Sony Australia has unveiled a second generation internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) burner for the computer aftermarket which the company claims cuts recording speeds in half from the previous model, supporting the growing demand for Blu-ray use in the home and office.
The BWU200S ($899) boasts 4X BD-R and 16X DVD+R recording speeds, the former allowing a 50GB BD-R disc to be recorded in approximately 45 minutes. Coupled with the 16X mode and drives that support both 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Discs, the BWU200S is a multi-format combo burner that eliminates the need for more than one drive in a system, according to Sony.
Data up to 50GB can be recorded from the drive for random access – burned to either BD-R (write once) or BD-RE (rewritable) discs – or up to 230 minutes of high-definition HDV 1080i video can be burned onto a BD-R/RE 50GB disc. The drive also supports recording on standard single layer 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW/RAM discs, 8.5GB DVD+R double/dual layer discs, and CD-R/RWs.
“As each Blu-ray Disc holds more than 5X the capacity of DVD, consumers and professional videographers alike can enjoy the huge storage capacity to record and experience high-definition video with the BWU200S,” said Sony Australia marketing product manager, AV/IT Business Technologies, Vincent Bautista.
“As Australian adoption of the Blu-ray Disc format continues to increase, we are seeing this reflected in the demand for Blu-ray Disc drives, as the storage capability is incredibly appealing to those that have large amounts of data to archive.”
The drive boasts CyberLink BD Solution software that provides an application suite for capturing, authoring, editing, burning and viewing high-definition personal content captured in HDV 1080i format from an HDV camcorder. The Cyberlink software also supports recording on DVDs and CDs, as well as playback of DVDs recorded in the AVCHD format.
Customers who purchase the recorder locally from 1 November will receive a free 50GB BD-R disc.
The drive also features a Serial ATA (SATA) interface and is 5.25 inches for easy installation in a desktop PC with Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems.
“Advanced optical storage technologies, such as Blu-ray Disc technology with its vast capacity compared to DVD technology, will be key enablers for next generation PC applications like HD personal video content and high-definition TV recording,” said market research company, ICD research director for removable storage, Wolfgang Schlichting.
“Sony’s many innovations in optical storage have prepared the company to be a leader in the Blu-ray Disc writable market.”