Pioneer introduces 8x BDR-S03J Blu-ray burner

Lookie, lookie -- yet another 8x Blu-ray burner to choose from. In Japan, of course. The BDR-S03J SATA drive is able to write to single- and dual-layer BD-R media at 8x, and that rate doubles when toasting to blank DVDs. It also features 4MB of cache and can burn CD-Rs at 32x and CD-RWs at 24x, but it'll only ship in the Land of the Rising Sun (at least initially) this January for ¥38,000 ($399).

[Via Impress]

[DaveBG Posted Nov 28th 2008 4:47AM]

This thing is mine!!! Awesome!

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 28th 2008 12:07PM]

$399!?

Haven't they learnt a thing yet?
Don't they know we have a deep recession a month or 2 off of biting
(hard and for the rest of, at least, all next year)?

Between outrageous blank media pricing & laughable burner costs this is just a little more of what they need.
Not.

Way to ensure Blu-ray burning stays a minuscule part of the PC world, guys.

(roll your tongue back into your mouth and try not to crawl so obviously Dave, this is far from 'good news'.
Speed spec is not what is holding BD burner adoption up - as I'm sure you know very well)

[Ruprecht Posted Nov 29th 2008 12:12AM]

MFM, BD drives at the top end will have a premium just like DVD burners did.

When BD read/write speeds top out, they will undergo a similar price drop at the top end, just like DVD burners did.

A $399 top end BD drive, will now mean the former top end will fall down in price. Just like CPU models do today.

Now as for the burner itself, if it does dual layer at the same speed at single layer, that is amazing.