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Pioneer unveiled two new Blu-ray Disc writers at CEATEC 2008. The Japanese website, AV Watch, has posted some pictures of these drives along with their specs. For the desktop, Pioneer plans to release a new 8x Blu-ray Disc writer later this year. This unnamed drive is capable of writing to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x and BD-RE discs at 2x. It also features 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a SATA interface.
Along with their half-height drive, Pioneer had a new slim Blu-ray Disc writer on display. While only 12.7mm high, the drive is capable of writing to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 4x and BD-RE discs at 2x. On top of that, it can write to DVD±R and DVD±R DL media at 8x and DVD-RAM discs at 5x.
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The BRD-SH8B and BRD-UH8 will ship in mid to late-October and are priced at 39,100 Yen ($370US) and 42,300 Yen ($400US), respectively. More information on both drives can be found here.
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Despite the increased cost of polycarbonate, the price of recordable DVD+R/-R to has remained relatively unchanged over the last year or so. Unfortunately, the price of DVD+R/-R media is on its way back up. After raising its prices by 10% in August, CMC and Ritek plan to further increase its OEM quotes for the fourth quarter of 2008. In CMC's case, the company plans to raise prices by as much as 15%.
CMC Magnetics and Ritek will increase OEM quotes for DVD+R/-R discs for the fourth quarter of 2008, with CMC to raise prices by 10-15% while Ritek will look at order volumes before determining rates, according to the two companies.
As many small blank optical disc makers in China and several second-tier makers in Taiwan have withdrawn from the market, the global production capacity of blank optical discs has fallen short of global demand since the beginning of the third quarter 2008, CMC pointed out. In light of the favorable situation, CMC hiked its OEM prices by an average of 10% in August and Ritek followed suit soon after, industry sources pointed out.
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Verbatim recently announced its new PhotoSave DVD. This recordable DVD-R media features integrated software that automatically launches when the disc is inserted into a drive. The software can then be used to find and burn photos located on a user's computer or digital camera.
Verbatim® Americas, LLC, a global leader and innovator in the digital storage industry, announced today Verbatim PhotoSave™ DVD, a recordable DVD that makes finding and saving photos absolutely effortless—even for consumers who have never burned a disc before.
Verbatim PhotoSave DVDs feature integrated software that launches automatically when the disc is inserted into a DVD-R drive. The process of searching for photos is also automated so users only need to click on the record button to save their memories from a PC. In the manual mode, PhotoSave DVDs also support “search and burn” from a digital camera connected to a PC. In addition to offering a long lifespan, each DVD disc provides a useable capacity of 4.5GB (1GB = 1 billion bytes) and can store approximately 2,000 photos.¹
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Sony sent out a press release this morning, announcing its third generation Blu-ray Disc writer, the BWU-300S. The new drive can write to both single and dual layer BD-R media at 8x and, according to Sony's claims, can burn an entire 50GB disc in as little as 30 minutes. To showcase the capabilities of Blu-ray, the BWU-300S also comes bundled with a copy of “Men in Black”.
Sony Electronics today announced its third generation internal Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) writer for the computer aftermarket, which at about $400 achieves a new level of affordability for BD enthusiasts.
The new BWU-300S model burns single and dual layer BD-R media at up to 8X speed, recording a full 25GB disc in about 15 minutes and a full 50GB disc in about 30 minutes. The 8X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media. The drive also records DVDs at up to 16X, CDs up to 48X, and supports DVD-RAM recording, with an eye towards data backup, making it an excellent replacement burner for a standard DVD drive while offering all the benefits of Blu-ray Disc technology.
To provide consumers with the opportunity to experience high-definition movie playback first-hand, the new drive comes bundled with a “Men in Black” Blu-ray Disc from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “Men In Black” stars Will Smith (“Hancock”) and Oscar®-winner Tommy Lee Jones (“The Fugitive”) saving the world from a total intergalactic disaster in Barry Sonnenfeld’s smash-hit sci-fi action comedy. The “Men In Black” high-definition Blu-ray Disc boasts advanced BD-Live enabled bonus features, including a multiplayer trivia game, an interactive Frank the Pug advice generator, an alien subtitle track and much more.
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Advanced Media, Inc., a manufacturer and marketer of the popular Ridata brand of recordable DVD and Blu-ray Disc media, electronic storage products, and digital media accessories, is pleased to announce the addition of Qflix™ DVD media to its product line. Used in conjunction with Qfflix services and hardware including recordable drives, the new media allows digitally distributed entertainment to be recorded to disc in a secure format. The media is manufactured by RITEK®, a Sonic Solutions® (NASDAQ: SNIC) certified Qflix licensee.
"Advanced Media Inc. is pleased to announce it is an official distributor of RITEK manufactured Qflix DVDs. Home entertainment is a heavily targeted market for DVD and Blu-ray media. Now Sonic has taken DVD technology to the next level with Qflix," said Harvey Liu, president of Advanced Media Inc. "RITEK's strong global reputation for producing DVDs of uncompromising quality and compatibility ensures a great consumer entertainment experience regardless of whether content is manufactured on-demand to fulfill an online order, purchased through a retail kiosk, or produced in the home."
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As we reported last week, Plextor has partnered with Lite-On for one of their upcoming DVD writers. Plextor China has released some details on this new drive on their website. While it looks like they simply copied and pasted the specs from PX-810SA, the picture on the page gives us another clue to the PX-806SA's capabilities. If you look closely, you can see a logo for Qflix below the drive's tray. Developed by Sonic, Qflix gives consumers the ability to download and burn movies to DVD with Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption.
There has been a lot of speculation regarding the price of the PX-806SA. Plextor is known for charging a premium for their drives, including those based on otherwise affordable designs from other companies. With its support for Qflix, I wouldn't be surprised if the PX-806SA was priced at $70 or more.
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Buffalo Technology sent out a press release today, announcing its new MediaStation 8x Blu-ray Drives. The external BR-816SU2 and internal BR-816FBS feature 8x BD-R and 2x BD-RE writing speeds as well as a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 8x.
Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking, storage and memory solutions today announced its new Blu-ray DVD Combo drives, the MediaStation 8x External Blu-ray Drive and MediaStation 8x Internal Blu-ray Drive. Offering unsurpassed 8x Read/Write speeds, these new MediaStation drives are the fastest on the market. They are ideal for "power PC" users who want optimal playback performance of Blu-ray discs, DVDs, or CDs on their PCs or notebooks or for those who want to archive content to optical discs.
The external MediaStation connects conveniently via USB 2.0 or eSATA, and the internal drive can be easily installed into your PC via SATA. Both devices also include CyberLink software suite for Windows with DVD Up-Sampling, which allows you to view DVDs in near HD quality. The MediaStation is a great solution to periodically backup and archive your data, preventing content from being altered or erased in the event your system is attacked by a virus or other malware.
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Imation announced today that it will begin shipping its TDK Life on Record Blu-ray 6x media to the U.S retail market in October. Available in both 25GB and 50GB capacities, these new discs have a maximum data transfer speed of 216Mbps.
Imation Corp. (NYSE: IMN), exclusive licensee of the "TDK Life on Record" recording media brand, today announced the first 6x Blu-ray recordable (BD-R) and Blu-ray recordable double layer (BD-R DL) media for the U.S. retail market. Imation is also launching a full line of TDK Life on Record Blu-ray disc cleaning and storage accessories to protect and maintain high-definition content on this new media format.
"As more consumers create new digital memories in high definition, those memories will be relived on Blu-ray media," said Jean-Paul Eekhout, global brand director of the TDK Life of Record brand, Imation Corp. "The TDK Life on Record brand continues to be a sought-after Blu-ray pioneer both as the first- to-market with 6x Blu-ray recordable media, and for unique technology and accessories that make TDK Blu-ray media more durable and compatible with Blu-ray players."
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While once the top dog in the optical storage industry, Plextor is now a shadow of its former self. It's parent company, Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd., has scaled back its operations and partnered with companies like LG and Pioneer to provide its drive designs.
In early 2007, we reported that Plextor had turned to Lite-On to fill at least some of their orders. These Lite-On manufactured drives never materialized and reports of their existance eventually ceased. Thanks to an unnamed source, we've learned that Plextor's first Lite-On manufactured DVD writer is finally on the way.
Based on the Lite-On DH-20A6S (iHAS120), the Plextor PX-806SA features an SATA interface and is capable of 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds. By itself, this isn't very exciting. However, Plextor is trying to recapture some of the enthusiast market by offering a new utility that will allow users to tap into the drive's more advanced features. Like PlexTools, this utility will perform various write quality tests and can measure things like FE/TE and jitter rates. Most likely, it will also control Lite-On's SmartWrite and SmartErase functions, which are already very similar to Plextor's own AUTOSTRATEGY and PlexEraser technologies.
No word yet on pricing or availability. However, our sources indicate that the PX-806SA is ready to go into mass production and will be shipping very soon. We'll keep you posted as we find out more.
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