Pioneer Electronics has announced that they've started shipping their first PC based Blu-ray Disc drive, the BDR-101A. Here's part of their press release:
Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. is now shipping the industry's first Blu-ray Disc (BD) computer drives. The new Pioneer BDR-101A will change the way digital and high-definition media are stored by increasing disc capacity and performance capability. By utilizing shorter wavelength blue lasers, the BDR-101A can burn up to 25 gigabytes (billion bytes) of information on a single layer Blu-ray Disc.
The BDR-101A will be bundled with Sonic Solutions'(R) Roxio(R) Blu-ray Disc software and blank media by TDK that will enable end-users to store data and recorded content.
Blu-ray Disc is an ideal format for storage and distribution of high definition content. "As we move deeper into the transition to high-definition content creation and distribution, increasing storage capacity will become more and more critical," said Andy Parsons, senior vice president at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. "Blu-ray Disc technology fulfills the rapidly growing need for additional storage space and Pioneer is proud to be one of the first companies bringing it to market through the BDR-101A."
The retail version of the BDR-101A comes with a software bundle from Sonic and BD-RE media from TDK. More information can be found here.