Sony has unveiled its second generation Blu-ray Disc writer, the BWU-200S. The new drive features 4x BD-R and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and, according to Sony's claims, can burn an entire 50GB BD-R disc in as little as 45 minutes.

Sony Electronics today announced its second generation internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) writer drive for the computer aftermarket, which boasts 4X BD-R and 16X DVD+R recording speeds.

The new BWU-200S model cuts BD-R burning time by half compared to the first generation model, allowing for a full 50GB BD-R disc to be recorded in about 45 minutes. It also features improved DVD burning speeds, making it a multi-format combo burner that eliminates the need for more than one drive in a system.

The drive comes with CyberLink BD Solution software that provides a comprehensive application for capturing, authoring, editing, burning and viewing high-definition personal content captured in the native HDV 1080i format from an HDV camcorder. In addition, the software supports recording on DVDs and CDs, as well as playback of DVDs recorded in the AVCHD format.
The BWU-200S will be available directly from Sony at sonystyle.com next month for about $600. Full details can be found here.