Pioneer Electronics has begun shipping what it calls “the first commercially available” aftermarket PC Blu-ray Disc recorder (BD-R) on the U.S. market.

The BDR-101A drive will be bundled with Sonic Solutions’ Roxio Blu-ray Disc software and a blank TDK 25GB write-once (BD-R) disc with a US$999 suggested retail. It is expected that Pioneer will launch the product in Australia

 “As we move deeper into the transition to high-definition content creation and distribution, increasing storage capacity will become more and more critical,” said Andy Parsons, Pioneer senior VP. “Blu-ray Disc technology fulfills the rapidly growing need for additional storage space, and Pioneer is proud to be one of the first companies bringing it to market through the BDR-101A.”

This first-generation drive is targeted toward professional users and early adopters who will be using Blu-ray for advanced storage needs.

The Roxio software bundle will support high-definition BD authoring applications by transferring BD images to BD-R and rewriteable BD-RE media.

The TDK media, which shipped last month, retails for $19.99 a disc.

Earlier this week Sony introduced a high-end Vaio notebook sporting a Blu-ray burner.