Pioneer Announces BDR-205 12x Blu-ray Disc Writer

[Ian]

Pioneer announced this week that it will begin shipping its new BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc writer in October. The drive writes to both BD-R and BD-R DL media at 12x and reads BD media at 8x. No word on price, but the retail version (BDR-2205) will be priced at only $249. Let's hope that its better than the BDR-203.

http://www.cdrlabs.com/News/pioneer-lau ... riter.html
http://www.cdrlabs.com/Optical-Drives/P ... riter.html

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. today announces its new BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc® Computer Writer, the industry’s first and fastest model to feature up to 12x write speed for single and dual-layer Blu-ray Disc (BD) media. Ideal for authoring providers and system builders, the Pioneer® BD/DVD/CD Writer provides accurate, rapid performance for demanding professional applications.

“The BDR-205 drive represents our ongoing efforts to combine Pioneer’s engineering expertise with advanced technologies, and our next generation Blu-ray Disc writer is a great example of our no-compromise approach to optical disc product development,” said Steve Cohn, director of optical disc sales for Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “We are bringing to market the fastest Blu-ray Disc writer to date, and it is just one of the many ’firsts’ that have come to define Pioneer’s 30-year heritage in optical disc innovation and leadership.”

Pioneer BDR-205.jpg (37.07 KiB) Viewed 11525 times

[frank1]

There has been an announcement that Pioneer Europe has withdrawn from the PC Components distribution business from end of July 2009 for strategic reasons.
You cannot find anymore this type of equipment listed on Pioneer sites in Europe

So it looks like this burner Pioneer BDR-205 (or the retail versions BDR-2205 & BDR-S05J) may not be available in Europe but only in the US or Japan.


YSS has aldeady bought one BDR-205 and published a test on september the 13th:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/bdr205/bdr205_top.htm

[Ian]

So it looks like this burner Pioneer BDR-205 (or the retail versions BDR-2205 & BDR-S05J) may not be available in Europe but only in the US or Japan.

You could always buy the Plextor version:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/News/plextor-lau ... riter.html

[vinnie97]

I'm more inclined to go with the real deal (the Pioneer) in the states (not to mention more affordable). So, is the consensus that this outperforms its predecessor?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductRe ... 0430183812

Reviews are largely positive with a few lemons. I want something with relatively high CD-R/DVD-R writing quality.

[Ian]

I'm more inclined to go with the real deal (the Pioneer) in the states (not to mention more affordable). So, is the consensus that this outperforms its predecessor?

As far as BD reading and writing goes, its definitely better than its predecessor. DVD writing is about the same but CD writing is a bit faster. Still nothing to write home about though.

I'm currently testing LG's 10x BD writer and its pretty decent. I have no idea when their 12x drive will be available in the US but its out in Japan.