Pioneer hits China with $300 BDC-S02 Blu-ray drive

We're sure China hasn't given up on its efforts to skip over the major format war players and go with its home grown EVD format, but that doesn't mean Blu-ray manufacturers can't give it the old college try over there. To that end, Pioneer is busting out a $300 combo Blu-ray burner / player drive for PCs, the BDC-S02, and is launching it exclusively in China, with other markets to follow later. As far as we know, this is significantly cheaper than any other such drive on the market, and while $300 definitely isn't cheap by Chinese standards, it's a valiant effort on the part of Pioneer -- though we wouldn't mind a bit of that effort Stateside, we've never been bonkers for these $500-$1000 pricetags ourselves.

[Via TG Daily]

[TheGuy @ Apr 18th 2007 5:28PM]

Wow, that's pretty cheap for a Blu-Ray drive. If this is a sign of the strides being made in cost reduction for Blu-Ray, there better be a price-cut in the PS3 soon.

[kingofwale @ Apr 18th 2007 5:39PM]

I don't know, what sweatshop were those BR writers made in?? and how good is the quality?

But I would definitely get it if it's only 300 dollars. pretty big blow to HD-DVD writer if this is the price point of BR writers.

[Matt @ Apr 18th 2007 5:52PM]

I can't speak for their BD-R drive, but they make awsome DVD-RW drives. I have used them in the last 4 computers I have built and not a single one has ever had issues, they're fast, quiet, inexpensive.

[SumYungGai @ Apr 18th 2007 5:48PM]

Who cares how much the burner costs - its all about the BLANK MEDIA prices as the dictator for mass adoption.. and currently HD-DVD blanks are cheaper and will continue to be due to more cost-effective manufacturing process.

Take THAT sony and your viral BluRay marketing efforts.

[cduran01 @ Apr 18th 2007 6:02PM]

You need to look at the price per GB. Just did a quick search for blank media, this is what I found: Both Memorex brands both write once disks, HD-DVD blanks are $19.99 (on sale) and Blu-ray blanks are $31.50 regular price (on sale for $18.99.

The price per GB of the HD-DVD blanks is $1.33 while the Blu-ray (single layer) comes in at $1.26 per GB (at the regular price) and $0.76 per GB at the sale price.

BTW, these are Amazon prices, you can do the search yourself. Looks to me that Blu-ray is beating HD DVD in cost per GB on the blank media.

[ben w @ Apr 18th 2007 5:51PM]

blu ray is now cheap! (in china at least) with a big user base thanx to teh ps3 which costs looooooooads means it would definetely win without cheap HDDVD players(exception ps3 relatively cheap compared to other blu ray players so kinda makes it even)and microsoft backing it(they could force us 2 use HDDVD)
and the fact xbox 360 does not force it means blu ray has probably won(but not gauranteed 4 several years yet

i wont buy a ps3 or a wii but am thinking about 360
not sure i can wait for 65nm chips

im 14 what do u think?

[jahi da jewishpope @ Apr 18th 2007 9:07PM]

hey i just turned 15
i had the same problem deciding which to buy
the 360 or the PS3
i wanted wifi and i knew i would play online a lot
and i wanted to be able to cheaply upgrade my hdd later on, oh and i wanted a system that would last another 10 years
so i went with the PS3
i know right now theres not much of a difference with the 360 and PS3 but trust me the ps3 is well worth the money
it will pull ahead of the xbox very soon with its six processors
but watever u get send me ur online username so we can play at some point
by the way resistance makes Halo 2 feel outdated
[e-mail]

[Megumatron @ Apr 18th 2007 6:20PM]

I find it surprising how an article about an ODD can be transformed into a debate about blank media. The structure that is in place at the current moment is not for BDs to mass distribute these units to the hands of the consumer. The article linked from this one clearly states that IT profs will be the one -targeted- by BD writers and media until '08, with a wider expected adoption by consumers from '08-'10.

[Joe @ Apr 18th 2007 6:31PM]

That dude looks suspiciously constipated.

[bmitsuda @ Apr 18th 2007 7:04PM]

I just looked at amazon and the blank HD-DVD sale price that I found was 11.38. That puts it at less than a dollar per gb - still much too expensive in my mind when dvds are like 5 cents per gb. When I can by a pack of HD discs (HD-dvds or blu-ray) for a dollar each I will get a burner - whichever format it is.

Currently I think it is pointless to debate the issue since they are both impractical unless money is not an issue - with a backup external hard drive I hardly ever use disks anymore.

[Mark Pope @ Apr 18th 2007 7:50PM]

Looking at Amazon, the lowest prices are these:

HD-DVD: http://www.amazon.com/Ridata-DVD-R-15GB-Single-jewel/dp/B000LWCSUC/ref=sr_1_3/002-7976440-4655237?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1176939894&sr=1-3

This is good for $0.67 per GB.

Blu-Ray: http://www.amazon.com/Bd-re-Re-recordable-Single-Layer-25GB/dp/B000HDDKRU/ref=sr_1_5/002-7976440-4655237?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1176939780&sr=1-5

This is good for $0.57 per GB. Also, this is a rewritable BD-RE, while the HD-DVD is write-once only.

[tyecies @ Apr 18th 2007 10:17PM]

First of all, completely off topic. Second of all the PS3 doesn't have 6 processors. It has 6 SPE's optimized for floating point operations (i.e. not games). And i should hope the best game available for PS3 makes halo 2 look a little outdated, its just Gears makes resistance seem a little outdated. Well enjoy playing ports for the next 10 years

[Anonymous @ Apr 18th 2007 10:39PM]

This drive will probably be 300 when bought in bulk by an OEM. There is no chance you'll be able to go to a site like newegg or amazon any time soon and buy one of these for 300 dollars. Having said that, even if they sold this for 300 dollars, I wouldn't even consider buying one. Why? The blank media prices (as others have said). Considering that the cost per GB of full sized Harddrives is hovering at around 40 cents per gigabyte, paying 1.30 per gigabyte is outrageous.

[apothus @ Apr 19th 2007 2:15AM]

well shall leave you all to worry about media as i snag one of these when i go to china in a few months YAY :D

[Adbear @ Apr 19th 2007 7:06AM]

Also this article is wrong, the drive is not a blu-ray writer at all, It's a blu-ray player/dvdwriter

[Trent @ Apr 19th 2007 11:13AM]

This guy looks like the Asian equivalent of Corey Feldman.

[snowglyder @ Apr 19th 2007 12:13PM]

My first thought was an Asian Mike Myers....

[Trent @ Apr 19th 2007 12:21PM]

ROFL!!! You may be right snowglyder!

[Singh @ Apr 20th 2007 8:35AM]

Wow this should be great,
Is this really Pioneer or is it some Chinese brands....because dat is way too cheap man. Great news