Blu-ray Drives Hit 8X Write Speeds

A newly released internal Blu-ray drive by Buffalo Technology claims the position of world’s fastest Blu-ray drive

Buffalo Technology recently released to market the world’s fastest internal Blu-ray drive, capable of up to 8x read and write speeds. The drive has write speeds of up to 8x, achievable when using capable single-layer BD-R media and up to 2x write speeds capable when using BD-RE, LTH BD-R, or dual-layer BD-R media. The drive features an 8 MB buffer and is capable of reading and writing to DVD and CD media as well. An external version of the drive is also available, although write speeds are limited to 6.5x when using it over a USB 2.0 connection.

The internal SATA drive, BR-816FBS, and the USB 2.0/eSATA external drive, BR-816SU2, are based on Panasonic’s SW-5584. Early tests of the drive show it took 13 minutes and 44 seconds to fill up a 25 GB BD-R disc. The test was performed using 6x media, which is the fastest currently available BD-R media, yet the drive seemed to work fine while writing at 8x speeds with it anyways. The maximum theoretical speed for the reading and writing of Blu-ray discs is about 12x, so these new drives are getting pretty close to the maximum allowable speeds.

The new Buffalo internal Blu-ray drive is expected to cost between $350 to $400, it will include CyberLink’s Software Suite, and is currently beginning to fill retail outlets worldwide.

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  • enewmen
    Good to hear.
    But when will at least 50gig Blu-Ray disks be common (on Newegg for example).
    I hope the media catches up to the hardware sometime soon.
    Reply
  • JeanLuc
    enewmenGood to hear.But when will at least 50gig Blu-Ray disks be common (on Newegg for example).I hope the media catches up to the hardware sometime soon.
    It will be a long time for it to be common. When was the last time your burnt a DVD? I haven't burnt a DVD in years simply because there is no need, I have two external hard drives for all my back needs and USB sticks and other flash memory is perfect for moving large files around.

    Why should you spend £300 (UK Sterling) on Blu-Ray disc writer that takes about an hour to burn an expensive 50gb disc when the same amount of data can be put on an 500Gb external hard drive that costs £80 in about half that time?
    Reply
  • Exactly the reasoning behind AppleTV.
    Reply
  • ok ok so if you want to keep some fullHD movies in your hdd...
    lets do the math:
    1 blu-ray movie its aprox 40GB (whitout the extras)
    10 blu-ray movies : 400GB
    50 blu-ray movies: 2000GB

    so if you want to keep some bluray movies you gonna need a
    two terabyte hdd free.
    Reply