TDK Blu-ray media now shipping

by Alan Rose { Apr 13th 2006 at 6:20PM }

TDK has announced the first shipments of cartridge-free Blu-ray Disc media, in both recordable and rewritable formats. Each version is available in single layer 25GB and dual layer 50GB capacities, with costs ranging from $20-60 each. The digital media leader is also currently working on quad layer 100GB and 200GB Blu-ray Disc prototypes.

TDK claims there is no performance degradation after rewriting data 10,000 times, and the DURABIS hard coating grants each disc an archival life of 50 years through increased scratch, fingerprint, and light resistance. Nice for protecting your PS3 games, and Blu-ray's longevity and ability to back up entire hard drives in a single bound seem appealing.

But let's not forget the recent advances in solid state Flash media (which are fast approaching 100GB capacities), as well as holographic storage. And if Microsoft has their way, the future will be on-demand. Are the format wars really coming to an end as Bill Gates has prophesized, or is the next wave just beginning?

Tags: blu-ray, tdk

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Ninja Monkey Lover @ Apr 13th 2006 6:25PM

Let's hope they get their prices down quickly. Nobody wants to pay $60 to back up a game that costs $50. From what I've seen it is the high price of DVD-RW relative to CD-R's that has made them fairly unpopular. I suppose it could have been the advent of the flash drive, though.

The only people I know who use burnable DVDs are the ones who share a monthly subscription to Hollywood Video and burn illegal copies of dozens of movies per month.

Zanch @ Apr 13th 2006 6:31PM

Jesus...$20-60?? Count me out, that's highway robbery.

Whuw? @ Apr 13th 2006 6:39PM

I agree the future will be about downloadable contents. HDD is getting cheaper and larger in capacity. You get more buck/memory from HDD than disc. Also, HDD have faster read speed.

Barabas @ Apr 13th 2006 6:42PM

The begining of a format War? On-Demand vs Flash vs BlueRay VS HD-DV. On Demand Hands Down!!!

courtney @ Apr 13th 2006 6:43PM

yes, media is for your granparents. We need to stop carring things around that degrade. Sony needs to get with the picture. Look at the crap they did with PSP and UMD.

Brandon @ Apr 13th 2006 6:45PM

All new media is expensive at first. Remember when DVD first came out? It was crazy expensive, but it went down over time. Now you can buy a 25 pack of dvds for less than 10 bucks sometimes. 60 dollars is probably for the dual layer rewritable variety, 20 probably for a regular single layer BD-R.

Bob @ Apr 13th 2006 6:47PM

Wait a minute... is it $20-$60 PER DISK? I doubt it; otherwise, why buy them when you could easily buy a stack of dual layer DVDs for a fraction of the cost.

Todd @ Apr 13th 2006 7:12PM

Not so much a media war, but more like a media overload. Make things too complicated and people will just do without. Personally I think it'll get to a point that portable hard drives will be large enough to carry everything that you own and have the ability to connect to TVs and computers and other devices. Right now I have all of my music and few seasons of TV shows on my ipod. Eventually devices like that will get large enough to where you can carry everything that you own and have plenty of room for anything else.

don_sf @ Apr 13th 2006 7:23PM

wel this is very new technology and its gonna be expensive espicily when you can put 50 gigs of data onto 1 disk.

the market for hd tv is going to be useful from blu ray. but the otherthing thats going to be useful is recording hdtv and recording your own digital media, anyone with those sony digital video things will know how much space it needs.

and yeh i get a free player with ma playstation 3 so its cool.

striderhayasa @ Apr 13th 2006 9:11PM

this is bullshit. developments in the Ukraine and Russia have produced 4.7GB CDs. Holographic disk media is sporting 300GB on the lo end, 500GB on the high end (blue lasers) 2.5in HDD and Flash memory are getting cheaper and larger capacity by the day. You can get a 1TB storage device for $999. Why am I going to screw around with Blu-Ray? Even if they sold the player/burner for 50 bucks and the disks for 10 bucks a spindle, I don't care. I'm tired of burning. Give me one of those sweet little 2.5 inch drives that hold 60GBs and I'm good. Faster write/read speed, durable, more stable I don't have to wait for the thing to burn. Screw that. I refuse to be a part of this consumer rape party. HDD and Flash for me.

Brandon @ Apr 13th 2006 9:19PM

Part of the reason physical media wont be going anyway anytime soon is portability of content. Think about it, a movie on a dvd that can go in anyones player vs. that same move on a portable hardrive of some device that you would only be able to connect to your pc, or have to use cable and stuff. It the same reason why paper money wont go nowhere even with electronic cash and card based funds being in existence. Its the ease of use and the wide usability, If I am in the middle of nowhere and want to buy a soda, i can pull out a buck and buy one, with a card I have to know who will take it and who wont. Its just a matter of being convenient.

Another reason on-demand will coexist and not replace physical media, is that on demand is personal. You download content and its there in your home, but what about taking the flick to your friends house. With a dvd its as easy as taking it and being on your way. With on demand, theres the matter of getting it off of the device it was downloaded to (among other steps). Also, harddrives can and on occassion do fail. Its not exactly fun to lose all of your content to harddrive failure (ive had it happen). Physical media has the advantage of being an excellent backup option, while being easy enough to deal with day to day content as well.

epobirs @ Apr 13th 2006 10:25PM

Not much cause for excitement. Every media we are now commonly buying for pennies a disc went through this stage. When the cost of a CD burning station was $40,000 the only market was companies big enough to need mastering inhouse. The discs wer expensive enough to be cause for dispair if you produced a coaster.

Remember when the only DVD burners in mide use were the Pioneer DVD+R units for $5,000? Again, if you weren't doing product development it was insanely expensive.

I and many other people burn DVDs for legit reasons all the time but rarely bother with rewritable discs, just as most of us ignored CD-RW. CD-Rs became so cheap it was easier to have a few coasters to make disc that worked on almost every drive ever made compared to hassling with CD-RW support. DVD+/-R discs are so cheap and compatibility concerns still present, so the situation is pretty much the same.

When a Blu-ray burner is under $100 and (extreme DRM notwithstanding) we make backups of HD shows from our DVRs, at least until better quality season sets with extra features appear, then the BD-Rs will be cheap. We'll also pretty much ignore the price point for rewritable because once again a few coasters for cheap are less hassle.

Lekko @ Apr 13th 2006 10:45PM

I'm really looking forward to BD. Discs that are tough to scratch, tons of space, fast.. sounds like a great addition to my PC.

I also don't want to see On-demand replace discs. playing console and PC games off HDD is great, but when you own a LOT of games, they simply take up far more space than HDDs can offer. I have modded consoles that have full HDDs with games I physically own still leftover to put on them. (HDD is a far faster and better way to load games, but HDDs still do not have the capacity to house all the games I want to play.).

...and 1TB drives being ONLY $1,000? great.. I'll buy one off you for $60, or the price of 1 TB of BD optical storage (given that a 20-pack of 25GB discs will shortly drop to $30 like DVD did).

Rocket Punch @ Apr 14th 2006 1:09PM

As expected....

To those people who thought that those BR disk should only cost 8 bucks a pop at its introduction are either 6 year old or have been living in the closet since 6.

szimm @ Apr 14th 2006 3:23PM

i dont see why anyone would want to use these discs for backup, they are way too expensive. i think HDD and flash is the way to go in that department. but traditional, optical storage mediums have one great advantage: medium level copy protection for distribution of copyrighted material. this is why sony and their like are sticking to these kinds of media. its just easier to manage piracy that way. of course dedicated individuals with a fair level of technical skill will eventually find their way around the blu-ray copy-protection, but the majority of normal consumers wont be able to.

darryl @ Apr 14th 2006 5:14PM

Awesome... 50GB is nice. The price will surely drop quickly. The on-demand thing is Ok especially if I can save it to a disc because there is no way I'm downloading 25GB+ over-and-over again.

SuicideNinja @ Apr 14th 2006 6:59PM

Bluray and HD-DVD are a waste of time.

Flash media and portable hard drives are the way of the future (for portable media). Digital distribution will become more popular, too.

Most people don't know that using a blu-laser isn't even necessary either. We haven't even advanced the red-laser technology yet.

EVD's can be 50GB discs and the player uses a red-laser. The discs also support HD, and the player is only $150. Why would we want to buy a $500-$1500 Bluray or HD-DVD player?

There are too many media formats. Most of them are unnecessary.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/06/higher-capacity-50gb-evd-vmd-at-cebit/

Lekko @ Apr 15th 2006 2:37PM

Right. EVD tech is here and you can have 8-layer DVDs with far more space without new expensive lasers.

However, those that know dual layer know that it takes time to switch layers and it pauses while switching, so it would be impractical to really use it.

Also: cost. Sure the player is cheap, but the media would be pretty costly. Think about how much a 100-pack spindle of DVD +R. You can get that for less than $40. Now price a ten pack of dual layer media. big difference. Now think about dual layer but times four. That would end up costing about the same as a single BD, and you get many pauses during playback, and at slower overall data rates.