CDRLabs.com

Pioneer Japan sent out a press release this morning, announcing its new professional-grade Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-PR1. Designed for businesses, libraries and museums looking to archive important data to Blu-ray Disc, the BDR-PR1 features like a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 6x BD-R LTH, 2x BD-RE and 2x BD-RE DL writing speeds. The drive also comes with software which can be used to check the recording quality by measuring the RSER (Random Symbol Error Rate) and the number of Burst Errors. The  BDR-PR1 is scheduled to ship at the end of January and, while a price has not been announced, its expected to cost about three times as much as a consumer grade Blu-ray writer ($300-$400).

In support of Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer, Mitsubishi Chemical (MKM) has released its new professional, archival-grade 50GB BD-R DL media. Designed to work with the BDR-PR1, these new discs have a lifetime of more than 50 years when stored at room temperture (25° C) and 80% relative humidity. Contrary to earlier reports, Mitsubishi's archival-grade BD-R DL media has been developed in-house and will continue to be manufactured in the company's own factory.