Disc-copying towers invite Blu-ray to the party

Now that the era of the Blu-ray Disc is here, the era of Blu-ray Disc copying and swapping is upon us as well. The next-generation optical discs have five times more storage capacity than DVDs (single-layer BD-Rs hold up to 25 gigabytes, dual-layer BD-Rs up to 50 gigs), so if you're itching to share, say, moment-by-moment footage of your son's entire winning soccer season with your 50 closest friends, you're gonna want an easy way to do some assembly line duplicating.

ReflexBlu2 by Disc Makers

(Credit: Disc Makers)

Disc Makers, a manufacturer of CD and DVD duplicators, just launched its first Blu-ray compatible tower duplicators, the ReflexBlu2 and ReflexBlu4. The products let users create, edit and reproduce a whole lot of customized Blu-ray Discs DVD-Rs, and CD-Rs, all in one piece of equipment.

The ReflexBlu2, priced at $2,999, can duplicate 2 full BD-Rs per hour, 4 full DVD-Rs per hour and 7 full CD-Rs per hour. The higher-priced ReflexBlu4, which goes for $4,999, can copy 4 full BD-Rs per hour, 8 full DVD-Rs per hour and 14 full CD-Rs per hour. Each unit also includes a complete disc creation software suite, USB connectivity allowing access to one drive for mastering and playback, and a 250GB hard drive that can store up to 9 full BD images.

The competitive but ample price tags make the towers a more likely purchase for offices, but hard-core home media types who just can't churn out enough copies of their favorite albums and films could get their money's worth, as well.