TDK Releases Bare Blu-ray Disc Media

Company announces they are the first to market with blank 25GB Blu-ray Disc media for use by consumers - as soon as hardware makers catch up.

TDK today said they were the first retailer to begin shipping bare Blu-ray Disc media for the consumer market. They’ve initially brought to retail 25GB recordable and rewritable Blu-Ray Disc media for $19.99 and $24.99 respectively.

Besides the 25GB Blu-Ray Discs, said TDK, they would also make available later this year dual layer 50GB recordable and rewritable discs. All of these discs, which are cartridge free, are capable of delivering 2x (72Mbps) rated recording speed and are being developed with a number of formulations and manufacturing techniques to increase the longevity of the media.

Those rushing to snap up TDK’s Blu-ray Disc media may have to wait somewhat for hardware manufacturers to catch up, given the recent delays announced from the likes of Sony and Samsung.

“TDK is pleased to be the first to market with bare Blu-ray Disc media, which can be counted among the most significant product introductions in the company’s distinguished 70 year history,” noted Bruce Youmans, TDK Vice President of Marketing, in a statement. “TDK has been involved in the development of blue laser recording technology since 1998, and TDK innovations such as hard coating and our inorganic dye formulation have played an essential role in making this revolutionary new format a reality. From backing up today’s large capacity hard drives and servers to authoring and recording high definition video and sharing high resolution digital image collections, TDK Blu-ray Discs set new standards in recording and playback by offering unprecedented capacities, fast transfer rates and revolutionary durability.”