Blu-ray has taken a bit of a beating recently, partly because of the high price of players compared to HD DVD. In December, however, PC users should be able to install a Philips Lite-On DH-4O1S drive for an estimated UK price of £125, or $199.99 in the US. This is about $100 less than the Pioneer BDC-2202.
The Lite-On internal drive has a SATA interface and can play back Blu-ray discs, as well as DVDs and CDs. It cannot, of course, write BDs.
Update: Apparently it will play protected movies. I'm told: "the key to decrypt the copy protection is generated by the playback software that comes with the drive."
The drive could appeal to Windows Media Center owners (with XP SP2 or Vista) since they may have their PC connected to a TV set, and can watch movies played from the PC. But that's still a long way from being a mass market.
I'm not sure how many internal HD DVD drives are actually floating around in the real world but I notice Overclockers UK is offering the Toshiba SD-H802A 2.4x internal HD DVD for £72.84 inc VAT (this week only). However, I suspect the tendency has been to pick up or borrow an Xbox 360 add-on HD DVD and plug it into the PC via USB.
