128GB Pioneer flagship BDR-2208 is the world’s fastest 15x internal Blu-ray drive

[HDTV1080P]

The Pioneer flagship BDR-2208 is the world’s fastest 15x internal Blu-ray drive that also supports 128GB BDXL media

$99.99 list price

Pioneer in mid November of 2012 plans on releasing their 3rd generation top of the line 128GB BDXL Blu-ray drive that writes single layer 25GB Blu-ray discs up to 15x writing speed. At 15x writing speed this makes the flagship Pioneer BDR-2208 computer drive the worlds fastest Blu-ray drive with the bonus of full support for 100GB and 128GB BDXL optical media.

Pioneer BDR-2208 Blu-ray burner

Installation Manual

Product Overview

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Blu-ray-Disc/Computer-Drives/BDR-2208

[img eL]

[HDTV1080P]

We are starting to see inflation in electronics in 2013. The Pioneer BDR-2208 which was released in 2012 with a list price of $99.99, has now officially inflated in value $10. The new official Pioneer BDR-2208 list price is now $109.99.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Blu-ray-Disc/Computer-Drives/BDR-2208

[R3P0]

Seems a lot of things went up 10-20 dollars in price, EVGA GTX 680 4GB Classified went up to 609.99 from 599.99, nice drive tho think I may have to get this.

[dib2]

What do you mean it costs $109 tiger direct has it for $89

[prerich]

Originally Posted by dib2

What do you mean it costs $109 tiger direct has it for $89

Good price find !

[solarrdadd]

thanks, this is great news, i'm looking to upgrade my drive to blu for backing up large data files, music & movies too.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by dib2

What do you mean it costs $109 tiger direct has it for $89

He didn't state it cost $109. He stated the list price or MSRP had increased from $99.99 to $109.99. Usually the MSRP decreases rather than increases over time.

EDIT:

The OEM or non-retail version (i.e. non SATA cable or trial Blu-ray software), BDR-208DBK, is available from Amazon for $64.99. Looks like Pioneer firmware handicapped the drive to only DL.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Electr...dp/B00A4ZXE40/

The previous generation, BDR-207MBK, is a BDXL drive (12x only) for only $59.99 through a third-party fulfilled by Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-BDR-20...dp/B009XU13H2/

[HDTV1080P]

About a month or two ago the cheapest price I found the Pioneer BDR-2208 for was $79.99 plus free shipping, however I was busy at the time and did not order one. Now as far as I am aware the cheapest price is now $84.99 with free shipping. Prices can change daily.

[dib2]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

He didn't state it cost $109. He stated the list price or MSRP had increased from $99.99 to $109.99. Usually the MSRP decreases rather than increases over time.

EDIT:

The OEM or non-retail version (i.e. non SATA cable or trial Blu-ray software), BDR-208DBK, is available from Amazon for $64.99. Looks like Pioneer firmware handicapped the drive to only DL.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Electr...dp/B00A4ZXE40/

The previous generation, BDR-207MBK, is a BDXL drive (12x only) for only $59.99 through a third-party fulfilled by Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-BDR-20...dp/B009XU13H2/

No one is going to buy it for that much anyway so who cares. He said it was 109 and went up in cost but it has not.

Besides the disc are extremely expensive and before it becomes popular it will become obsolete anyway. Good luck with future compatibility in reading those discs. Maybe if 4K blu-ray uses more than 2 layers the cost will come down unless they use different technology all together.

[HDTV1080P]

I was correct, the list price increased from $99.99 to $109.99. However the street price of the item only increased $5. That is still inflation.

[HDTV1080P]

New Egg has the Pioneer BDR-2208 for only $77.99 plus free shipping. I purchased a few of these since that is a great price. Possible late October or November Pioneer might come out with a new model. Pioneer use to come out with a new model every 2 years, but lately a new model has been coming out every year. There are many optical Blu-ray drives that do not ship with any software at all. The Pioneer BDR-2208 comes with PowerDVD 10 3-D that allows one to playback Blu-ray 2-D and Blu-ray 3-D discs (Blu-ray 3-D discs can only be viewed at 2-D quality unless one owns 3-D equipment). I already own PowerDVD 13 Ultra, however by bundling the old PowerDVD 10 with this product it makes this top of the line Blu-ray drive very attractive.

[HDTV1080P]

Important Update: There is nothing wrong with the Pioneer BDR-2208 Blu-ray drive. The problem has been isolated to a defective Blu-ray disc that was slightly out of specs.

Possible BD-ROM optical disc incompatibility issue when playing some movie discs

A family member that I know has an unlimited Blockbuster Blu-ray rental membership at the local Blockbuster store, and they bring a new Blu-ray movie home almost everyday. One day they picked up Olympus Has Fallen on Blu-ray, which was released by Sony Pictures. Sony Pictures does not have special rental versions of Blu-ray discs, and instead offers the full retail version discs to Blockbuster for rental.

When I placed the Olympus Has Fallen Blu-ray disc in the Pioneer BDR-2208 Blu-ray drive the disc was not even readable at all (The disc surface was cleaned). The Pioneer drive could not detect what type of optical disc was inserted. I then went to another room in the house which has a second desktop computer with a Pioneer BDR-2208 drive. The same results the Pioneer drive was unable to detect the type of disc that was inserted. So on two separate Pioneer BDR-2208 drives the Olympus Has Fallen optical disc was completely unreadable. However, every other Blu-ray, DVD, and CD disc that I tried works fine with the two Pioneer BDR-2208 drives.

I then discovered that the Olympus Has Fallen Blu-ray disc will play perfectly fine in a Notebook computer with a BD-ROM drive and also the movie plays fine in a OPPO BDP-93 standalone Blu-ray player.

So in theory there is 3 possibilities on why this Olympus Has Fallen Blu-ray disc was unable to be read on two different Pioneer BDR-2208 drives that I tried

1. The most likely possibility is that the Blu-ray disc when pressed at the Sony factory was slightly out of specs and would not play on certain BD-ROM and BDXL drives. I did not have the time to exchange the rental to see if the disc was defective. Many years ago I saw a 20th Century Fox Blu-ray that would not play on certain Blu-ray players since when the disc was stamped it was slightly out of specs. Exchanging the disc solved the problem for that title, however I did not have the time to exchange the rental disc and just watched it on a OPPO BDP-93 instead.

2. Now if every Olympus Has Fallen Blu-ray disc was not readable by all Pioneer BDR-2208 BDXL computer drives, then Pioneer would need to issue a firmware update to fix the problem. My guess is the rental disc was just slightly out of specs and it was not a Pioneer drive firmware issue.

3. In the past some studios on purpose did release special 480i DVD discs that could not be read at all in a DVD-ROM computer drive (In attempt to prevent consumers from using optical discs on computers). As far as I am aware no studio is purposely releasing Blu-ray movies that will not playback in a computer Blu-ray BDXL drive.


To find an answer to the above theories and questions I need to either purchase or rent a copy of Olympus Has Fallen on Blu-ray to see if the same problem occurs with a second copy of the movie. At this time I do not have time to investigate this issue further, most likely it was just a defective Blu-ray disc that was slightly out of specs that was not readable at all on certain Blu-ray drives like the BDR-2208 model.

[HDTV1080P]

Good news for Pioneer BDR-2208 owners

There is nothing wrong with the Pioneer BDR-2208 BDXL hardware and firmware design. Before Blockbuster closed its doors for renting, I rented another copy of Olympus Has Fallen on Blu-ray and the Pioneer BDR-2208 instantly read the Blu-ray disc with no problems.

The problem has been isolated to a bad Blu-ray disc that was slightly out of specs. I have seen this problem many years ago with a 20th Century Fox Blu-ray that would not play on certain Blu-ray players since when the disc was stamped it was slightly out of specs. Exchanging the disc solved the problem for that title also.

So once and awhile when a Blu-ray title does not load at all on certain brands and models of Blu-ray drives, the real problem is the Blu-ray title being slightly out of specs when it is pressed in the factory.

Same thing can occur on standalone Blu-ray players. When the Blu-ray disc is inserted in a standalone Blu-ray player and the Blu-ray player says “No disc” then the Blu-ray title should be exchanged. However if on a standalone Blu-ray player if the Blu-ray player attempts to load the disc, but fails, then the solution to the problem is to download the latest firmware update.

[oppopioneer]

Does anyone here own the BDR-2208 and how does it compare to regular blu ray players?

[HDTV1080P]

I prefer using an OPPO Blu-ray player connected to a 50 or 60 inch display when watching movies. However, when I am doing research on my desktop computer or a family members notebook computer I like using the Pioneer BDR-2208 Blu-ray drive. The Pioneer BDR-2208 is the fastest BDXL drive on the market and the big difference between it and a standalone Blu-ray player is the ability to backup data on to a BDXL optical disc. All optical discs are 100% immune to natural occurring or manmade EMP’s and some of the optical discs can last up to a 100 years (Optical discs are ideal for long term storage).

You really only need a Pioneer BDR-2208 if you want a Blu-ray player in your computer and if you want to backup homemade family videos or computer data.

100% of the standalone Blu-ray players in the United States are for playback only. The ability to record TV and cable TV programs on a computer hard drive and then transfer them to a Blu-ray disc is a nice feature for some people. There are many TV and cable shows that will never be released on Blu-ray and the recording feature is ideal.

[oppopioneer]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

I prefer using an OPPO Blu-ray player connected to a 50 or 60 inch display when watching movies. However, when I am doing research on my desktop computer or a family members notebook computer I like using the Pioneer BDR-2208 Blu-ray drive. The Pioneer BDR-2208 is the fastest BDXL drive on the market and the big difference between it and a standalone Blu-ray player is the ability to backup data on to a BDXL optical disc. All optical discs are 100% immune to natural occurring or manmade EMP’s and some of the optical discs can last up to a 100 years (Optical discs are ideal for long term storage).

You really only need a Pioneer BDR-2208 if you want a Blu-ray player in your computer and if you want to backup homemade family videos or computer data.

100% of the standalone Blu-ray players in the United States are for playback only. The ability to record TV and cable TV programs on a computer hard drive and then transfer them to a Blu-ray disc is a nice feature for some people. There are many TV and cable shows that will never be released on Blu-ray and the recording feature is ideal.

Sounds like a good idea to have a bd drive in a computer for certain things.

Will Miami Vice and Magnum PI and a lot of the other great shows of the 1980's ever be on blu-ray?

[HDTV1080P]

The modern Miami Vice movie is already on Blu-ray, but not the TV series. If there is enough demand some more classic film based TV shows will be released on Blu-ray at 1080P quality. NTSC videotape based TV programs would be 480i quality, but with the advantage of an entire season fitting on one Blu-ray disc.

[talstarone]

Awesome.This would make a good drive to replace my Lite-On BluRay Burner.