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.

CD Dimensions Blu-ray disc duplicator

Blu-ray duplicator towers offer the ability to record on Blu-ray format, BD-R, BD-RE, BD-R DL, BD-RE DL, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, DVD+/-R Dual Layer, CD-R, CD-RW.  In many ways they resemble their DVD duplicator counterpart with the exception of some under the hood upgrades.

Typically this includes a  SATA Disc controller, SATA 500Gb hard drive and SATA Blu-ray combo drives. The  SATA interface simplifies cable management compared to IDE with narrower cables and smaller connectors.  SATA interface supports cables as long as 90cm without sacrificing data integrity and system reliability.

The disc image is uploaded to the hard drive on board the Blu-ray duplicator and then you load the recordable media into the recorders. The tower allows editing of the image and hard drive partition file name. The “Dynamic” hard drive partition system saves hard drive space by creating partitions according to the image size. The intelligent controller automatically recognizes the source disc format. In the case of rewritable Blu-ray media (BD-RE) the duplicator automatically formats the disc if required.

The brains of the Blu-ray duplicator tower is the user friendly disc duplication controller utilizing familiar “ESC” & “ENT” keys with tactile feedback for easy menu navigation. The controller also has password protection modes to prevent unauthorized usage. Dual-Level Security provides separate Startup and Setup passwords for complete restriction and protection against unauthorized users.  The Blu-ray duplicator is upgradable via firmware using a recorded CD to transfer the new firmware.  These systems are fully standalone and do not require an additional computer to run it. Language support includes English, Spanish, Portuguese, & Japanese.

One of the concerns with any new technology is it’s return on investment.  Blu-ray duplicators are not a single format tool.  They cover all common optical formats and recordable Blu-ray disc. The Blu-ray duplicators offer SATA which helps increase cooling efficiency by utilizing narrow cables which also can be longer in length then the DVD duplicator standard: ATAPI or what is also called “PATA” for Parallel ATA.  “SATA” or Serial ATA is the new standard for computers because of it’s data throughput for hard drives and will dominate the market as production increases for all the components.

You may wonder what are the advantages of Blu-ray duplication over Blu-ray replication?  Simply put there are many licensing fees associated with the Blu-ray video high definition format.  This includes per title fees specific to replicated Blu-ray discs.  Advanced Access Content System (AACS) cost per title is in the thousands of dollars. Blu-ray duplication does not require the mandatory AACS license.   Blu-ray duplication is much more cost effective for short run production.