Pioneer on Tuesday announced the release of its latest Blu-ray, DVD and CD writer, the BDR-2203. The SATA-attached burner can write to dual-layer Blu-ray discs at up to 8x speeds. This translates to filling up a single-layer 25GB Blu-ray disc in just 15 minutes, and about 30 minutes to completely fill up a dual-layer disc's 50GB of data capacity. DVD recordable discs can be written at up to 16x speeds, with maximum speeds for dual-layer DVDs topping out at half of that. CD-Rs can be recorded at 32x speeds, with maximum speeds for rewritable CDs rated at 24x.
Included software includes CyberLink PowerDirector, PowerDVD, and Power2Go, which allows Windows users to edit the videos recorded on their HD camcorders and insert photos, other home videos or songs, as well as integrated dialogue and chapter bookmarks. The BDR-2203 should already be in stores, with a suggested retail price of $250.
Source: electronista