Buffalo busts out its first 12x Blu-ray burner, powered by USB 3.0

Sure, your computer doesn't have a USB 3.0 plug, and there's no such thing as a 12x Blu-ray disc for mass consumption just yet, but we shouldn't let those pesky details get in the way of progress. Buffalo just announced the BR-X1216U3, which is the "world's first" (er, not exactly, but anyways...) 12x Blu-ray burner, and which incidentally pulls off its wondrous feats through the power of USB 3.0. Of course, it's backward compatible with USB 2.0, for burn speeds up to 7x, but with 12x on the table that's just slumming it. The drive is out now in Japan for 39,100 yen (about $448 US).

[Slutty McNugget Posted Nov 26th 2009 12:57AM]

@cool5
don't spam us with your website that no one visits!

[va jj Posted Nov 26th 2009 12:37AM]

I'LL TAKE TWO!

looks at his usb 2.0 ports...


wait

[Dragngt Posted Nov 26th 2009 12:57AM]

@va jj
I want one too.

[resource Posted Nov 26th 2009 12:50AM]

Fun nerd question.
How many years till 12X Blu-ray burners are standard in laptops?

2? 3?
And when will we get 12X Blu-ray discs?

[WEEEGEEEE Posted Nov 26th 2009 3:35AM]

@(Unverified) probably in 5 years in mainstream laptops and 2 years for premium laptops as the expensive optical drive option.

[Smurf Posted Nov 26th 2009 12:52AM]

Why does anyone buy this crap? External hard drives are cheaper and easier to use for external storage. If you're burning HD movies, you can build a computer than can play your HD movies for the same price as this burner. I'm not talking about just parts. You can go to newegg.com and buy a pre-built computer than can play 1920x1080p content for under $500.

There is no use for the bluray disc in the user created space.

[daniel142005 Posted Nov 26th 2009 8:05AM]

@Smurf
If you already have a computer in the same room as your TV then you don't even have to build one. I bought a 1TB hard drive a while back with a DVI->HDMI cable, and it works great. Now you can actually get a 1.5TB hard drive on newegg for $90 and a 25 ft. DVI->HDMI cable for $35... which is cheaper than what I payed overall.

Link to the cable I bought (there are cheaper out there, but I know this one works.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812105013

and the 1.5TB WD hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136351

[sectorseven Posted Nov 26th 2009 12:53AM]

Better off waiting for the four layer burners if you're thinking about spending this kind of money.

[chsoriano Posted Nov 26th 2009 12:55AM]

Um... I think they're forgetting about the Pioneer BDR-205. Yeah... it's internal, SATA, and obviously not USB 3.0... but, I'm almost certain the BDR-205 was the first 12x drive. In any case, I'm glad to see all these USB 3.0 devices coming out... too bad I'm still waiting on a decent mobo with it.

[Fety Posted Nov 26th 2009 6:09AM]

@chsoriano here's your decent mobo... ASUS P6X58D Premium

[justinrazmus Posted Nov 26th 2009 1:11AM]

Yes, seems a bit early to get too excited about it. It's always the same with emerging technology, the next generation will have a better price, better reliability, etc...

-Justin
http://www.justinrazmus.com

[pppun Posted Nov 26th 2009 1:17AM]

12X BD? I'm still using 18X DVD-R.
Anyway, I'd like it to lie down rather than standing up straight.

[KarlW Posted Nov 26th 2009 1:52AM]

"about $448"

uhm... isn't that technically rape?

[Slutty McNugget Posted Nov 26th 2009 1:58AM]

@(Unverified)
it's not rape because you're paying for it....it's like paying for an ugly ugly hooker with AIDS.

[dickweed Posted Nov 26th 2009 1:58AM]

Why are they advertising rice on engadget?

[simbadogg Posted Nov 26th 2009 2:01AM]

forget 12x....just gimme 6x or even 4x for sub 120 and i'll be happy, and internal at that. i've already seen a lot of BDRs going for way less than 1 dollar per disc, 25 gigs for a buck...worth it to me.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 26th 2009 2:19AM]

anyone wasting money on BD blanks is a noob. rip to HD, friends. rip to HD. physical media is the past.

[tahrey Posted Dec 16th 2009 7:33AM]

@(Unverified)
I sympathise with your sentiment, but...

a/ Hard disks - and even SSDs in a way - are still "physical media". What did you think they are? (anywayup - better than cloud storage by a mile)
b/ Having a single-serving, WORM-capable storage/backup/transfer medium can be very handy, I've found in the past.

A big ass HDD is my main storage, but I've had them fail physically, suffer faults in the electronic parts, and even recently had two STOLEN. And monolithic backup solutions have proven to be a poor choice too (if it's not having both the "everything all at once!" backup tapes die at the same time (first one damaging the transport, the second being mangled by said damaged transport), then it's the disk being used AS the "backup" also being stolen due to the impracticality of having them in different locations - not a prob for "offline", incremental-archival optical disks).

However, if the backups on which I now rely - and are making _instead_ of putting on hard disk until I can afford to replace them after christmas (using up pre-bought media) and copy everything back - were on BDR rather than DVDR it'd make life a bit easier, propensity for losing a 25Gb chunk of data rather than 4.3Gb (or indeed 0.7 on CDR) should it be lost/damaged/poorly burnt notwithstanding. Less disks, less hassle with dividing the data up into 4-gig chunks (or running a special backup program to do it for me), and faster burn speeds... though TBH my current in-use HD has trouble burning reliably with much past 12x DVD - but at least the BD drive would be able to keep a similar pace across the whole disk rather than the last third or so.

[WEEEGEEEE Posted Nov 26th 2009 3:36AM]

does blu-ray need USB 3.0 or can it be run with USB2.0 like the xbox360 HD-dvd addon?

[Shilo Posted Nov 26th 2009 3:39AM]

WOW, that's very expensive, the company I work for uses Sandisk's secure USB drive - and it's more then enough.

[taylorlauder Posted Nov 27th 2009 1:56PM]

Buffalo is really getting addicted on harnessing USB 3.0. from flash drives, external HD and now a Blu-Ray 12x via USB 3.0. Wow, somehow you gotta give credit to freecom for pioneering this technology.

http://bit.ly/freecom-made-the-first-usb-3-0