Samsung SH-B022 BD Writer

And that's before considering media. On the other hand, if portable backup and archiving is what you need, there's also Iomega's REV cartridge system, which remains one of the best choices for archival and backup and costs a fraction of the outlay for this drive. This means our initial impression of Blu-ray is that it will be better suited to home entertainment than backup.

There's also the competing HD DVD format to consider: see issue 139, p144 for our rundown on the pros and cons of each. Until pricing settles down, it's too early to give a verdict on which format to back for home entertainment, let alone for long-term data archival or backup. For now, this drive remains a glimpse of what's to come.

Author: Dave Stevenson