Sony previews first Blu-Ray disc recorder - 4000 dollar
Posted on 03/03/03 16:09 by Jan Willem                             
Sony previews first Blu-Ray disc recorder - 4000 dollar

Mrdish2000 used our newssubmit to tell us that Sony will start the sales of the first blue ray recorders. The drive will cost about $4000 and should be available next month. The drive is able to record up to 23 GB on a single disc.


The recorder, which includes a built-in broadcast satellite tuner, will hit store shelves in Japan on April 10. No date has been set yet for an overseas roll-out, she said.

The machine will give Sony, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, a head start over its partners in the Blu-ray consortium, a nine-member group of industry heavyweights that unveiled a common format for blue laser DVDs a year ago.

Blue light, with a shorter wavelength than red, can read and store data at much higher densities needed for high-definition recordings.


The drives are currently mainly targetted to those who want to record high-definition TV programmes. The drive is also able to read DVD-R(W) discs, but cannot play back DVD-RAM and DVD+R(W) discs.

Read the entire story here. Discuss this drive in our DVD Hardware Forum. More information about the blue ray format can be found here.

Source: Forbes.com

Reactions
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By Sherrif, Monday 03 March 2003 16:27
Yo! sony a round for me and my friends.......:7
By Saruman, Monday 03 March 2003 18:34
I am all for this, however, what about utilizing blue ray technology for the lowly CD? I believe that using this kind of technology on CD's, as well as on DVD's would help the mini-CD/DVD's do well (with it, mini-CD's would probably be able to replace normal sized pressed CD's for music albums). I also have this adversion to wasting space on media that is far too large for the data being written to it (case in point, I gave my friend a copy of an Atari 7800 emulator and all the games on a mini-CDR that only took up 15 MB, I could not see using a normal sized CDR for a program that took up so little space, BTW, we both own Atari 7800's and original copies of the roms, therefore nothing illegal was done).
By JPWRana, Monday 03 March 2003 19:14
hmmm... i dont know. They said blue ray discs woulda held 27gigs... so right there we just lost 4 gigs now being only 23 gigs... oh well.. i guess i'll still buy it... oh wait... $4000, hmmm... i can get a insanely powerful computer w/ a tape backup drive for that kind of dough... and im guessing it'll be a 1x writer too... sorry, but im not convinced yet. Don't get me wrong, i am way for blue-ray as i haven't bough a dvd burner cuz i wanted 2 wair for blue ray, but a few things dont justify it yet.
By Guest, Monday 03 March 2003 20:43
Seems odd the device won't read DVD+RRW since Sony are advocates of the + standard. I'd also suggest that we're all maybe wasting our money buying into DVD Recorders of either format. I'm all for technology marching forward, but Sony have released this too early, they should have waited until the recordable DVD format war was won by the plus format, as it inevitably will be with the bulk of the computer industry backing it. This is something for the future. Let's face it, who here has HDTV? As far as I'm aware it will NEVER be available in Europe, I was under the impression the EC chose quantity of channels over quality? It's of little interest as most of these first to released things are...wait until the price is realistic and the bugs are ironed out! 3-5 years time maybe?
By Guest, Monday 03 March 2003 21:45
This Blu-Ray disc recorder from Sony sounds like a really cool thing being able to burn 23 GB on one disc. I will however wait until the prices go far down before I buy one. I will also wait until the format becomes more popular and a standard. Also when the time comes to buy one, I will buy from someone else, not Sony because Sony's products are starting to suck with the shitload of problems they had with their PS2 and DVD players.
By Guest, Monday 03 March 2003 22:25
$3800 for the 1st drive that can do this is a very good deal. But I think most people will rather use the Toshiba Blue laser products because they have the same form factor as current CD/DVDs, Toshiba holds a bit less but it might be possible to get a combo unit that is CD/DVD and blue laser DVD. Why are we getting the writeable version of blue laser DVD before we can buy(RENT?) Hollywood movies in this format? Because the movie studios are so afraid of piracy they are holding back the HD-DVD format.
By stvastva, Tuesday 04 March 2003 01:58
...so how many vcd's is that in the transfer of the first rental blue dvd? anywaze, i'll go burn one of the blue discs now....i'll write about it when it's finished burning in 6 years from now...ha-ha..gee-hope I don't get a buffer-underrun at around the 21 gig point...ouch.
By jab1981, Tuesday 04 March 2003 02:00
For Mr. Stimpy, I've got an HDTV. And a close friend of mine recently bought one as well. They aren't as rare as one might be lead to believe. Now Plasma TV's... that's a different story.
By Guest, Tuesday 04 March 2003 02:34
If anything, I think this just digs Sony a deeper hole to experienced users. Lately, most people on the forums have been pretty displeased with Sony. By releasing this technology first, they are gaining publicity among the novice user as a leader in technology. However, most of us cdfreaks would bet that the quality of this bluray drive is pretty crappy, and other companies will spank Sony in the quality tests in the near future.
By HyperYagami, Tuesday 04 March 2003 03:30
23GB/27GB -> depends on you divide by 1024 or 1000.
By Enojado, Tuesday 04 March 2003 04:47
is that Blu-Ray+R or Blu-Ray-R. How bout sony backing the RIAA and making a product that records what's on (HD)TV. My friends Sony DVD player reads mp3 discs. Sounds like this New BluRay technolgy will be stifled by the RIAA before we ever see the product practical being used.
By Seán, Tuesday 04 March 2003 15:17
SeánIt would be interesting to see what type of DRM technology they stuck in this Blu-Ray recorder. It was not that long back that MPAA changed the HDTV standard to support copy protection, thus rendering all previous HDTV sets incompatible with the current HDTV standard. See http://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php3?ID=3548
By Mickey (guest), Thursday 22 March 2007 18:19
I can record HD movies on DVD+R already. Why do I need Blue -Ray. Is it just more space on the disk. That means it'll take hours to write.. Why bother with Blu-ray Smilie Frown Wink puke devil supergrin cool cry Embarrassment biggrin clown Stick Out Tongue puh loveit
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