Blue-Ray Burners Announced

Sledgehammer70

Panasonic has announced that on June 10th 2006 it will release its first line of Blue-Ray Disc (BD) burners, or BD-R drives, for the standard desktop computer form factor

If the new drive performs as promised, it could be a spectacular success for the Blu-ray format - which could use a big success about now, especially with HD DVD the first out of the gate. In fact, its support for DVD and CD formats could be more complete than most DVD components available today. According to Matsushita, the LF-MB121JD drive will support all three DVD rewritable formats: DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW, along with DVD-R and DVD+R in both single- and dual-layer. And dispelling perhaps the last round of naysayers, the Panasonic-brand drive will also support CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW, as well as play CD audio. Perhaps now that rumor about CD formats not being supported, will finally be dropped.

Source: Toms Hardware

Qeldroma

When might I buy? Lemme see.

o Wait for premium prices to taper off.
o Wait for x speeds to get to double digit.
o Wait for error-free burns to be fairly consistent and other kinks to be worked out.
o Wait for fast media to drop in price.
o Wait and see if the danged standard will even be viable.

Christmas? As in Next Christmas.

Unknown

I agree, we had a 1x dvd burner when they first came out at the school. can you say SLOW!!!

Sean Cadden

Yeah man that list right there is how you can buy all electronics that come out. MP3 players, DVD players, CD players, Stereos with latest technologies, and many other hardwares. The burners are also like that. All electronic equipment is like that on the market, but not many people keep up with how much things cost and what they do until they open the box. I hope many people don't find this trend, because if they do then the demand is going to go through the roof and the price wont drop as quick as it did with the DVD players in 2000. I know cause that was when I baught my first and that was when the players had a $200 price break. I got a $350 player for $150 and they even threw in 5 free DVDs of my choice from a list of MGM movies. That was great. Shortly after the sale the player went back up to $250. There is a trend on most electronics they come out cause the technology is new. Then the price gets lower. Then it goes on sale. Then it goes back up until there are many manufactures or different makes of the technology, then it goes back down to the on sale price or even cheaper. I built my computer cheaper than dirt using this knowlege I have taught myself. This trend has always been around since the early eighties with the Betamax machines. Hello!!! How do you think that the VHS became a popular comodity in American homes? Everyone started using VHS because it was cheaper and many companies started producing VCRs. Everyone who could afford it could watch movies in the comfort of thier own living rooms. And pretty soon everyone could afford a VCR. Same thing with the DVD players and any type of electronics you can think of that makes our lives easier. I just hope not many will catch on to this trend because then it would be obsolete.