TDK is the first manufacturer of optical media to announce that it will start to ship writeable Blu-ray media out to retailers. These are single layer media at 25GB, both BD-R (writeable) and BD-RE (rewriteable). TDK has also released information regarding the price of its Blu-ray media and for a BD-R disc you will have to pay $19.99 while a BD-RE disc will cost $24.99. These are hardly inspiring prices for those who are used to regular DVD media and with the prices we’ve seen for the Blu-ray burners Blu-ray is going to become a very expensive adventure for those who are brave enough to try. TDK is planning to launch 50GB Blu-ray media using dual layers later this year and these will, of course, be even more expensive.
“In addition, TDK will ship 50GB Blu-ray Disc media later this year with retail pricing set at $47.99 for a 50GB BD-R (recordable) and $59.99 for a 50GB BD-RE (rewritable).”
TDK’s Blu-ray media is the first to reach us consumers and it will support 2x write speed (72Mbps), which in theory would mean that it would take 46min to fill the entire 25GB disc. TDK claims that the Blu-ray media is highly durable and will be optimal to store data on for a long time, over 50 years according to TDK. Now we will just have to wait for the first Blu-ray burners and at the same time perhaps save up for a 50 disc cake of 25GB BD-R discs, which should cost about $500.
