The press release
PRESS RELEASE
Sony unveils first Blu-ray Disc
drive for PCs
A true multi-format burner targeted at HD video editing/recording and high capacity data storage
Weybridge, 13 September, 2006 - Sony Europe’s IT Peripherals division today announced the launch of its first Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) drive retail kit for PCs. The Sony BWU-100A drive reads and records single and dual layer Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R) and Rewritable (BD-RE) media, providing up to 50GB capacity per disc for recording personal High Definition media content as well as for general data storage, back-up and archiving. With a free software upgrade and a suitably-specified playback environment, the BWU-100A is also capable of playing back commercial Blu-ray movies. Backward read and write compatibility with all major DVD and CD formats make the BWU-100A a true multi-format burner and the ideal upgrade option for any computer - including single-bay barebone or media centre PCs. The stylish Sony BWU-100A drive comes bundled with the CyberLink BD Solution® software suite making it a complete out-of-the-box solution.
“With capacity for up to 4 hours of HDV 1080i Video shot with a HDV Camcorder, our first Blu-ray Disc drive kit is the ideal medium for both amateur and professional videographers and video editors working with HD. With 50GB of storage - enough for 12,000 MP3 files or up to 100,000 JPEG images - and quick random access, the drive also offers personal and small business users an advanced optical data backup and archiving solution,” said Christoph Cyrol, Product Marketing Manager in Sony Europe’s IT Peripherals division.
The Sony BWU-100A supports 2x BD-R and BD-RE read and write speed, equivalent to a data transfer rate of around 9MByte/s. It also supports 8X DVD±R, 4x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW as well as 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW recording, to 5x DVD-RAM recording and 2x BD-ROM, 8x DVD-ROM and 32x CD-ROM playback.
The bundled CyberLink BD Solution® provides a complete software application for capturing, authoring, editing and burning high-definition content such as personal and professional high definition camcorder footage onto BD discs. The BWU-100A is optimised for keeping the videos in the native HDV 1080i format for playback on Blu-ray Disc players BD-ROM drives while the software can also “down-convert” high-definition videos for burning on standard DVDs.
The BWU-100A is capable of playing back commercial Blu-ray movies as well as personally created Blu-ray content. Playing commercial Blu-ray Disc content (BD-ROMs) requires that the drive is integrated into a suitably-specified playback environment that is capable of handling copy protected material. A free upgrade for the bundled player software to support BD-ROM playback will be made available by Sony later this year.
The internal drive features an IDE (ATAPI) interface and standard 5.25-inch form-factor for easy installation inside a PC.
The BWU-100A will be available from September 2006 at an estimated end user price of 960 EURO incl. VAT.
Technical Specifications:
A true multi-format burner targeted at HD video editing/recording and high capacity data storage
Weybridge, 13 September, 2006 - Sony Europe’s IT Peripherals division today announced the launch of its first Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) drive retail kit for PCs. The Sony BWU-100A drive reads and records single and dual layer Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R) and Rewritable (BD-RE) media, providing up to 50GB capacity per disc for recording personal High Definition media content as well as for general data storage, back-up and archiving. With a free software upgrade and a suitably-specified playback environment, the BWU-100A is also capable of playing back commercial Blu-ray movies. Backward read and write compatibility with all major DVD and CD formats make the BWU-100A a true multi-format burner and the ideal upgrade option for any computer - including single-bay barebone or media centre PCs. The stylish Sony BWU-100A drive comes bundled with the CyberLink BD Solution® software suite making it a complete out-of-the-box solution.
“With capacity for up to 4 hours of HDV 1080i Video shot with a HDV Camcorder, our first Blu-ray Disc drive kit is the ideal medium for both amateur and professional videographers and video editors working with HD. With 50GB of storage - enough for 12,000 MP3 files or up to 100,000 JPEG images - and quick random access, the drive also offers personal and small business users an advanced optical data backup and archiving solution,” said Christoph Cyrol, Product Marketing Manager in Sony Europe’s IT Peripherals division.
The Sony BWU-100A supports 2x BD-R and BD-RE read and write speed, equivalent to a data transfer rate of around 9MByte/s. It also supports 8X DVD±R, 4x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW as well as 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW recording, to 5x DVD-RAM recording and 2x BD-ROM, 8x DVD-ROM and 32x CD-ROM playback.
The bundled CyberLink BD Solution® provides a complete software application for capturing, authoring, editing and burning high-definition content such as personal and professional high definition camcorder footage onto BD discs. The BWU-100A is optimised for keeping the videos in the native HDV 1080i format for playback on Blu-ray Disc players BD-ROM drives while the software can also “down-convert” high-definition videos for burning on standard DVDs.
The BWU-100A is capable of playing back commercial Blu-ray movies as well as personally created Blu-ray content. Playing commercial Blu-ray Disc content (BD-ROMs) requires that the drive is integrated into a suitably-specified playback environment that is capable of handling copy protected material. A free upgrade for the bundled player software to support BD-ROM playback will be made available by Sony later this year.
The internal drive features an IDE (ATAPI) interface and standard 5.25-inch form-factor for easy installation inside a PC.
The BWU-100A will be available from September 2006 at an estimated end user price of 960 EURO incl. VAT.
Technical Specifications:
|
Model
Name |
Sony
BWU-100A (internal BD / DVD / CD Burner) |
|
Discs
supported |
BD-ROM*,
BD-R (25GB / 50GB), BD-RE (25GB / 50GB), DVD-ROM, DVD-Video,
DVD±R, DVD±R DL, DVD±RW, DVD-RAM**,
CD-DA, CD-ROM, Video CD, Photo CD***, CD Text, CD-Extra, CD-R, CD-RW |
|
Write
speed
(max.) Blu-ray
Disc DVD
CD
|
2x
(BD-R / BD-RE) 8x
DVD±R, 4x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 5x
DVD-RAM 24x
CD-R, 16x CD-RW |
|
Read
speed / Sustained
transfer rate (max.) |
2x
BD-ROM (9MB/s) 8x
DVD-ROM (10.8MB/s) 32x
CD-ROM (4.6MB/s) |
|
Average
access time |
210
ms (BD-ROM) 170ms
(DVD-ROM) 160ms
(CD-ROM)
|
|
Interface
|
IDE
(ATA/ATAPI)
|
|
Interface
burst transfer rate |
66MB/s
Ultra DMA mode 4 / 33MB/s Ultra DMA mode 2 |
|
Buffer
memory |
8MB
|
|
Dimensions
/ Weight |
13.33
(W) x 4.14 (H) x 17.78 (D) cm / 1.15 kg |
* Playback of commercial movies on Blu-ray Disc (BD-ROM) requires additional software / hardware not included in this kit. High Definition video playback requires a HD display and high power CPU, high performance Graphic card. Playback of AACS protected media may require an HDCP compliant output and HDCP compliant display.
** PhotoCD playback requires additional software not bundled with this drive.
*** Writing on DVD-RAM 1.0 format media (single sided with 2.6GB capacity) is not supported.
The Cyberlink BD Solution® software suite consists of the following tools:
• CyberLink
PowerProducerTM: DVD/CD authoring and BDAV authoring software. Capture
HD Video from HDV camcorders and record it to BD-RE media.
• CyberLink PowerDirectorTM 5: HD video editing software.
• CyberLink Power2Go: Data Writing software.
• CyberLink InstantBurnTM 5: Packet Writing software. Supports UDF 2.5/2.6 files for BD.
• CyberLink PowerBackupTM 2: Backup software.
• CyberLink PowerDVDTM 6: DVD Video, Video CD and BDAV format player software. BD-ROM playback requires a software upgrade.
• CyberLink PowerDirectorTM 5: HD video editing software.
• CyberLink Power2Go: Data Writing software.
• CyberLink InstantBurnTM 5: Packet Writing software. Supports UDF 2.5/2.6 files for BD.
• CyberLink PowerBackupTM 2: Backup software.
• CyberLink PowerDVDTM 6: DVD Video, Video CD and BDAV format player software. BD-ROM playback requires a software upgrade.
Sony plans to offer customers a free upgrade service to enable the CyberLinkTM software to play back BD-ROM movies. The service will be available later this year. Details about the software download service will be announced later.
About Sony
Sony manufactures audio, video, communications and information technology products for the global consumer and professional markets. With its music, pictures, game and online businesses, Sony is uniquely positioned to be one of the World´s Leading Consumer Brands. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of EUR 54.96 billion (yen 7,475 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006 and it employs approximately 156,500 people worldwide.
In Europe, Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of EUR 12.61 billion (yen 1,715 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006, based on an average market exchange rate for the same period of yen 136 to the EUR. Sony Europe, headquartered at the Sony Center am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, is responsible for the company's European electronics business and registered consolidated sales of EUR 8.22 billion (yen 1,118 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006.
Sony Europe's IT Peripherals division provides a comprehensive range of computer displays for home and office use as well as quality personal and business data storage solutions.
For more information please visit http://www.sony-europe.com/displays and http://www.sonyisstorage.com.
