*YIKES* BD-Burning Gets Affordable

P

PGHammer

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It may very well be time to get off the fence if you've been put off by the cost of BD burners.

While the drive is *not* listed on their USA Web site (or microsite), it's available (at least e-tail).

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/031/1041031/lg-blu-ray-burner-reviewed (INQ review of the burner in question)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...6243420&name=LG ELECTRONICS&SpeTabStoreType=1 (Newegg page with both OEM and retail versions of the same drive; note the price)

Reads everything (even HD-DVD!), and writes BD-R, BD-RE, the forthcoming BD-LS (LightScribe BD media), not to mention darn near every standard CD and DVD format on the planet. If you can do e-tail, the time to bite could well be now.
 
considering what they did cost not too long ago, as well think of what DVD burners had costs for a while $100+, and especialy pioneer ones.

and $6.50 for what 25G or 50G of data, i would bite.
 
farscapesg1 said:
Hmm, not sure I consider a $199 burner "affordable" :) Not to mention $6.50+ per disk...
Click to expand...

My first CD burner was $200. My first DVD burner was $200.

I had forgotten that until just now. Thank you. :) I guess $199 really is the magic point.

And, $6.50 for one 25GB BD disc isn't that bad. It would take 5 DVDs to equal the storage capacity of one BD disc. Although the DVDs are cheaper... it's easier burning one disc than 5. And if you wanted to burn a second copy... it's easier burning 2 BD discs instead of 10 DVDs.
 
MScrip said:
My first CD burner was $200. My first DVD burner was $200.

I had forgotten that until just now. Thank you. :) I guess $199 really is the magic point.

And, $6.50 for one 25GB BD disc isn't that bad. It would take 5 DVDs to equal the storage capacity of one BD disc. Although the DVDs are cheaper... it's easier burning one disc than 5. And if you wanted to burn a second copy... it's easier burning 2 BD discs instead of 10 DVDs.
Click to expand...

Good points, but you have to factor in the 22x speed for DVDs and only 6x for these Blu-ray burners. The $200 isn't so bad, but is 6x it, or will they continue to increase speeds?
 
MScrip said:
My first CD burner was $200. My first DVD burner was $200.

I had forgotten that until just now. Thank you. :) I guess $199 really is the magic point.

And, $6.50 for one 25GB BD disc isn't that bad. It would take 5 DVDs to equal the storage capacity of one BD disc. Although the DVDs are cheaper... it's easier burning one disc than 5. And if you wanted to burn a second copy... it's easier burning 2 BD discs instead of 10 DVDs.
Click to expand...

:p I guess it just depends on your interpretation of "affordable". I've never spent more than $70 on a burner. As for media prices, I think I would rather pick up a 500 GB external drive for the same price (or actually a little less) than 20 Blu-Ray disks. Not only would it be less money but the transfer would be faster....
 
I feel horrible for paying $200 for a CD/DVD burner back in 2004... I think I'll wait. I really can't think of a reason to have a BD burner right now. I back everything up on external HDD's and I don't need to put that much HD video on anything. Heck, aside from burning a copy of Win7 on a DVD, I haven't used a burner in years.

With my netbook, that install for Win7 is now on a thumb drive.
 
GJSNeptune said:
Good points, but you have to factor in the 22x speed for DVDs and only 6x for these Blu-ray burners. The $200 isn't so bad, but is 6x it, or will they continue to increase speeds?
Click to expand...

1x doesn't mean the same for BD as it does for CD or DVD. Blu-ray 1x is 36 megabits per second, DVD is 10.5 megabits per second, and CD is 150 KB/s. Thus, 40x CD-R is 6 MB/s, 16x DVD is 21 MB/s, and 6x BD is 27 MB/s.
 
yamahaSHO said:
I feel horrible for paying $200 for a CD/DVD burner back in 2004...
Click to expand...

My CD burner was purchased in 2000.

My DVD burner was purchased in 2004.

Each just happened to cost $200... that's how much they cost back then. Remember, Newegg didn't have $30 burners 5 years ago. I needed them then. I still need them now. I work in dance studios, burning tons of CDs. And I edit videos and burn lots of DVDs.

I'm not, however, in the market for a BD burner... my point was that IF you needed to burn stuff to optical media, one BD disc is easier than 5 DVDs.

I too backup everything to hard drives.
 
MScrip said:
My CD burner was purchased in 2000.

My DVD burner was purchased in 2004.

Each just happened to cost $200... that's how much they cost back then. Remember, Newegg didn't have $30 burners 5 years ago. I needed them then. I still need them now. I work in dance studios, burning tons of CDs. And I edit videos and burn lots of DVDs.

I'm not, however, in the market for a BD burner... my point was that IF you needed to burn stuff to optical media, one BD disc is easier than 5 DVDs.

I too backup everything to hard drives.
Click to expand...



That was kind of my point AND the reason I'll wait ;) I can't imagine anyone NEEDING to burn to BD just yet.
 
I get why quite a few would wait, and I agree with their points.

However, even hard-drive-based backups fail. Having off-site backups (in fact, especially if you back up to the LARGER hard drives) makes all too much sense these days, especially if you have video files (or other huge non-replaceable files) that should be backed up.

The real point to the lower price is that this can be a "Ginsu drive" (I did point out that it also reads darn near every optical format currently in use, including the now-dead HD DVD). Further, because it's SATA, it connects like any other SATA device.

Since I'm also the OP, I'd point out that my own primary use for it would be as such a drive (read-darn-near-anything) and as a second DVD burner, as opposed to a "straight" BD burner (I used my first DVD burner as a second CD burner, as I had no use, at the time, for the outsized capacities of DVD-R media; silly me....).
 
I have that drive :)
There was a clearance sale here at a local hardware chain, I got the drive, retail boxed, for 6000 rupees, which is ~120$ US. Great deal!
 
Fry's has been dumping these particular Blu-ray burners for weeks now at $199 to $219 - and the LG HD-DVD/Blu-ray reader/DVD burner combo drives for $99. I wouldn't mind having one like anybody else, but the cost of actual Blu-ray media is ridiculous and will be for a very long time to come.
 
I'll hold off on getting a burner until they get below $100.

I just ordered the LG 6x Blu Ray/HD-DVD/DVD Burner/Lightscribe drive for $99.00 a couple days ago. I was able to justify it because I've been avoiding buying movies since I didn't want to buy regular DVDs when Blu Ray versions are available. I can't really justify getting a burner when I have a good fileserver and secondary backup solution already.
 
Media costs are still prohibitive.
In the UK it costs near 12p a disc for DVD.
5x the size (BD) is 60p, approx 80cents in DVDs.
Thats nowhere near the $6+ per disk quoted earlier and not worth the convenience "for me" to pay 8x the cost.

Quite a way to go yet.
 
Media Costs (UK):

Blu-Ray

Blu-Ray 2x, 25GB (25 pack): £121.89 = 19.5p/GB
Blu-Ray 2x, 50GB: £17.70 = 35.4p/GB

DVD

DVD-R 16x, 4.7GB (100 pack): £12.64 = 2.7p/GB
DVD+R DL 8x, 8.5GB (25 pack): £26.44 = 12.4p/GB

Not to mention the fact that hardly any people have Blu-Ray drives so you'll probably end up having to burn DVDs if you want to take them any more. Drive and media are still too prohibitively expensive for me, but hopefully this drop in price will start to saturate the market a little more.
 
Thanks for further clarification.
The price breaks for decent Blu Ray disks are only present when buying bulk.
There is zero chance I will buy 25x25GB BD disks at £121, the same as £193 per 1TB.
Especially when an incredibly fast 1TB hard drive (40x25GB BD equivalent) is £79 !!!
 
Two of the Blu-ray movies in my Amazon shopping cart have dropped to $15. Too bad I have no way to play them.
 
yamahaSHO said:
That was kind of my point AND the reason I'll wait ;) I can't imagine anyone NEEDING to burn to BD just yet.
Click to expand...

when you have a Canon 40D and fill a 4G card pretty quick and have 2 x4G cards which i can fill in a day..... burning backups of my pictures to BR makes alot of sense to save time and disks.
 
MrGuvernment said:
when you have a Canon 40D and fill a 4G card pretty quick and have 2 x4G cards which i can fill in a day..... burning backups of my pictures to BR makes alot of sense to save time and disks.
Click to expand...

Why not just buy a 1+TB hard drive and an external caddy?

1.5TB Western Digital Green: $159.99 US
External enclosure: $62.99 US

14.4 cents / GB

Plus it's quicker than burning discs, it doesn't waste plastic and you have a greater degree of compatability with other systems (how many computers have USB ports and how many have BluRay drives)?
 
DeathFromBelow said:
I'll hold off on getting a burner until they get below $100.

I just ordered the LG 6x Blu Ray/HD-DVD/DVD Burner/Lightscribe drive for $99.00 a couple days ago. I was able to justify it because I've been avoiding buying movies since I didn't want to buy regular DVDs when Blu Ray versions are available. I can't really justify getting a burner when I have a good fileserver and secondary backup solution already.
Click to expand...

this. not getting a reader or burner till the burner is below 100 :)
 
MrGuvernment said:
when you have a Canon 40D and fill a 4G card pretty quick and have 2 x4G cards which i can fill in a day..... burning backups of my pictures to BR makes alot of sense to save time and disks.
Click to expand...

That's just over the limit of a DVD... If this is daily and you back up daily, I still don't see the NEED for BD burning yet.... Especially at the high cost compared to a 50 pack of DVD-R's.
 
How much performance do you loose with usb 2.0 compared to SATA? would be convenient with an external drive but not if it means more stutters or longer loading times...
 
yamahaSHO said:
I feel horrible for paying $200 for a CD/DVD burner back in 2004... I think I'll wait. I really can't think of a reason to have a BD burner right now. I back everything up on external HDD's and I don't need to put that much HD video on anything. Heck, aside from burning a copy of Win7 on a DVD, I haven't used a burner in years.

With my netbook, that install for Win7 is now on a thumb drive.
Click to expand...

try spending $739 for a 2x yamaha scsi cdr back in 1996. I got it off the web of all places.. on my works slip account. edit: haha I found a link to the original post on google groups. look at them prices!! mine is the third post. heh I remember buying blanks "on sale" by the 100ct spindle for $7.50 EACH!
heh $199 seems cheap to me now. back then I was on a starving students salary. (luckily I split it with someone) It sure was nice burning cd's back then.. everyone was like wtf? for real you can burn cd's? :D
 
right now the cheapest i can get a spindle of 50x 50gb BD-R's is around $500 if i import it from japan... or over a $1000 from the US... thats just insane...
 
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