Tech Shout!

TDK has announced that is has begun the distribution of its BD-R (write-once) and BD-RE (rewritable) Blu-ray Discs.

The four new products include BD-R25 (write once, single-side, single-layer, 25GB); BD-R50 (write once, single-side, dual-layer, 50GB); BD-RE25 (rewritable, single-side, single-layer, 25GB); BD-RE50 (rewritable, single-side, dual-layer, 50GB).

In order to guarantee that the new discs will be scratch aswell as dirt resistant inspite of not having any external cartridges, the discs will be coated with TDK’s new DURABIS 2 hard coating. DURABIS 2 technology has been specifically formulated for Blu-ray Discs.

A mass production will start upon issue of licensing for the bare disc at TDK’s Chikumagawa Techno Factory, which specialises in optical discs.

The main features of BD-R and BD-RE Blu-ray Discs include DURABIS 2 coating that provides greater resistance to scratches and dirt (particularly fingerprint smudges), ensuring safe use even without a cartridge. The high-precision spin coating creates a supremely flat cover layer, resulting in highly stabilised recording and playback.

The BD-R disc makes use of a recording layer of an inorganic material which is unaffected by exposure to light, thus offering ‘archivability’. The BD-RE disc utilises a highly sensitive phase-change dye in the recording layer that realizes stabilized characteristics even after as many as 10,000 rewrites.

High-precision stacking technology precisely overlays disc layers, delivering stabilized characteristics on both the upper and lower recording layers in a single-sided, dual-layer (50GB) disc.