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Pioneer unveils Blu-ray drive for PCs
In the latest in the next generation DVD format wars, it has been revealed that Pioneer Electronics has released a high-definition Blu-ray DVD disc drive for personal computers. According to the company, the drive is aimed primarily at professional users like content creators or studios, who can use it to test and evaluate Blu-ray disc titles during the authoring process before replication.
Meanwhile, industry analysts believe that Toshiba will launch notebook PCs with HD DVD drives in the spring of 2006. Giants Intel and Microsoft have endorsed the HD DVD format, claiming that it integrates more easily with personal computers.
Both Sony Blu-ray and the rival HD DVD will be unveiled next month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
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User Comments (31)
Post a comment| DragonMaster on December 28, 2005 8:18 PM | Pioneer has a Blu-ray computer drive, invents a 500GB optical disk and supports also HD-DVD. And also, Maxell wants to build 1.6TB disks.
There are not 2 but 4 formats coming. I have the impression that the Pioneer UV and Maxell holographic disks will be more like iomega ZIP than anything else.
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| Chamot on December 28, 2005 10:36 PM | Anyone know what the price of this and the media will be initially? I think that might be the deciding factor in deciding the outcome of this format war.
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| Strakian on December 28, 2005 10:47 PM | They better pick a winner before a majority of the consumers get confused about what is compatible with what. When DVD's came out and DVD burners were on the rise, noone could match up the DVD-R, DVD+R stuff and that was just one format.
If they don't figure out which one is the new standard soon, it's going to be very intersting indeed.
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| otmakus on December 29, 2005 12:09 AM | I'm sure like every new technology, this blu-ray drive will cost an arm and a leg, so everyone will be better off waiting till the dust settles and the winner is decided.
Also a format war like this one has good point too, it will make the price comes down quicker.
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| PUTALE on December 29, 2005 12:09 AM | with MS and Intel supporting HD DVD, I think maybe the market will leaning toward HD DVD, however, there are still supporters for blue ray. To be honest I really hope that regardless of which one, the whole industry can just standarize to 1 format, it will really make our life much easier.
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| nathanskywalker on December 29, 2005 1:01 AM | http://www.blu-ray.com/
A little something on blue ray discs...
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| Mictlantecuhtli on December 29, 2005 2:03 AM | War on Recordable Media?
I think I'll wait until the price drops, and the first (or second) generation problems have been solved.
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| phantasm66 on December 29, 2005 3:45 AM | Getting a DVD drive into a PC pushed the market for DVD players in general. Might the same not happen for Blu-Ray now?
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| omegaweopon on December 29, 2005 3:50 AM | Sony had been considering using Blu Laser for its PS3 so that its games could hold more content. Also because it was blu laser it presented certain disk copy protection. However with the use of Blu laser drives the disk protection goes right down the drain. Poor sony.
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| Rage_3K_Moiz on December 29, 2005 4:59 AM | Blu-Ray does provide more content. The biggest cause of Sony using it in the PS3 IMO is because its their own format so the costs will be greatly reduced. As regarding the Blu-Ray drive, we have yet to see dual-layer DVD recordable media yet and I'm surprised to see Blu-Ray taking the lead over this format, support for which has been available for years but the media has never been released, at least not where I live.
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| Nic on December 29, 2005 7:57 AM | Originally posted by Chamot:
Judging by the intended market this drive is likely to be very expensive when initially released..
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| asphix on December 29, 2005 8:00 AM | If i'm not mistaken both Blu-ray and HD-DVD use a blue lazer.
Blu-ray has a higher capacity. However media costs more to produce, and drives will cost more due to royalty fees. They will also be more prone to scratches due to having a very shallow surface depth. HD-DVD holds less data but is much cheaper to produce media for. The hardware (drives) will also be potetntially MUCH cheaper. I wont buy either until I see which will take over as the dominant format. Currently it was looking like blu-ray was winning, but with Microsoft throwing its weight around we might see a slight change. I'm personally a fan of HD-DVD because of the cheaper costs. The higher capacity of blu-ray to me isnt note worthy as we are already leaping ahead quite a bit from our 9GB dual layer DVD disks. HD-DVD will provide enough space to last up till 2010 or so when it will be ready to be replaced yet again with another solution. All the while being offered at a more attractive price point. I'm sort of getting sick of this whole "war" though... Just let one win and make a decision.. 8+ months of publicity and bickering is enough for anyone.
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| MonkeyMan on December 29, 2005 10:36 AM | This is ground breaking technology, this drive will lead to great, and creative things that will be developed during its lifetime. Expect to see amazing things from this baby!!!!!!! woohoo!!!!!! I'm just lovin new technolgy!!!!!
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| Eleventeen on December 29, 2005 10:47 AM | Cant wait to buy this one. Although it wouldn't really be worth the money, since it will probably go down in price as the months go by. It would be nice to have though.
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| Kaleid on December 29, 2005 10:47 AM | I'm drooling over the thought of having movies in HD resolutions and audio up to DVD-A standards all on one format.
Screw SACD and DVD-A (they never took of anyway)...bluray can bring highres to the masses.
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| kimala-acer on December 29, 2005 10:57 AM | Well, theoretically this is good. But I had a lot of trouble with my pioneer DVR, and the company's website is useless for troubleshooting. I am not taking sides between blu-ray and HD. But, I'd rather be cautious on trying these 2 formats. you do not want to buy a writer for one format, and then this format will fall in disfavor, and nobody will use it.
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| CrossFire851 on December 29, 2005 12:02 PM | Originally posted by asphix:
9GB dual layer DVD quote] There are 8.5GB.......BIG difference.
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| PUTALE on December 29, 2005 1:16 PM | I thought Blue ray offers close to 20 or 30gig of storage and HD dvd offers close to 50gig or so (or other way around).
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| PanicX on December 29, 2005 2:49 PM | BluRay at a dual layer density is about 50Gbs. HD-DVD at a triple layer density is about 45Gbs. BluRay is currently developing quad layer density of 100Gbs as well.
HD DVD on Wiki
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| Kreuger on December 29, 2005 8:13 PM | I personally don't care which company/format becomes standardized. The idea of having that much space on a single disc is amazing. Imagine backing up/cloning a whole drive to one hd-dvd/blu-ray (which ever). That's awesome. I wonder how fast we'll be able to write these discs?
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| luvhuffer on December 29, 2005 9:39 PM | So Blue Ray is 50GBs and HD-DVd is 45GBs. I don't think I'll be using either. Especially when InPhase Technologies, a Lucent Labs spin off is going to be coming out with disks, holding 300GB each, using so-called Tapestry Holographic Memory Technology to store data by interference of light. They are also able to read and write data at 10 times the speed of a normal DVD. They will be able to hold 26 hours of broadcast quality High definition video on one 300GB disk. Read this article, and you may want to decide to wait too. How long? They say they are ready to come to market in 2006, probably while Blue-Ray and HD-DVD are still screwing around with their offerings. The article goes into more specific detail about how the technology works.
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2146751/300-gb-disc-set-challenge-dvd
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| brownpaper on December 30, 2005 3:39 AM | I would probably get the HD-DVD since it is cheaper to produce. I don't want anything that would be more expensive. Then again, I want to get a PS3 so I hope I do not have to get both formats.
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| CountMackulaHPT on December 30, 2005 5:52 AM | It seems to me that HD-DVD is the only one that has a shot to make it here, because it's backwards compatible, and inexpensive. I personally think computers and home entertainment is moving towards net downloads. Believe it or not, a lot of average computer users have the knowledge to rip CD's to hard drive and are now pretty used to working with files on a computer. Not everyone, but a significant amount of people do now. I think that people have learned a lot about these kind of things from working with music, photos, and movies on their computers. As soon as they all have 360s or other media extenders, and wireless devices that can all access their central computer with 400+ GB of hard drive space, and wireless speeds on the verge of catching up to broadband speeds with long range, who will need removeable, destructible, scratchable media? Welcome to the digital home...y'know, the one that people have been talking about for years now?
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| smtkr on December 30, 2005 8:15 AM | Originally posted by CountMackulaHPT:
That makes sense, but the world of tech does not always make sense. Sony could really push blu-ray with the PS3.
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| thomasxstewart on December 30, 2005 9:00 AM | remember that only way to use blu ray or hologram is from hdtv video camera AT PRESENT. IF YOU OWN MOVIE, BUYING CAPUTE EQUIPMENT & RECORDER STILL MEANS YOU CAN'T SELL IT OR EVEN SHARE IT, IN FACT BLINDING BARB ARE REQUIRED FOR EACH VIEWER TO PROMTLY ENFORCE NO FURTHER VIOLATIONS.(UNLESS YOUR DIPLOMATIC). SO AT SOME POINT USER CAN BUY NEW FORMAT MOVIE OR TRY TO CAPTURE OFF SCREEN TODAY, YET DOES IT REALLY FLY WELL WITH DRM, WHICH IN VISTA VIIV WILL BREAK YOUR EQUIPMENT PERMANENTLY & FOREVER, AS VIIV WAS DEVELOPED IN VIET NAM & SIMILAR TO SONIES PRESENT DRM PROBLEMS OF ONE USE & THEN EQUIPMENT BREAKS IRREPAIRABLY. BLU RAY GREAT, THERE ARE 100 GB DISCS BEING MADE TOO, ITS PEOPLE WHO ARE MAKING EXTREME MISTAKE.SIGNED:PHYSICIAN THOMAS STEWART VON DRASHEK M.D.
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