Those of you itching to take arms in the epic struggle for
Blu-ray glory have a few more options today, as both
Buffalo and
Optiarc announced that they're shipping their second generation of BD drives. The Buffalo units (pictured) use the Pioneer
BDC-202 mechanism we've seen popping up lately, so while they can't author Blu-ray discs, they'll read BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE discs at 5x, dual-layer recordable Blu-ray discs at 2x and write to the various CD and DVD formats at 1-32x. The ¥53,000 ($436) BRC-5125U2 is the internal model, while the ¥63,700 ($525) BRC-5125FBS-BK comes in a monolith-looking USB 2.0 external case. Both prices seem a bit high to us, since you'll be able to score the exact same drive labeled as the Pioneer
BDC-2202 for like $300 next month, but maybe all that CyberLink software Buffalo bundles is worth the extra coin to you -- after all, it's not like Vista supports Blu-ray
out of the box.
On the other hand, if your needs involve Blu-ray authoring, the Sony / NEC joint venture Optiarc's got you covered with the BD-M100A, which we first saw previewed at
CeBit. The internal drive writes BD at 2x, DVD at 8x, CD-R at 24x, CD-RW at 16x and reads at speeds up to 32x. Being able to burn BD will set you back, though -- Optiarc says the BD-M100A will cost around
£400 ($789) plus VAT -- ouch. Both companies are saying these drives will be available imminently, so better start saving those pennies.
Read - Buffalo BRC-5125U2
Read - Buffalo BRC-5125FBS-BK
Read - Optiarc BDM100A
posted May 23rd 2007 7:33PM
[Blatant lie]
[Link to shitty band]
Seriously, you people need to get the fuck out of Engadget with your annoying ass comments with useless links to pointless shit in them.
christmas?
Why would they drop the drives if they're new?
Oh wait, you're using the word to mean the opposite of what it usually means. Two posts in a row, too!
Hi
This is still wicked expensive for an internal drive... too bad HD-DVD doesn't really do it for me.
And no offense to the poster, but "'like' $300"? The use of that word in an article made me wince =) .