Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 11 October 2007 17:27
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
The launch of Sony’s fastest Blu-ray burner, able to record a 50GB
dual-layer BD-R disc at 4x speed in 45 minutes, is simultaneously cool,
while also showing how far we’ve got to go before it only takes 5
minutes and combo Blu-Ray/HD DVD drives are standard, as combo DVD±R is
today.
The launch of
Sony’s second generation PC Blu-ray burner, the BWU-200S , gives us their fastest model yet, and preserves high speed recording for CD and DVD media, with 16x speed DVD recording, 40x speed CD recording and fast speeds for other types of re-writable discs of all CD, DVD and Blu-ray flavours.
The only thing missing is HD DVD compatibility – but that's no surprise and we’ll get to that in a moment.
In addition to the 50GB of storage that a dual-layer BD-R or BD-RE disc supports, you can also store “up to 230 minutes of high-definition HDV 1080i video” on either disc, and naturally hours more standard definition video if desired.
Sony has bundled the CyberLink BD software in the box letting you edit content from an HDV camcorder that records in 1080i format, although serious video editors will already have their own video editing software.
Compatible with XP and Vista, it’s due to arrive in the US in November, and is set to retail for US $599.
A competitor is
the LG GGW-H10NI. It's set to cost US $499 and appears due to be released soon from LG. It’s $100 cheaper, burns Blu-ray discs, CDs and DVDs – and also reads and plays HD DVD discs – but doesn’t write them.
Sadly, the drive is much slower. It can record single layer BD-R discs holding 25GB at 4x speed. 50GB discs and BD-RE (rewriteable) discs burn at the slower 2x speed of back of 90 mins for an entire disc.
DVD burn speeds are slightly slower at 12x and CD burn speeds are 8x. So a slower drive all round, but it plays HD DVDs.
There’s no doubt the price of both drives will drop at street level, making each cheaper. Faster models will appear in around 9 months time, give or take a month or two. We’re still in the early stages of the HD video era, needlessly slowed by the format war.
If only Sony and Toshiba could have come to a deal, we might have had “Blu-DVDs” as a single format on store shelves, working on players from all brands. Such unity might have even delayed China’s decision to create its own royalty free HD video formats. A universal HD disc would likely have received a much happier reception that today’s messy situation.
Of course, some movie and video aficionados have simply purchased both a Blu-ray and an HD DVD player, but at the moment, that’s still an expensive option.
Combo devices, as happened in the DVD+R and DVD-R war, are the clear answer, allowing at least the playback of both formats, but better still, being coupled with a 500GB to 1TB hard drive and being upgraded to a burner, not just a player, as is available in Japan today.
While the format war rages, DVD still reigns supreme, with many consumers using standard DVD players and CRT televisions. DVD players that can upscale standard definition DVD content to make it look much sharper on HD televisions are also much cheaper than Blu-ray and HD DVD players, and don’t require users to buy their movie library again on HD discs.
So, with DVD still a big competitor, can combo drives come soon enough in a market where to window to buy HD movies on discs is being threatened by HD movie download stores? Please read onto page 2 for the conclusion...
