TDK, a founding member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, has announced that it is to begin shipping 25GB recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Disc (BD) media across Europe and will follow with 50GB media in April.

The single-sided discs are bare, cartridge-free media. The 25GB products are single layer whereas the 50GB products have a dual layer recording material structure. TDK first shipped mass production samples in December 2005, and with the subsequent issuance of the relevant licenses, the company immediately commenced full force manufacturing.

TDK Blu-ray Discs are manufactured at the company's Chikumagawa Techno Factory in Japan. TDK's discs include DURABIS 2; an advanced protective hard coating formulation. TDK claims that the DURABIS 2 increases the scratch resistance of Blu-ray Disc media by a factor of 100. DURABIS 2 also resists fingerprints to help eliminate errors caused by disc surface smudges.

The high-sensitivity inorganic recording material utilised by TDK for the write-once type BD-R is different from the recording materials used for CD or DVD. Unlike the organic recording materials used in other media, the TDK Blu-ray Discs’ inorganic material is impervious to light. This makes the discs well suited for archival. Composed of copper and silicon, TDK's CuSi recording material delivers long-lasting performance.

TDK has developed an exclusive Spin Coating manufacturing process.

















Recommended Retail Pricing is set at €15 for a 25GB BD-R (write once), €20 for a 25GB BD-RE (rewritable), €35 for a 50GB BD-R (write once) and €45 for a 50GB BD-RE (rewritable). The products are expected on shelves from April.

Story filed 12.03.06