14 DAY TRIAL // TDK announced that it has begun the production of writable and rewritable Blu-ray discs for consumer use. Until now, the commercial Blu-Ray medium came in a protective cartridge, but BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association) finalizes the specifications for the discs without cartridges. Anticipating this move, TDK began the production of such discs in one of its production sites in Chikumagawa, Japan.
The new discs use a hard special coating developed by TDK. This minimizes the scratches from its surface and allows its use without the protective cartridges. TDK plans the production of four types of discs as soon as it pulls out the licenses for the format, stated Nobuyuki Koike, spokesman for TDK in Tokyo. Now TDK waits for the format approval, somewhere at the beginning of the next year.
The new TDK discs will come in two versions, 25 GB and 50 GB, recordable BD-R and rewritable BD-R. The prices for the new disk types were not announced but it is said that the new discs will be cheaper than the existing media, because of the lack of protective cartridges.
The new discs will be used in Blu-ray devices. Now, only a few Blu-ray devices are available from companies like Sony, Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sharp. The Blu-ray Disc Association and other companies that back the new format are expected to showcase new products during CES (Consumer Electronics Show) from January 2006, which will take place in Las Vegas.
Single-layer Blu-Ray discs have 25 GB of storage capacity for holding video and other data, while current DVD discs have 8.5 GB of storage at most. Blu-Ray can hold up to 27 GB on a single layer disc and supports many additional features like advanced copy protection mechanisms. The Blu-Ray technology competes with the HD-DVD one. Both technologies offer numerous advantages in comparison to the traditional DVD.