We
re already over three months into 2006, the year that high definition and next generation DVDs are set to make their big splash. The gang over at The Register got their hands on Samsung
s SH-B022, the company
s Blu-Ray disc burner and gave it a thorough testing. The overall impression of the drive appears positive, but it
s not without its faults. For starters, the drive uses an IDE interface, a technology that Intel will drop support for with its South Bridge chipset. A single 12.7GB file took 25 minutes to burn, which translates to whole disc burning clocking in at around an hour. The drive also didn
t burn any other type of media, such as CDs or regular DVDs. Then there
s the price: It
s not official, but Register estimates that it will cost $800-$900. So if you
ve got the money to spend on a drive that produces discs that only it and a handful of other drives can read, jump right in. You may just want to hold out a bit longer to wait for the price to drop and for the Blu-Ray technology to gain more of a foothold in the marketplace.
Samsung SH-B022 Blu-ray Disc writer [The Register]
