Tech Shout!

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. has unveiled its very first Blu-ray Disc computer drive dubbed Pioneer BDR-101A. In order to store as much as 25 GB of information on a single layer Blu-ray Disc, the drive makes use of shorter wavelength blue lasers.

The distribution of the Pioneer BDR-101A is anticipated to begin around in the first quarter of 2006.

The drive is mainly aimed at professional users and serious enthusiasts, who are generally the first ones to lay their ayes on and adopt new technology. The company sees content creators depending on Blu-ray Disc writers to test and evaluate high definition consumer Blu-ray Disc titles during the authoring process before any kind of duplication. The drive will be incorporated with a data recording application to transfer digital files to Blu-ray Discs.

Pioneer said users could depend on the Blu-ray Disc drive to store massive amounts of HD video. A person having a television tuner on his PC could use the drive to record high definition television shows for later viewing. The drive will also be able to play consumer Blu-ray Disc movie titles on BD-ROM discs and will play and record standard DVD media.

The Blu-ray Disc technology allows the drive to increase storage capacity, while reducing the number of discs currently needed to back up computer hard drives, digital files and applications.

Andy Parsons, senior vice president at Pioneer Electronics said, “Storage capacity in a stable medium is critical.” Parsons added, “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.”

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) and DVD-RW/+RW (4X).