these businesses and agencies the ability to store more content on each disc freeing up storage space. In addition, it can record and print multiple copies for off-site storage. Moreover, Bravo XR-Blu is designed for the distribution of original content only.

Regards,
Amie Hoffner
PR Manager
Primera Technology

[Guruboy @ Jun 23rd 2006 12:34PM]

Whatever any execs say, and even though I support Blu-Ray, this thing is quite a good tool for copying and selling pirated movies, etc. However, people who need to make lots of copies of pirated DVDs need only spend a tiny fraction of the price on a DVD duplicator, which is why it's so easy. Someone would need to make a pretty penny selling DVDs to switch to pirating Blu-Ray discs or HD DVDs

[fahmi @ Jun 23rd 2006 12:36PM]

China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Eastern European citizens alike.. rejoice! Pirate Blu-ray is coming your way. :D

The price of earlier release of PS3 pirate games might be pricey (USD 5-10) because of very little Chinese factories make generic bluray discs, but in a year or two.. it'll go as low as 50 cent to 1 dollar.

[teo @ Jun 23rd 2006 3:54PM]

a little buggy? Uh, yeah, I'd say so. At work we use a Bravo II (dvd 4x, cd 16x) burner/printer and we are on our 6th replacement in 3 years. Good thing we bought the extended warranty. These things should come with lifeinsurance.

[AG @ Jun 23rd 2006 4:29PM]

HDDVD is gonna get blown away by Blue Ray...

and all of you whining about the Blue Ray price, have you ever studied the prices of technology

Technology prices drastically reduce over time, look at original DVD players, CD players, Plasma TV's(prices are still dropping)

[Rick @ Jun 24th 2006 8:08AM]

"Sony Pictures/MGM; Disney; 20th Century Fox; Paramount; Lions Gate Home Entertainment; and Eagle Rock Entertainment."

Geee, if I remember my DVD history correctly, weren't these also the initial supporters of DIVX?? (now, I trust all of your know I am not speaking of divx today).

Unification would be nice; I don't really have any
ill will toward either format/vendor.

It just pisses me off with the arrogance that Sony and
Howard Stringer spew! Each and every press release or interview I have seen in regards to Blu-Ray makes it out to be bigger than Jesus! And to my knowledge, the only thing that was bigger than Jesus, were The Beatles. :P

[Dan @ Jun 24th 2006 3:29PM]

This won't duplicate copy protected movies. The headline is misleading and you geeks would rather argue about HD-DVD versus Blu-ray than use your brains to understand that. Get a clue.

[Paul Avery @ Jul 31st 2006 2:44PM]

My company sells this duplication equipment. The largest market segment is church customers followed by the government, then military.

Of course the pirates don't announce they are pirates when they buy.

My point is, there are many legitimate uses for duplication equipment.

[Alex @ Sep 22nd 2006 1:02PM]

I work for a small production co. in SF and we bought the 5th Pramera Bravo XR to come off the line. After going through three of them we came to find out that the Blue-ray drives were over heating and causing the unite to power down in the middle of a job. The stuff is still way too new and has tons of bugs.

[Brian Spence @ Dec 1st 2006 11:42PM]

I don't know about this blu-ray version, but I use a dual layer dvd duplicator from primera and it rocks. I haven't had any problems, or noticed it being buggy. The first one I had a few years ago was just a cd duplicator, and it was so buggy that it was almost worthless. Every other reboot of my computer would knock it out, and it was really difficult to fix. I think they figured out how to program one of these things, so don't be scared off by the 'buggy' comment anymore.