Hardware Pioneer BDXL BDR-206MBK Review

Pioneer's latest Blu-ray burner can write 120GB to a single disc. We find out how it shapes up.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/02/23/pioneer-bdxl-bdr-206-review/1

 

dumb format (though I just bought a br-drive for the sake of it)

 

£40 a disc? LOl, it's annoying enough when something goes wrong on a CD-R burn , imagine getting a write error with BDXL .

 

technically I just paid that for a br drive


physical media was dead 5 years ago

 

I'm frankly amazed that optical drives are still alive and kicking. For the past 10 years I can easily count (using only my hands) how many CD/DVD I burned. It is about time to send CD/DVD/other-ROMs/RWs into the bin of antiquated equipment.

In particular now when USB3 made external storage/moving data easier and faster than ever for a fraction of the cost when compared to any optical disk. It is pure madness prolonging life of stuff which is pretty much dead. How about buying new version of Windows on a tiny SSD/pendrive. No need for uber super-duper transfers. Old SSDs with transfers around ~100MB will do nicely. Drive will be bootable&encrypted (unlocked with private key generated online for example). There is plenty of possibilities. And if we think for a moment about WIndows 8 where USB3 support will be built-in as standard. Just plug USB stick in and enjoy Windows installation in 5 minutes. Simple. No need for big, slooow, round object whatsoever.

 

If single layer is 25Gb and dual layer is 50Gb, how is quad layer 128Gb? My brain hurts.

 

@ chelseascum: That's just what I was thinking

 

If it worked in PS3's and current BluRay Players and the disks were half the price, I'd be interested as I would be able to make much bigger and more epic HD home videos for the family to share. But as is, noooo way.

 

I would be interested for backup purposes - too many times picked a hard drive up off the shelf and a file has become corrupted even without being used.

Would have to be a heck of a lot cheaper though before it was worthwhile. Blu-ray is still far too expensive compared to DVDs - this is another level of insanity.

 

@Toploaded

hate to come round yours after you've been on holiday ;-)

 

Uhm why would i spend £40 on a disc when I can get 100 50GB discs wholesale for £30?

 

Any reason the burn/usb3/usb2 time are not all in minutes? seems a bit misleading when 2 of them are in minutes and the other in hours.

 

Previous rumors about MGS4 were that Kojima was unable to do all he wanted with the game because the Blu-Ray capacity was the limiting factor. If he did what he wanted from the started, it has been reckoned that he would need a triple or quad-layer disc. Too bad he didn't make it because by now PS3 would have that capability.

Although, external HDDs are cheap nowadays, I still want to use a DVD or Blu-Ray burner. I don't like to have my disk full of my important and precious data so after I get, for example, an entire anime series, I burn them and keep it safe in a disc dossier. I'm the kind of person that likes to look at his disk and see the blue usage bar being at 15% most. I like to know that I still have plenty of space for any sudden need.

 

I'm happy with my £30 DVD writer personally.

Optical media isn't that good for backups, I've seen cheap CDRs bleach in the sun after about a year, even if kept carefully I'd prefer to stick to HD (not that you shouldn't think carefully about where you store your backup HDD)

 

Cheap blu-ray reader is all that i require, i watch more films on my PC and laptop than the TV.

 

Great!


If you have the money to constantly buy new kit... most of us don't

 

I burn DVD-DLs all the time for my wife's photography business. The only absolutely certain way to maintain a backup of truly important stuff is to burn it to a disc and store it in a firesafe deposit box at a bank or other offsite storage location.

I know, this seems kind of extremist and might generate all kinds of negative feedback, but when your wife loses 500+ GB of photos, and amongst those were the only copies of thousands of personal pictures documenting the first 5 years of your marriage, you get kind of crazy. Especially when the hard drive was unrecoverable by 3 different recovery firms, and the online storage system you were using as your offsite backup "lost" your entire account.

So, by my count, an AFFORDABLE 128GB disc would be hawtness. But at ~$60 a disc, I think 5 x 25GB discs for ~$5 will do just fine.

 

I could see a use for it with discs being cheaper and zero write errors. If the tech becomes more widespread then who knows, maybe we will see 128GB discs for the price of a regular one. But even if this happens I'd still be nervous about using it. Maybe my drive was rubbish or I got a bad batch of CD-Rs, but last time I was recording something using physical media I had quite afew burn errors. Now imagine if something goes wrong when you are burning 120GB instead of 700MB.....

Btw, is support for BDXLrelated to hardware or can it be added via software updates? If it's an extra feature then I can imagine this wil have its niche. If it requires you to replace your current home cinema setup then forget it.

 

Actually, for long term storage tapes are better. They can even be reused.

LTO can store 800GB (1,6TB compressed) and is relatively cheap. The actual drive is a tad expensive, though.

 

I can see the purpose of BluRay for watching movies but not for burning.

With the price of 2Tb drives just buy 2 and have 2 copies of your backup.