In October Sony will launch their 8x external Blu-Ray recorder, the BWU-300S. This little sucker will also handle CDs at 48x and DVDs at 16x. Bizarrely the 8x speed is achievable with 6x compatible BD-R discs. Thus a single layer 25 GB disc can be filled with zeroes and ones in about 15 mins, with a 50 GB dual layer disc taking, err, twice as long at 30 minutes. One of the dual layer discs will store up to 230 minutes of HD 1080i video. And just to sweeten the deal, Sony are bundling the BWU-300S up with the Blu-Ray version of the hit movie ‘Men in Black’. Other features on the BWU-300S include

* CyberLink’s software suite
* SATA interface
* standard 5.25 inch form factor

The final and possibly most important spec is the US$400 price tag, which is remarkably similar to Buffulo’s 8x Blu-Ray burners which appeared over three months ago. So the BWU-300S may not be a great winner unless of course you’re a Men In Black fan.

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Next month our Japan-based readers will be able to get their mits on Buffalo’s latest Blu-Ray burners, the BR-816SU2, BR-816FBS-WH and BR-816FBS-BK, all of which are capable of writing to Blu-Ray disks at a speed of 8x. First up is the BR-816SU2, an external USB 2.0/eSATA unit capable of writing to your single layer BD-R at the lightening fast speed of 8x when connected through its eSATA interface. Using the USB 2.0 connector you’ll still be able to achieve 6.5x. The BR-816FBS black and white units are internal burners and have a SATA connection allowing the same 8x speeds. Speeds for other disk types are as follows

* Dual layer BD-R, BD-RE and LTH BD-R - 2x
* DVD±R - 16x
* DVD-RAM - 5x
* DVD±R DL - 8x
* DVD-RW - 6x
* DVD+RW - 8x
* CD-R/RW - 48x/24x

Now for the crunch, what’s the price tag on these suckers? The BR-816SU2 will retail at 46,700 Yen whilst the internal units, BR-816FBS will appear at 41,000 Yen. This figures if converted directly when launched else where work out to US$435 and US$380. Not shabby for some decent hi-def storage units.

Source: Google Translate

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