Sony BWU-100A
The first Blu-ray (BD) disc drive for desktop PCs is here, but be warned -- it won't play commercial BD movies.
Sony officially announced its BWU-100A product at its "Experience More 2006" event in Sydney yesterday, all the while acknowledging that there's significant room for improvement before the product is viable for integration into media centre PCs.
Vincent Bautista, Sony's product manager for data storage, told CNET.com.au that due to copy protection issues and lagging software development, the drive will only play user-recorded high-definition content from a digital camcorder, and not commercial movies released under the BD format.
Bautista says that one of two reasons for this is the fact that commercial content is encrypted with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which can only be decrypted using a HDCP-compliant graphics card that offers DVI or HDMI connections. Since there are currently no PCs for sale offering graphics chips that support HDCP, this isn't yet possible.
The second reason, according to Bautista, is that BD playback software that can decrypt HDCP isn't "released as a saleable item yet". Today, the only HDCP-supporting BD playback application is the OEM version of Intervideo WinDVD BD that's bundled with Sony's VAIO VGN-AR18GP notebook. The AR18GP also offers an HDCP-compliant HDMI connector, which makes it capable of playing commercial movies without issue.
Bautista is optimistic that both issues will be resolved "soon", and says that despite not being able to play commercial content, the drive is still useful as a "storage device", particularly for those looking to create and distribute their own high-definition home movies on BD-R and BD-RE discs.
The Sony BWU100A has a write speed of 2x and will be available this month for AU$1399.
Editor's Note: CNET.com.au is targeted at the Australian market, so the stories published here only consider products available to Australian consumers at the time of publication.
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patrick
11/08/2006 03:19 PM
I think their might be an inaccuracy in this article about how HDCP works. HDCP isn't used to encrypt the content on the disc, as I believe was implied in the article, but rather the digital signal output from a player.
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dharm
11/08/2006 04:26 PM
this is incorrect. this is NOT the first Blu-Ray PC drive... the Pioneer BDR-101A is the first PC Blu-Ray drive, and its been out for awhile (retails for about $999 USD) i wonder how cnet let this slip them by...
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Asher Moses
11/08/2006 05:19 PM
Thanks for the feedback. Just to clarify, the Sony model is the first Blu-ray drive to reach Australia. Being the Australian arm of CNET, we for the most part only consider products available to Australian consumers.
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dharm
11/08/2006 08:31 PM
that explains it... thanks for the clarification.
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Trav
11/08/2006 10:06 PM
The title of this article is a bit misleading. Are you saying that this drive is incapable of reading the data from a Blu-ray movie disc? If you were to pop a commercial Blu-ray release into the drive, I'm sure it could be read. However, the surrounding support systems may not be ready for Blu-ray movie playback, which your article states. In that case, perhaps the title should be "First Blu-ray disc drive arrives before software to play Blu-ray movies". Of course, that's not as sensationalistic.
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SonyRootkitFiasco
11/08/2006 10:36 PM
I'm sure glad somebody told us it won't play movies. I hope Sony dies a horrible death. I don't think HD-DVD will be sucessful either. Both technologies are crippled with DRM and comsumers won't buy it.
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POWERLOCK 2!
11/08/2006 11:03 PM
Sony is run by complete retards! XD
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GraphiX
12/08/2006 12:21 AM
lol it gets stupid why are they making something that people dont want? when it doesn't sell will they be upset and sad? will they then wonder why people don't wanna buy devices that do nothing but actually restrict you in everything you wanna do with it. i've never known a business like sony or microsoft they make products to sell but they don't realise they wont sell as people DO NOT WANT restrictions. why would anyone actually give money for something that is full of restrictions? it's beond me it really is how they believe they can actually try and sell this crap to the general public or computer nerds lol either way we dont want it we wont buy it so you've now spent years and millions of dollars creating something that people just do not want. sony if you read this you need to actually start using a bit of common sense blue ray player doesn't play blueray discs? haha thats like buying a tv that doesn't let you watch tv and trying to sell it your complete morons
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Richard Craig
12/08/2006 12:48 AM
This article seems very misleading. The issue is that there are no graphics cards that support HDCP at the present time. From the article it appears there are no issues with the drive preventing it playing Blu-ray movies and you simply have to add a HDCP compatible graphics card and install HDCP compatible playback software. Doesn’t HD-DVD also require HDCP? You’ll have to run an “OMFG! HD-DVD wOnT PLaY moViez. Own3d!!!!11!1one” article for that as well. What is this, a news site or a propaganda site?
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notsuh
12/08/2006 03:18 AM
This article is bunk. There ARE products with HDCP support - Sony sells at least 2 computers that state they have HDCP support (the RC series), and I suspect a third (the VGX-XL2) also has HDCP due to having HDMI output. Not to mention that NVIDIA's Geforce 7950GX2 graphics card has HDCP support. This card is currently in use in all of the modern quad-sli computers out there, and can also be bought by computer enthusiasts. Also note that there was a big fiasco in the graphics card world when HDCP really started to become an issue - check out http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_nvidia_hdcp_support - this article was written back in February, 2006, and states that Sony had HDCP-compliant graphics cards in their computers at that time. It's just another example of how completely clueless, and inept, that Sony has become.
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andrew clinick
12/08/2006 03:23 AM
I think you're confusing AACS and HDCP. HDCP is the output technology which isn't required to play back a movie. What is required is AACS decryption since the movie is AACS protected. To do this you need to have the drive to support AACS and the player software to also support AACS. While WinDVD does support AACS and Cyberlink will soon it really doesn't matter since this BD drive doesn't support AACS so as the sony rep points out it can only run home authored (i.e. no AACS) BD discs. So you'll never be able to run BD movies on this drive.
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Brad Grenz
12/08/2006 07:43 AM
From what I understand the HDCP compliant DVI/HDMI connection requirement is true. Content will not display over an unprotected digital connection, but it should be possible to view the HD content over an analog connection (VGA). At least until studios start employing the Image Constraint Token (ICT). As for the Software, that's a software problem. Temporary.
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Bligmerk
12/08/2006 12:24 PM
This article is total ignorant misinforming garbage. Unfortunately, it has already been picked up and spread on all the anti-Sony/anti-Bluray site out there. Of course a drive is not going to play a movie. A drive only reads data, idiot. It is the SOFTWARE PLAYER THAT PLAYS MOVIES. This drive does play commercial Blu-ray movies if a HDCP-compliant video card is used with a HDCP-compliant display along with a software movie player that plays commercial Blu-ray movies. Unfortunately, ATI shipped a bunch of graphics cards saying they were HDCP compliant when they weren't. It takes a X1900 ATI card or Geforce 7950 to be HDCP compliant. The only Blu-ray movie player software that will play commercial Blu-ray movies is WinDVD8 and that is only out in Japan. Sony just didn't provide a Blu-ray movie player software with the drive because things aren't finalized in that area yet. There are people that have gotten this drive, got a copy of WinDVD8, got a Geforce 7950 card and a HDCP display, and they are playing Blu-ray movies. These ignorant "web journalists" are getting really annoying.
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JL
12/08/2006 12:28 PM
evil turns upon itself...
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Jiggen
12/08/2006 02:36 PM
Did you actually read the article. Sony's product manager confirmed it. It's not made up information
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Ferret-san
13/08/2006 11:23 AM
Good to see Sony is on the ball.. not. MSI have a certified HDMI video card - (MSI NX7600GT Diamond Plus) as per a press release on August 8th that passed certification in July.
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bill hitchens
14/08/2006 10:51 AM
The article may be misleading -- the drive will play movies just fine provided it has a "compliant" video card and "compliant" software and these don't exist (convieniently and in quantity) yet. But the fact remains that if the Blu-ray format weren't saddled with this DRM garbage, you would already be able to play movies from this drive. The software might not be polished, but you'd be able to make it work. The fact that it doesn't work is completely an artifact of the DRM.
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Enzo
15/08/2006 02:57 AM
This article show how bad illegal DRM crap is for the general public. The Digital Mafia (MPAA) is spending isane amont of money to try to rip off consumer. this particular nasty copyprotection will faild and, as usual, will benefits nobody. Sony will losse money because it, consumers will get ripoff and will be not prevent pirates (and people who value they freedoom of choice as consumer) from copying Blue Ray Disk... Send the digital mafia a signal and do like me NEVER BUY ANY SONY PRODUCT. Sony should have been dismentle after the criminal involment with the root kit fiasco.
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AverageJoe
15/08/2006 04:10 PM
$1400, no movies, pfft. Good Luck Sony.
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Hansi
15/09/2006 01:40 AM
Have just been on a live chat with Sony, bought the BWU-100A yesterday and they say that there will be new software from Sony by the end of the month taking care of the problem that no such software is bundled with the disc drive, this is going to make us able to watch blue ray movies if we have a compatible graphics card and a hd monitor/tv
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raymond l duncan
23/11/2006 05:13 PM
samsung BD-P1000 will play region "A" USA discs despite samsung's advice that they will only play region "B" Australian discs. They will also play burnt discs including dual layer burnt to "region free", but they will not play region 1 standard definition USA discs. I purchased a heap of titles from Amazon.com and they all play brilliantly they have over 200 titles available.
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sony sucks bum
25/12/2006 03:46 PM
So when is someone gonna hack the crap outta this HDCP??? Is sony or any other major tech company that niave to the fact that if someone can encrypt this technology, there is always some smelly hermit that can decrypt it?!?!
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João Santos
27/12/2006 03:45 AM
That is Great i have bought a DVD in some DVD shop i go home to see it in my upscanling DVD Player, but my LCD that is 2 years old dont have HDCP over DVI don't display the picture. What to do my almost new LCD throw it away to buy a new one? And when i buy a bluray drive to my mac, what about my MAC Pro that cost me $2000? the mac don't are HDCP compilant i have throw away too a machine it 4 months old? I tinks this is too stupid. All off my movies are original and Legal and in the future with blu ray, HDDVD, or with vista or leopart my recent harware don´t work because one litle think "HDCP".
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Anonymous
22/01/2007 08:06 PM
Read it and weep, the New "Windows Hasta La Vista" http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
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ARUN KUMAR
01/02/2007 06:49 PM
its nice
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rajmohan
19/02/2007 10:42 PM
i wantblu ray disc whatis the cost of the disc
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tetrazepam
20/02/2007 07:52 AM
No way spending more than $2000 in a computer to watch movies in HD. It's cheaper if you go to the cinema, or stay with the DVD standard. If any media product is a crap, altough made in HD, it will be nice and fancy, but it will be a crap anyway. By now, image quality is enough to enjoy the best of the content, and that's what matter -I think.- What's the point? Things can be done in another point of view, saving a lot of money and for everybody in the world. Not just for rich people. Gah, that kind of stuff make me angry. They only look for having their pocket full of dollar$.
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Sticky Ricky
06/03/2007 08:25 PM
I have just built my self a HD PC or home theatre PC (HTPC) with modification to my old PC. It cost me about £600. I used a Geforce 8800 GTX graphics card with HDCP compatibility, the graphics card also has NVIDIA PURE software included with the purchase, which supports HDCP, so this kills 2 birds with one stone. I connected this to my new Sony LCD TV 1080p (Tru HD) also HDCP compatible that’s all you need as well as a Blue Ray or HD DVD drive to play back High Def. movies. There are stories out there that XP and Vista does not support HDCP I believe this to be true but all you need to over come this problem is video play back software like NVIDIA Pure software. I think a lot of people are getting confused with the whole HD buzz. I have only just come to understand it to a certain extent but this took hours of research My advice is if you want HD just upgrade your old PC, Make sure that the equipment and software you buy has HDCP support or you could be very disappointed
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sabellius
22/03/2007 08:44 AM
I installed the Sony in my system ,it played for a while however upgrated to Vista,Have the correct Video card and now it dont work NO MO.WHat gives?
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froggy
23/03/2007 09:15 PM
Hey sticky ricky that good to hear u got it up and running with the 8800. I'm going the same path with that card, but will use the gts ilo gtx as it's a bit shorter, or maybe even wait for the 8600. sabellius, maybe your vid driver is not M$ certified for vista and so vista is blocking the hd content.
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mitisha patel
29/03/2007 07:15 PM
its nice source.
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Mr Correction
10/07/2007 09:26 AM
Correction.... I have this drive... I even mounted it in an external USB enclosure and it plays, rips and burns blu-ray movies without a problem.
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karmone01
07/11/2007 08:06 PM
do u think in the near future, with enough tuning a pc with blu ray could play ps3 games? plz someone comment back
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tt
15/12/2007 12:39 AM
I am in the same boat. My Sony double layer recorder has HDMI out and it is not even a hi-def player, but I can't connect it to a standard pc monitor with DVI input. Won't work
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6Cra6Zy6
24/12/2007 07:29 PM
what's the point in having HD quality movies??? I guess BD players connected to TVs are different but what about the pc. with recent codecs (eg: x264), it is possible to encode movies in HD standard (1280x760) and the quality is great and file size too (300mb=22 minutes). playback is good with recent computers (a pentium 4 2.8 ghz and 1 gb ram added with an nvidia 6800 is enough)...been recording videos from tv with such standards and i can't complain!! vista is such a scam...we should boycott those stuffs!!! The 'next gen.' is not for now...life is already sh*tty today and spending loads of money on crap like that seems useless...plus in 3-4 years people will stop using them, if we start using it :)
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Dilip Kalal
25/06/2008 11:52 PM
Blue ray disk P-3 system supported
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Terrycove
04/08/2008 11:57 PM
After weeks of work with Sony support their Blue Ray equipped computers are blocked from showing movies through the HDMI cable.When you plug it in the software terminates. They won't tell you direct, you have to find out the hard way.
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