Pioneer To Offer BDC-2202 Blu-ray Reader

By Geoff Duncan Published May 2, 2007

Pioneer Electronics has announced it will offer its BDC-2202 Blu-ray computer drive to U.S. consumers next month for a suggested price of $299. The drive can read BD-ROM, BD-R, and BD-RE media at up to 5× speeds, and handle double-layer BD-ROM and BD-R/-RE media at 2× speed. The drive does not offer Blu-ray burning capabilities, but for the purposes of movie playback or accessing data stored on BD media, the drive—and its low price point—may be a hit with PC enthusiasts. The drive can burn content to standard DVDs and CDs.

“With the BDC-2202, computer savvy consumers are now privy to what was previously only available to professional users,” said Andy Parsons, senior VP at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., in a statement, “In addition to maintaining the same benefits of current optical disc drives, the included software means users can now enjoy their favorite Blu-ray Disc movies as well as their own personal disc creations.”

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Pioneer plans to ship the BDC-2202 with software which enables users to burn movies directly from a digital camcorder to DVD media using a Direct-to-Disc feature; the software bundle will also enable users to create their own DVD-based movies and slideshows, back up computer data, and create and burn music CDs.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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