HD DVD-R Blank Discs Successfully Produced on DVD-R Lines
Saturday, August 13, 2005

edstar used our news submit to tell us that over at DVdoctor they have an article up that mentions Verbatim and Maxell have stated the ability to produce HD-DVD-R discs on exsiting DVD production lines. They claim to have already created some 15 gigabyte single layer discs. This is definately a big coup for HD-DVD that we have always known, that the HD-DVD discs are better suited for exsiting DVD production equipment than the competitor Blu-ray. Now, at least in this report, we can read some names of possible suppliers in our near future.

A group of four manufacturers has announced successful development of a prototype of a HD DVD-R disc, the write-once next generation DVD disc, that can be easily produced at high volume on standard DVD-Recordable production lines.

Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim, two of Japan's leading manufacturers of optical disc media, have separately tested and verified the manufacturability of the write-once discs, which use a new organic dye specifically developed for blue-laser applications, and confirmed the prospect of volume production.

The new dye is the result of a joint development project by Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories, a key manufacturer of dyes for DVD-Recordable discs, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim and Toshiba Corporation.Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim will commercialise HD DVD-R discs in spring next year, at the same time as the launch of HD DVD recorders and PCs with built-in HD DVD drives by hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba.

Development of the new dye by Hayashibara, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim and Toshiba is a breakthrough for HD DVD-R.

Please follow this link to the DVdoctors forums and there you will find the entire press release. According to the above link, this news was originally released by Verbatim. Speaking of Verbatim, they are covering all the bases though in this upcoming market as they also put out a press release earlier that states they will be manufacturing Blu-ray discs as well.


*Article courtesy of Dan Bell and www.cdfreaks.com