The Register has published ground breaking news that Pioneer would be working on a Blu-ray / HD-DVD dual format recorder. According to the source Pioneer will first release a BDR-102, which adds CD-R and Blu-ray Dual Layer, which are both missing from the BDR-101 1st generation model. But the next step would be a BDR-103 with added HD-DVD support

This news might suggest that HD-DVD and Blu-ray might co-exist in the market, and possibly blend together like the DVD-R and +R have done. Pioneer after all is one of the strongest vendors on the market and a key player in the Blu-ray camp.

The first new drive, the BDR-102 will also support CD-R/RW discs, another disc format missing from the company’s current product, the BDR-101. The BDR-102 is due to ship early next year, possibly in two versions, one with an IDE interface, the other with a SATA connector. It’s not clear at what speeds the BDR-102 will write single- and dual-layer, 25GB and 50GB BD-R and BD-RE discs.

Source: Reg Hardware