Pioneer Electronic

We're still not sure if that many people are interested in buying Blu-ray burners yet, but Pioneer just unveiled the first 12x capable drive (up from 8x, and with an 8x read speed that gives us a great idea for the next PlayStation 3 revision) the BDR-205. Initially rolling out to OEMs this month, this drive couldn't wait for 12x certified discs to exist, though its full speed has been tested on Panasonic and Sony 6x BD-R blanks, "12x writing on all media cannot be guaranteed." Minus that caveat, expect to see these popping up on Newegg and the like any second now, the only price mentioned is for the full retail package BD-2205 coming Q1 2010 for $249.

Already on shelves in their U.S. forms, Pioneer's BDP-LX52 and BDP-320 Blu-ray players are just now going on sale in the UK but Electricpig has already gotten some time with them. It seems they found their audio technology including the jitter-eliminating Precision Quartz Lock System rather impressive, though whether that audio setup is enough to convince buyers to separate themselves from £550 or £400 (respectively) for one of these remains to be seen. Anyway, there's plenty of in the wild pics, we know how much you like gazing at knobs and "BD-ROM BDMV" blinking displays, so we'll just leave you to it.

If you're into an all-Pioneer system, we'd suggest jumping into one of its Blu-ray HTIB offerings, but we'll just hope that these new DVD-centric offerings strike a lower price point that allows more people get started right away and attach a Blu-ray player to the HDMI inputs when their budget allows. Coming to the lineup -- at least in the UK -- are the 2.1-channel DCS-FS30 and 5.1-channel DCS-585 and DCS-590 systems. All kits are based (see that?) on a powered sub, but the configurations vary from there. The DCS-FS30 adds two height-adjustable desktop-sized speakers, and the DCS-590 is comprised of four tall speakers and a center channel, but things get interesting with the DCS-585 that comes with six small cube speakers -- two for center, the remaining four to be sprinkled around the room or stacked and put up front. Correct placement is so staid -- it's all about choices, see? More pics after the break.