Pioneer's BDC-2202 $300 Blu-ray drive heads for the States

No more gazing jealously across the Pacific as those Chinese consumers gobble up cheap-as-free BDC-S02 Blu-ray drives from Pioneer. The new BDC-2202 will be available in the US next month, and can read Blu-ray at 5x, Blu-ray dual layer at 2x and reads and writes to DVDs and CDs as well. Unfortunately, the BDC-2202 leaves out Blu-ray burning, which might be a deal breaker for some, and a complete non-issue for others. If you're just in it for the playback side of things, the BDC-2202 seems the way to go -- until something cheaper comes out next month, of course.

[Burke @ May 2nd 2007 1:40PM]

I'm assuming HDMI?
Well there goes the format war in my mind. And I sided with HD-DVD.

[DJBro @ May 2nd 2007 1:42PM]

You will need a HDCP compliant video card and monitor to play back AACS blu-ray discs. The interface for this drive will most likely be SATA or IDE.

[DJBro @ May 2nd 2007 1:41PM]

no BD-R no care

[andy @ May 2nd 2007 2:08PM]

Why couldn't I just use this with anyDVD and rip it to my NAS?

[kingofwale @ May 2nd 2007 1:59PM]

300 dollars Blu-Ray player??

OH, if the war isn't over last week, it is surely over now.

[prateeko @ May 2nd 2007 2:01PM]

Slap this thing into a home unit and sell it for $350-$400 and the Blu-Ray camp may finally have a real winner on it's hands (well, PS3 withstanding).

[Chuckles McGee @ May 2nd 2007 2:11PM]

Awww, too bad it's not a standalone player. Of course, I'll just install this in my Media Center PC, seeing how I have so many of those lying around.

[Max @ May 2nd 2007 2:35PM]

This is not really that big a deal, I mean it is a 300 dollar drive, that only reads. So you will need some expensive other equipment (HDCP video card and the processing power to deal with HD video) in order to make this drive into a viable BD player. So for most of us without a monster machine HTPC to put this into I went to the store and picked up a HD DVD player for a similar price ($100 more back then) that does everything I need (1080i, HDMI, Analog Audio Out, etc.). For the average consumer this will make very little difference because they won't have a comp to put it in and will end up buying a standalone for a bit more, however for the hardcore HTPC dudes, they might be very happy.

[wyatt.smith @ May 2nd 2007 2:45PM]

Anyone have any idea when a stand alone player with a similar price point will be available?

This would be an interesting development in the format war, but because it's just an internal drive (at least I think it is), it probably won't make a huge difference.

[Kelmer @ May 2nd 2007 2:52PM]

People aren't realizing that this is an internal disk drive for a computer. It isn't any kind of stand-alone machine/player. With this drive (with appropriate software) you will be able to watch Blu-ray movies on your computer.

This isn't something you can hook up to your TV to watch movies, unless you have a home theater PC.

[Kevin @ May 2nd 2007 3:00PM]

This looks like a good candidate for the next apple "superdrive"

[Loban @ May 2nd 2007 3:40PM]

Like Kelmer said, this is not a Blu-Ray player people. It's an internal optical drive for a computer. Which means of course it doesn't have HDMI, I'm assuming only IDE. ;)

[Ashley Jones @ May 2nd 2007 3:41PM]

Definately not a format war killer by all means, but when you consider that at the end of 2006 there were over 20 million Media Center PC's sold, and that didn't count the people who built there own, that could give a significant boost to blu-ray.

You have to remember that a lot of people who have media center PC's are computer people and upgrading your computer is just something you do once a year. The cost of a new video card and other pieces would just be an upgrade cost.

[Steven Clarkson @ May 2nd 2007 3:51PM]

There has been a sub 200 dollar hd-dvd drive out for almost a year...

[Chris K. @ May 2nd 2007 4:22PM]

"There has been a sub 200 dollar hd-dvd drive out for almost a year..."

We're talking internal drives here. The XBOX 360 drive doesn't count...

[Stephan @ May 2nd 2007 7:07PM]

"We're talking internal drives here. The XBOX 360 drive doesn't count..."

Ok fine then buy just the drive from this guy on http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-XBOX-360-HD-DVD-ROM-DRIVE-TOSHIBA-SD-S802A_W0QQitemZ250109227353QQihZ015QQcategoryZ122517QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
$100 shipped, so you have to cut off a couple tabs to get it to fit in you PC, and buy a $10 ATAPI to IDE adapter...

[Mak @ May 2nd 2007 4:57PM]

If Pioneer can do a PC Blu-Ray drive for $299, then fooshin corp can do a integrated player for $299 by xmas...

[Lazarus Dark @ May 2nd 2007 5:19PM]

finally, add this into my system this summer along with an 8600gts with full h264 acceleration and my westinghouse 37" 1080p lcd finally gets the native resolution content it deserves! Looks like high def is coming to the masses sooner than most thought.

*eyes rolling back, drooling over 1080p goodness*

[bcar473 @ May 2nd 2007 5:33PM]

Who's to say that this couldn't be plugged into and external 5.25" case, and plugged into a mac mini, and now you have a mac blu-ray media center for cheap?

I liked the idea of using this for ripping blu-ray onto a hard drive and then watching connected to my TV?

Also, what would street price be on this unit?

[tekdroid @ May 2nd 2007 7:18PM]

300 dollars to play higher-res overpriced Hollywood propaganda infested with DRM and requiring HDCP-compliant vidcard. Let me think...

PASS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP

[CyberGhost @ May 3rd 2007 9:47AM]

If it had writing capabilities, I'd probably buy it, But, who needs a read only drive?

[Steve @ May 3rd 2007 1:05PM]

The Samsung Supermulti Blue is comming. Read and write bluray, and read hd-dvd, neither side will win the format war.

[Brian @ Jun 4th 2007 5:37PM]

I could care less if this has writing capabilities or not. The blank BR disks are still almost thirty bucks. I just want it to put in my media center and rip BR Disks to my 2TB hard disk and never have to bother looking through 100's of DVD's again.