Pioneer debuts $249.99 8x BDR-2203 internal Blu-ray burner

Slowly but surely, these internal Blu-ray drive prices are sinking down to levels we'd consider to be "halfway reasonable." For instance, have a look at Pioneer's latest, the BDR-2203. An 8x BD writer that's totally capable of toasting DVDs and CDs when the BD-R spindle runs dry and very eager to play back Blu-ray Discs on your newfangled HTPC. It's all set to ship this month for a very manageable $249.99, and don't be shocked to see it moving for even less on the streets. Just be careful out there, cool?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 14th 2009 8:23PM]

call me when i can get a slim line slot loading bdrom.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 14th 2009 8:30PM]

Just call me when you can buy a dual-layer (50GB) BDR for less than $25.00 a single

[EatingPie Posted Apr 15th 2009 3:18PM]

I just got an e-mail from TapeStockOnline saying they have TDK BDR-50 singles for $19.99.

Still well over double the price of BDR-25s, but there you go.

-Pie

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 14th 2009 8:58PM]

Call me when the drives hit $50 and the (50)gb disc hit $1. I won't wait by the phone.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 14th 2009 9:24PM]

Call me when I can buy, in Canada, a single-layer BD-R for less than $5

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 14th 2009 10:46PM]

If you have one of the hdd docks like i do then i think that ends up cheaper as of right now.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 14th 2009 10:47PM]

Don't call me, I'll call you.

[skeelo58 Posted Apr 14th 2009 11:24PM]

Everyone is expecting phone calls. My turn.

Call me when there is an easier way to make copies of Blu-Ray discs, that doesnt involve extracting .264 files or whatever.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 14th 2009 10:51PM]

Since I can by a 1TB SATA hard drive for $85, or a cost of $4.25 per 50GB dual layer BD-R equivalent, why would I buy this recorder?
The cost for the hard drive is actually less, as you will most likely not fill up the BD-R drive every time, which raises the unit cost of the disks accordingly.

And don't tell me the media will drop in price, because the hard drive storage price will also drop accordingly. Actually the $85 will stay the same, the hard drive capacity will just increase.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 15th 2009 12:38AM]

^^^ I really don't understand the hard drive debate. How are you watching a ripped BD on your HDTV without a WD media thingy and not having to access the stream folder?
I want to stick the disc in and play on my ps3, then play the disc on my laptops BD-rom.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 15th 2009 12:52AM]

do you know anyone that's actually burned HD content to BD-R and played it back on a PS3 or Laptop BD-ROM drive? Somehow I don't think the early adopters are going to have the same results with BD-R as they we currently do with DVD-R.

If you decided to try burning, let us know how it goes. I'm probably not the only one that would like to see your results.

[EatingPie Posted Apr 15th 2009 3:31PM]

I know several people who do this, and do it often. Works great.

However, I'm still surprised that whenever we talk Blu-ray, so many people make totally uneducated statements, and have totally unrealistic expectations.

BD-R playback results won't be as good as DVD? When it actually is... and so far doesn't suffer from rot issues. Call me when BD drives are $50.00? When that's actually *cheaper* than most good DVD-R drives are today.

It took DVD-R forever to get to 8x, and Blu-ray's 8x is a *much* higher data rate. This early in the format's life, that $249.99 price is awesome, and will absolutely burn disks that playback on most BD players.

-Pie

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 15th 2009 8:41AM]

I'm waiting until Dual-layer BD-R Drives are around $150....hell I paid $140 for a single layer burning 4xDVD-/+R drive some years back....

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 15th 2009 8:32PM]

this may date me, but I remember buying my first 2x CD-R drive for $499.99 (Creative SCSI drive) that required a proprietary board (included in retail packaging)

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 15th 2009 11:08AM]

I have to say, it's tempting. I'd love to burn my TiVO HD recordings to Blu-ray discs. Most are way less than 25 gigs, (Two hours of HDTV tends to be about 15 gigs if I remember correctly) and it would be worth it to me to spend $5 on a disc to save a documentary from PBS on say Roy Stryker and the FSA photo project, maybe John Fogerty, or the whole season of 24.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 17th 2009 10:45AM]

Wow, seriously, the PS4 or xbox 3 IS going to have a 12x blu-ray drive...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 16th 2009 9:08PM]

Considering for this expenditure I can buy 2.5 Terabytes of disk space, I could conceivably rip 100 single-layer BD movies. Then considering the costs of writable single-layer BD media, I could buy a TB worth of additional disk space for every four-layers of equivalent capacity.

Then there is the whole darn question of BD media costs as a viable solution for movies unless you are a) personally authoring your own content, b) need a optical disk solution for mobility, and c) just cannot deal with mobile hard disk transport for one's mobility needs.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 2nd 2009 7:57PM]

Anyone know anything about the included software with this drive? Specifically Power Director 8.0?
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Shop/DVD-Burners/Blu-ray+Drives/BDR-2203


I'm looking to create a blu-ray of some of my DVD movies and I want to create my own menu.

Anyone?