Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray Disc Writer

Model: Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray Disc Writer
Manufacturer: Sony Electronics
Provided By: Sony America

Rivalries are a fact of life in the tech industry. Over the years, we've seen some bitter battles between companies like Intel/AMD and Microsoft/Apple. Lately, the biggest battle is between HD DVD and Blu-ray. These two blue-violet laser disc formats have been battling it out to become the preferred next-generation optical disc standard. While both HD DVD and Blu-ray have their strengths and weaknesses, there is no clear winner yet.

One of the biggest backers of the Blu-ray Disc format is Sony Electronics. The company has thrown its weight behind the format, going as far as including support for it in their new video game console, the PlayStation 3. For the desktop computer market, Sony has introduced one of the first Blu-ray Disc writers, the BWU-100A. Offering support for both single and dual layer BD media, the drive has the ability to store up to 50GB of data or four hours worth of HD video onto a single disc. The BWU-100A is also capable of playing commercial Blu-ray Disc movies and can read and write to all major CD and DVD formats, including DVD-RAM.

This is just a sample of what Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer has to offer. Over the next few pages we'll take a look at the BWU-100A's features and then see how it compares to the Blu-ray Disc writers from Pioneer and I-O DATA. Does Sony's Blu-ray Disc writer have what it takes? Keep reading as we find out.