Sony has pretty much sealed up a victory in the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, but the prices of capable devices for Blu-ray are still fairly expensive. Easing the pain, Sony announced a Blu-ray drive for $200 that will be released next month. It might seem like a great value, but it does have a few issues that might turn people off; however, if you are into high-def content, it still might be worth consideration.

What It Is

The BDU-X10S by Sony is an internal Blu-ray drive that allows you to play Blu-ray discs.  You shove this thing in your computer case, and you have high-def content on your computer.  The included Cyberlink PowerDVD BD Edition software allows you to decode Blu-ray discs, and play the content in H.264 or MPEG-2 formats.

The $200 pricetag is also a sign of decreasing prices for Blu-ray hardware.  It is about time that this happens.

What It Does

This drive will bring the latest in high-def video content to PCs at a cheaper price.  While it does read (play), this drive will not write (burn) to Blu-ray, and that is quite disappointing to know.

This player is also backwards compatible with DVD and CD discs.

What It's Worth

The $200 BDU-X10S could be worth the price if you are going to purchase Blu-ray discs with the intent to play them on your computer.  Unfortunately, the lack of the ability to write to Blu-ray media is a huge downer.  It might be reason enough for people to hold off on purchasing.

My Thoughts

I am very disappointed that this drive does not have the ability to write to Blu-ray media.  Most people who install a Blu-ray device in their computer system will likely be looking forward to writing plenty of data to the huge 25GB or 50GB discs.

In the end, I would strongly urge most to avoid buying the BDU-X10S.  Eventually, a good number of people will have the desire to write to Blu-ray media--just as we do with DVD media today.  If you have ever written to a DVD disc, then consider waiting until later this year.