Sony Electronics has just announced that its second generation of internal Blu-Ray (BD) recorder, BWU-200S, will be soon released in U.S. According to the press release, the drive can burn data at BD-R media @ 4x, as well as traditional DVD+R @ 16x. With this speed, full 50GB of data can be moved to BD-R disc in about 45 minutes, which is half of the time required in its first generation model. BWU-200S will be bundled with Cyberlink BD Solution software, providing a comprehensive application for capturing, authoring, editing, burning and viewing high-definition personal content captured in the native HDV 1080i format from an HDV camcorder. In addition, the software supports recording on DVDs and CDs, as well as playback of DVDs recorded in the AVCHD format.

According to Bob DeMoulin, marketing manager for branded storage products in Sony Electronics’ IT Products Division, “Consumers and professional videographers alike can enjoy the huge storage capacity to record and experience high-definition video with our Blu-ray Disc drive,“.

Sony BWU-200S uses Serial ATA (SATA) interface and comes with standard 5.25-inch form factor. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista operating system. The burner will be ready for purchase next month, directly from sonystyle.com website, for about $600.