Philips goes for its first Blu-Ray drive

[roma_turok]

Philips has launched its own next-gen disc drive to help you, as Bob Dylan might suggest, get tangled up in Blu: the Triplewriter.

The SPD7000 is the third drive of its type that we’ve seen, following Samsung’s SH-B022 and Pioneer’s BDR-101A.

Like Sony’s towering Blu-Ray desktop, the Triplewriter will let you burn to both single and dual layer discs, the latter of which will give you a frankly scary 50GB storage for your four hour high-def flick.

The all-in-one PC drive also supports the playback and burning of CDs and DVDs, if you’re feeling a little old school.

Philips has also kindly produced some blank discs for the drive – 25GB and 50GB versions of the BD-R and BD-RE formats, which have apparently have a protective layer to stop you scratching away all your hard work.

The Triplewriter is due to go on sale in August for £550, exactly the same price of Pioneer’s drive. Pioneer has, though, just announced that the launch of its full-blown DVD players in the US will now be delayed until the autumn due to technical issues.

http://www.stuffmag.co.uk/hotstuffarticle.asp?de_id=1822

[JoeTheDude]

Interesting.
If it wasn't for the ($1,000.00 US aprox) price, I'd put in an order for one.

Say, does anyone have an idea on when these Blu Ray PC Burners'll drop down to around $200.00 US price?

This Christmas?

2007?

2010?

[Bob W]

The only thing that is "frankly scary" is the $58 price tag for a 50GB BD-RW disc.

[Bullworth]

$58/BD disc?
I guess the question should be does anyone know when the media price will come down to something reasonable? I don't think I'll be springing for one for at least a couple of years. How long do you think it might be before the industry does the switch to all BR/HD?

[yoda313]

Its interesting that they are releasing burners in the first generation.

Weren't CD and DVD drives read only in the first generations? That is good progress. You don't have to wait and spend twice on two drives to get a read only then a burner drive.