Blu-ray Dimensions

There is an interesting article in CDINFO.COM about Panasonic’s development of 8x BD-R media.  I’m particularly interested in Mr. Hiroyuki Hasegawa, General manager of Technology Group, Media Business Unit, Device Business Group, at Panasonic Corps’s AVC Networks Company views on LTH Blu-ray recordable.  LTH is short for ‘Low to High’ and it uses an organic dye like the dye used in recordable DVDs.  The Panasonic team points out that LTH Blu-ray is only capable of 2x recording.  Panasonic has decided to stick with inorganic because of high capacity, high reliability low cost, light resistance and longevity. According to the article Mr. Hasegawa said “From our environmental acceleration test, Panasonic BD-R shows archival reliability of more than fifty (50) years.” and goes on to point out that organic dye has less light resistance then non-organic. The CDRINFO article goes on to quote Mr. Hasegawa stating “Consequently Panasonic doesn’t think LTH media will become a mainstream product for Blu-ray.”

This comes as somewhat of a relief because LTH Blu-ray is not supported on current North American or European systems.  The confusion to the market is extreme and should be avoided at all costs.  There are several companies that have released LTH recordable Blu-ray media in Japan including Taiyo Yuden. As I understand it there is some hope that the current DVD coating systems could be used for  Blu-ray recordable production (LTH technology) but it has some issues including dye stability, low throughput, low capacity and longevity.  That is not a good mix for archive optical media.

This is a follow up on my first post back in October 2008 in which I tried to answer the burning question, “why are Blu-ray discs so expensive?”. Although I’m discussing recordable blu-ray blank discs some of the same forces are at work with BD-ROM discs, primarily licensing fees.  Some recent changes to licensing fees of BD-ROM which will simplify the licensing and payment of royalties is expected to help lower the cost of production. One of the major expenses is new production equipment.  Both BD-ROM and BD-R discs use a specialized system that is not like the CD and DVD production lines (which can be modified to produce CD or DVD) so there are capital expenses that work into the disc cost structure.

A big change in Blu-ray recordable media may be just around the bend.  Taiyo Yuden just announced the release of a new LTH type recordable BD-R disc which is supposed to cost far less to manufacture as the new product can utilize the old production systems.  The change is in the recording dye which is currently inorganic based with the new LTH product using organic dye.  The big issue with LTH media is it is not compatible with current Blu-ray players or Blu-ray recorders. There is a possibility with firmware upgrades that the LTH Blu-ray media can be adapted to function in current Blu-ray technology. It is a big if and certainly does not add to the consumer confidence in Blu-ray.

Just what we need another format change.