I’m still scratching my head over the Blu-ray format and how it beat out the HD-DVD format to become the standard. At the time, there were not many Blu-ray players or drives to choose from, they were very expensive, and recordable media was slow and expensive. According to Wikipedia, the Twentieth Century Fox adopted the Blu-ray Disk because of the BD+ anti-copying system in 2007. Then, in 2008 Warner Bros said it would only release movies on Blu-ray. Retails said they would drop HD-DVD formatted movies. Toshiba ended production of HD-DVD shortly after. Seven or so years later, we have many internal drives to choose from made by ASUS, LG, Pioneer, Lite-On, and Sony, for example. The medial is still relatively expensive, however.
Since its introduction, read/write speeds have increase with the different versions of the Blu-ray Recordable (BD-R), and Blu-ray Recordable Erasable (BD-RE). Drive speeds include 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x, 14x, 15x, and 16x. The data rate begins at 36 Mb/s and reaches 576 Mb/s for a 16x drive. The data rate can be calculated as DR=n * 36 Mb/s where n is the drive speed. A 15x drive would have a 15 * 36 Mb/s or 540 Mb/s data rate, for example.
Blu-ray disks can be single, double, triple layer, or quad layers that support capacities of 25.0 GB, 50.1 GB, 100.1 GB, and 128.0 GB, respectively. The 25 GB and 50 GB BD-R media can be written at speeds of 2x, 4x, and 6x today. The 100 GB and 128 GB BD-R media can be written at 2x and 4x. Expect higher density disks in the future to add more layers.
Table 1 shows a summary of the BD-R media costs for 25 GB, 50 GB, and 100 GB capacity disks. The cost per disk and cost per GB is also shown. The cost of DVD-R disks, flash sticks, the 2TB WD RE hard drive, and 512 GB Samsung SSD are also shown for comparison. The cost of the 25 GB and 50 GB BD-R media per bit is cheaper than most anything except a large hard. The 100 GB media is still quite expensive. DVD-R disks are cheap but due to their limited capacity don’t compete well with 25 GB BD-R and some of the lower cost 50 GB BD-R disks. USB flash drives are still more expensive but rewritable and the SSD is the most expensive on a cost per bit basis. Having long a low cost durable storage media that can be stored off site and without transferring it to a third party is very useful.
Table 1 Media Cost Summary
The Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer is a kit that contains a BDR-209UBK 16x drive, Media Suite 10, a blank disk, a power cable, and SATA III cable. The Media Suite 10 contains PowerDVD 10 for watching Blu-ray disk, Power2Go 7 for backing up your hard drive, and PowerDirector 10 for making HD Home movies. The read/write speed of the writer depends on the media being used. 25 GB BD-R disk can be written at 16x, 50 GB disks can be written at 14x, and 100 GB disks can be written at 8x assuming there are disks that can be written at these speeds. The drive read write speeds is way ahead of the available media. The fastest write speed I’ve found is 6x. Figure 1 shows the front of the box of Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer.
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Figure 1 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Box Front
Figure 2 shows the back of the box and lists the software and computer requirements needed for the writer to function properly.
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Figure 2 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Box Back
Figure 3 shows the front of the drive.
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Figure 3 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Front
Figure 4 shows the back of the drive and the SATA III and power connectors.
![Image]()
Figure 4 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Rear
Figure 5 shows the contents of the box contains the drive, one 25 GB BD-R disk, and cables.
![Image]()
Figure 5 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Kit
Figure 6 shows the unboxing video of the Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer.
Figure 6 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Unboxing Video
Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer was easy to install and use. It has worked very well. It was used to install Windows 8.1 64 bit without any issues. It’s read all disks provided with the hardware in this system, and was quick and quiet accessing files. It’s also been easy to attach as a drive to Windows XP running as a virtual machine in VirturalBox. I have not tried to write a disk yet so can’t comment of the write feature.
References
Index
Since its introduction, read/write speeds have increase with the different versions of the Blu-ray Recordable (BD-R), and Blu-ray Recordable Erasable (BD-RE). Drive speeds include 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x, 14x, 15x, and 16x. The data rate begins at 36 Mb/s and reaches 576 Mb/s for a 16x drive. The data rate can be calculated as DR=n * 36 Mb/s where n is the drive speed. A 15x drive would have a 15 * 36 Mb/s or 540 Mb/s data rate, for example.
Blu-ray disks can be single, double, triple layer, or quad layers that support capacities of 25.0 GB, 50.1 GB, 100.1 GB, and 128.0 GB, respectively. The 25 GB and 50 GB BD-R media can be written at speeds of 2x, 4x, and 6x today. The 100 GB and 128 GB BD-R media can be written at 2x and 4x. Expect higher density disks in the future to add more layers.
Table 1 shows a summary of the BD-R media costs for 25 GB, 50 GB, and 100 GB capacity disks. The cost per disk and cost per GB is also shown. The cost of DVD-R disks, flash sticks, the 2TB WD RE hard drive, and 512 GB Samsung SSD are also shown for comparison. The cost of the 25 GB and 50 GB BD-R media per bit is cheaper than most anything except a large hard. The 100 GB media is still quite expensive. DVD-R disks are cheap but due to their limited capacity don’t compete well with 25 GB BD-R and some of the lower cost 50 GB BD-R disks. USB flash drives are still more expensive but rewritable and the SSD is the most expensive on a cost per bit basis. Having long a low cost durable storage media that can be stored off site and without transferring it to a third party is very useful.
Table 1 Media Cost Summary
Speed | Media | Capacity | $/Disk | $/GB
|
6x | BD-R | 25 GB | $0.42 to $0.60/disk | $0.017 to 0.024/GB
|
6x | BD-R | 50 GB | $1.96 to $3.30/disk | $0.039 to 0.066/GB
|
4x | BD-R | 100 GB | $14.95/disk | $0.150/GB
|
16x | DVD-R | 4.7 GB | $0.21 to $0.25/disk | $0.045 to 0.053/GB
|
HD | 2048 GB | $150/drive | $0.073/GB
| |
USB | 64 GB | $18/stick | $0.28/GB
| |
USB | 128 GB | $30/stick | $0.234/GB
| |
SSD | 512 GB | $289/drive | $0.564/GB |
The Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer is a kit that contains a BDR-209UBK 16x drive, Media Suite 10, a blank disk, a power cable, and SATA III cable. The Media Suite 10 contains PowerDVD 10 for watching Blu-ray disk, Power2Go 7 for backing up your hard drive, and PowerDirector 10 for making HD Home movies. The read/write speed of the writer depends on the media being used. 25 GB BD-R disk can be written at 16x, 50 GB disks can be written at 14x, and 100 GB disks can be written at 8x assuming there are disks that can be written at these speeds. The drive read write speeds is way ahead of the available media. The fastest write speed I’ve found is 6x. Figure 1 shows the front of the box of Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer.
Figure 1 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Box Front
Figure 2 shows the back of the box and lists the software and computer requirements needed for the writer to function properly.
Figure 2 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Box Back
Figure 3 shows the front of the drive.
Figure 3 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Front
Figure 4 shows the back of the drive and the SATA III and power connectors.
Figure 4 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Rear
Figure 5 shows the contents of the box contains the drive, one 25 GB BD-R disk, and cables.
Figure 5 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Kit
Figure 6 shows the unboxing video of the Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer.
Figure 6 Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer Unboxing Video
Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD writer was easy to install and use. It has worked very well. It was used to install Windows 8.1 64 bit without any issues. It’s read all disks provided with the hardware in this system, and was quick and quiet accessing files. It’s also been easy to attach as a drive to Windows XP running as a virtual machine in VirturalBox. I have not tried to write a disk yet so can’t comment of the write feature.
References
Index
- X99 HPC Build 00: Introduction
- X99 HPC unboxing 01: Corsair Obsidian 750D
- X99 HPC unboxing 02: ASUS Rampage V Extreme
- X99 HPC unboxing 03: ASUS STRIX GTX 980 Video Card
- X99 HPC unboxing 04: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000 W PSU
- X99 HPC unboxing 05: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB memory kit
- X99 HPC unboxing 06: Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD
- X99 HPC unboxing 07: Intel core i7-5930k Haswell-E hex-core CPU
- X99 HPC unboxing 08: Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-ray/DVD/CD Writer