Well, my back-up DVD burner bit the dust so I decided to go ahead and replace it with a Pioneer BDR 203 deck. $200 for an 8x BD burner that can do dual layer too, "what a great deal!" I was thinking and then I followed a link over the the VideoGuys website and lo and behold Pioneer will be releasing a 12x burner in a couple weeks for only about $20 more.

Videoguys.com - Pioneer BDR-205 12x Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer (http://www.videoguys.com/Item/Pioneer+BDR-205+12x+Blu-ray+Disc-DVD-CD+Writer+/530323254424.aspx)

Ouch! Not only could I have gotten a better drive, most likely when this comes out, the 203 price point will come down. This stuff moves so fast it is so hard to stay on top but I feel like I really dropped the ball on this one...don't you just hate it when that happens...

We hope to get in our first BDR205s around Oct 25th. US supply of BDR-203 drives is drying up fast. We have sold out, but we may be getting in one last shot of about 10 units.

Gary

Is there an external version, so it can be shared by different computers (one at a time, of course)?

I haven't seen an external version yet, but Video Guys does have a bundle that ships with an external enclosure that is a USB & eSata connection. Not sure if USB would slow it down or not though, so probably should stick to eSATA...

Videoguys.com - Pioneer BDR-205 Mega Bundle with Media and External USB Enclosure (http://www.videoguys.com/Bundle/Pioneer+BDR-205+Mega+Bundle+with+Media+and+External+USB+Enclosure/59.aspx)

Hope that is helpful.

now all we need is blanks capable of burning at that speed

Thanks, Bryan. I see it uses eSATA, so it should be just as fast as the internal version.