Pioneer to Ship PC-Based Blu-ray Disc Drive in Q1 2006

Pioneer Electronics today announced one of the industry’s first Blu-ray Disc computer drives. The new BDR-101A will utilize shorter wavelength blue lasers in order to store up to 25 gigabytes of information on a single layer Blu-ray Disc. BDR-101A is expected to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2006.

Pioneer Corporation is one of the Blu-ray Disc Founders. It has been an innovator of optical disc technology since it brought LaserDisc, the precursor to DVD, to market in 1980.

This first generation BDR-101A product will be targeted primarily to professional users and serious enthusiasts, generally the first to adopt new technology. In particular, content creators will depend on Blu-ray Disc writers to test and evaluate high definition consumer Blu-ray Disc titles during the authoring process before replication. The drive will come equipped with a data recording application to transfer digital files to Blu-ray Discs.

The half height BDR-101A Blu-ray Disc/DVD writer will read BD-ROM/R/RE, DVD-ROM/DVD-R/DVD-RW and +R/+RW discs. It offers the following write speeds:

-- BD-R/RE (2X)
-- DVD-R/+R (8X)
-- DVD-RW/+RW (4X)

As the market for high definition video camcorders grows, users will increasingly rely on the Blu-ray Disc drive to store massive amounts of HD video. Likewise, a person with a television tuner on his or her personal computer could use the drive to record high definition television shows for later viewing. The drive also will be able to play consumer Blu-ray Disc movie titles on BD-ROM discs and will play and record standard DVD media.

As one of the first products to utilize Blu-ray Disc technology, the drive significantly increases storage capacity, while reducing the number of discs currently needed to back up computer hard drives, digital files and applications.

“Storage capacity in a stable medium is critical,” said Andy Parsons, senior vice president at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “A few years ago, no one could imagine needing more storage than available on a CD-R. Yet today, we need multiple DVDs just to back up the numerous photo and video files on our computers. Blu-ray Disc technology fulfills the rapidly growing need for more storage space and Pioneer is proud to be one of the first companies bringing it to market.”

Source: Pioneer