Finally the $200 Sony Blu-ray drive for a PC

While we like Blu-ray burners as much as the next guy, we've never understood why the burners came first. Well, the wait is finally over and Sony has just announced the BDU-X10S (reader only) for both the PC (pictured) and laptop (after the jump) with a MSRP of $200 -- curiously not 199.99. If this isn't a good enough deal for you, luckily Sony is also including CyberLink's PowerDVD BD Edition. The drives feature a SATA interface, which makes sense since this is the interface of choice on the type of newer PCs that will actually have the juice to playback HD.

[Mark Perkins @ Jan 6th 2008 8:53PM]

Gettin one

[Ben @ Jan 6th 2008 8:53PM]

wooo hooo ! take that HD DVD!

[Dennis @ Jan 6th 2008 8:57PM]

Does this mean I can finally burn some HD video from my Sony V1U camcorder? Woohoo!!

[Fitz @ Jan 6th 2008 9:09PM]

You could already buy a LG combo Blu-Ray/HD-DVD for under $225 several weeks ago

Model: GGC-H20LI

Actually got one from BestBuy online of all places, of course now they jacked the price up to $299....suckers.

[Jeremy K. @ Jan 6th 2008 9:16PM]

Sorry Dennis... this is only a reader.

[josh @ Jan 6th 2008 9:36PM]

Yes, I am sure HD took a horrible blow finding out that just now a drive is available for computers, while they have been using the 360 HD DVD player with Windows since the launch of the device. Incidentally, you can find the HD drives for $129, which is interesting because one would expect an external drive to cost *more* than an internal drive, not less. Reason 59 why I wish warner had switched to HD DVD, the actual hardware is cheaper to make and sell.

[Tom @ Jan 6th 2008 10:02PM]

I can't find anywhere that sells it for $129. I even tried froogle.

[Jon Doe @ Jan 6th 2008 10:26PM]

Yah take that....too bad BR can't get a damn $200 stand alone player out.

[RDS @ Jan 6th 2008 8:55PM]

Soon enough. O Well It will be nice. Needs a plugin for media center now.

[Lemmiwinks @ Jan 6th 2008 8:57PM]

And the clumsiest title award goes to...

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Jan 6th 2008 10:38PM]

That's exactly what I was thinking....

[James @ Jan 7th 2008 3:19PM]

...you!

[sam @ Jan 6th 2008 8:58PM]

long overdue from Sony as you can buy the Pioneer BDC-202 5x Blu-Ray Reader Combo DVD±DL Writer internal Beige OEM (£88):

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=625331

This will have to be better than that as the Sony is more expensive, around £120 by today exchange rate and UK additional Tax.

[wickedpheonix @ Jan 6th 2008 8:58PM]

dual-tone? Ewww.... black-only please. And no Blue.... doesn't go with my case.

[ScaryFast @ Jan 6th 2008 9:49PM]

My Lian-Li case came with a matching aluminum bezel to go in front of the drive so it matches. perhaps you need one of those!

[Rafer @ Jan 6th 2008 8:59PM]

I dont see why people need to watch blu-ray movies on their PC. By the time they do they will also need a BD Burner.

[m_jones1 @ Jan 7th 2008 6:19PM]

^Might be useful for people who want to build a home theater pc

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Jan 6th 2008 10:39PM]

Media Center PC, perhaps?

[Mayank Agarwal @ Jan 6th 2008 9:01PM]

I wonder if someone could get this to work with a Xbox 360 (put it in an enclosure) since the HD DVD add-on connects with USB.

That would be pretty sweet - your own dual-format, Live playing system.

[Peter @ Jan 6th 2008 9:07PM]

It could not happen. The Xbox 360 would need signed drivers. Not to mention, the 360 does not have Java, which is required for anything useful from BD.

[Wwhat @ Jan 6th 2008 10:15PM]

"anything useful"? I don't know anybody that wants all that extra stuff that they again and again without much success try to ram down people's throats, people just want to see movies.

[Wwhat @ Jan 6th 2008 10:16PM]

Oh and people want to store data on larger capacity disks.

[James Cameron @ Jan 6th 2008 9:10PM]

A little too late but good to know that they are lowering their prices. I already bought a LG BR/HD Drive Combo for aruond $250 and it rock! It can't write but who cares? No way I'm spending $30 per Blu-ray or HD disc to burn. Imagine a bad burn.

[molson @ Jan 6th 2008 10:53PM]

Try $11.99 per disc on Newegg. I didn't think that anyone bought media retail...

[James Cameron @ Jan 7th 2008 1:54PM]

You can't store any BR movies with 25g. They are all around 30g and up. So you will have to buy a 50g disc. So find me a 50g for $11 on newegg.

[haloz24 @ Jan 6th 2008 9:19PM]

Man HD DVD is just getting hit left and right at CES this year huh.

[Paul Stamatiou @ Jan 6th 2008 9:25PM]

so is there any good software to facilitate, um, personal backups of blu-ray discs yet?

[josh @ Jan 6th 2008 9:40PM]

If one was so inclined to make personal backups of purchased media, in the event that they live in a house with say, a child prone to ruining discs with her grubby little hands, and they didn't want to loose all of their hard earned irrevocably to grubby fingers, slysoft makes a version of clonedvd that completely busted all of the security on blu-ray.

[Jimmy @ Jan 6th 2008 9:41PM]

Slysoft says that their AnyDVD software will work with both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Although expect to have some problems with future titles on Blu-ray. The Java based encryption can be changed from one disk to the next so there may have to be very frequent updates.

[James Cameron @ Jan 6th 2008 9:45PM]

What's the point at the moment when the 25gb or 50gb BR discs are around $30 to $50 each?

[SimbaDogg @ Jan 6th 2008 9:49PM]

daaaaaaaamnit...i could care less about a ROM, bring on the cheapo blu ray burners, i need to start archiving some of my TV shows

[infobhan @ Jan 6th 2008 10:09PM]

"Blu-ray drive of the PC" - is that English?

[Rob @ Jan 6th 2008 10:50PM]

Meh, who wants to pay $200 for a PC Blu-ray drive if it can't burn? Not me!

[Iridium @ Jan 6th 2008 11:08PM]

Well the burners came first because it is a lot more practical to burn 25-50GB of data than watch a BluRay movie on a PC. Maybe if PC games came packed on BluRays but it took how long to get the majority of games on DVD.

HTPCs are still eons away from becoming commonplace in the average home.

[hothotdisco @ Jan 7th 2008 9:48PM]

Sweet. All you need to do is just hook up your PC to your HDTV and voila! A cheap blu-ray watching solution.

[jim @ Jan 7th 2008 11:47PM]

Combine cheap HD drives, high-powered PCs, and wireless streaming HDMI, and who cares about the format wars any more...

[fred @ Jan 12th 2008 10:10AM]

what does compatible with laptop (after the jump) mean?

[norcal_ht @ Feb 11th 2008 1:40PM]

So does anyone know if these BR internal PC drives strip HDCP or more specifically can you run video to none HDMI/DVI monitors or HT projectors with RGB SVGA.

I relished the Xbox360's add on HD drive because it stripped the HDCP and let me play the freaking movie (which was my only intent). They sure make it hard to "consume" this new technology. After CES I returned the HD knowing it was it was its death rattle.

I am using a WinXP box and push video to a RGB/SVGA 720p/1080i projector. Thanks everyone.