Pioneer burners make DVDs with Qflix video content

Pioneer has teamed up with Qflix to allow users to create DVDs from downloaded content from the video download site, the electronics company announced on Tuesday. The two Pioneer drives, the internal DVR-2920Q and external DVR-X162Q, feature Qflix DVD Download & Burn technology that allow users to save the downloaded movies and TV show collections from CinemaNow on a format that is easy to store, find and play. Like the Dell drives with Qflix technology introduced last month, the Pioneer burners will require special blank discs in order to create movies.

With the technology, users can watch the protected content on regular DVD players at home or elsewhere, much like regular DVDs purchased at the store. The current CinemaNow library compatible with the Qflix service has over 1,000 titles, including some that are not available to purchase from stores on traditional DVD format.

Both of the 20x Pioneer burners include Roxio's Venue software that lets users burn the downloaded digital content, while Roxio CinePlayer lets them view the content on their computers. Apart from burning Qflix movies, either drive is capable of burning regular CD and DVDs as well.

Pricing for the blank Qflix-compatible media, which comes in 10-pack discs from RiDATA and Roxio, has not yet been disclosed. The internal Pioneer DVR-2920Q drive connects to PCs via a SATA interface and is now available, priced at $70, with the external DVR-X162Q DVD/CD writer with USB 2.0 connection due out in November with a suggested price of $115.

Pioneer DVR-X162Q external drive