Skip to Content

Summer Budget Travel Tips from Gadling
AOL Tech

tdk posts

TDK's heavily stacked 320GB disc shows its nearly-clear face at CEATEC

by Darren Murph posted Oct 7th 2009 at 1:59AM Featured Story


As with pretty much every other optical disc out there that claims to hold a near-infinite amount of data, we're still skeptical about TDK's ability to actually bring to market the 320GB spinner you see above. But hey -- it's got ten 32GB layers and it's practically see-through. Did you really expect us to walk on by without clicking the shutter even once? Exactly.

Gallery: TDK's 320GB optical disk

TDK stacks 10 layers on a single 320GB disc

by Richard Lawler posted Oct 2nd 2009 at 4:09PM

Even though we have yet to see the long-hinted 100GB and 200GB prototype Blu-ray discs as real products, TDK is looking beyond that, ready to display 320GB ten-layer platters at CEATEC 2009 that can be read and written with current blue laser technology. Key in stacking so many layers is improving the transmittance of the outermost layer as seen above - that nearly clear one on the right doesn't require a more powerful laser to get through. The only thing we can't see? When or if any of these will actually be released.

[Via Hot Hardware]

Dark Knight Blu-ray set to break shipping records, sales records next?

by Richard Lawler posted Nov 12th 2008 at 3:05PM

Hopefully Iron Man isn't getting too cozy in the #1 Blu-ray spot, with over a million copies of The Dark Knight headed to store shelves on December 9. Iron Man set a first week mark of over 500,000 sold on an unknown quantity shipped, but it's probably a bigger question whether Warner can keep it's BD-Live servers working than whether it can take the top spot. VideoBusiness points out the old days of March '07 when Casino Royale shipped 100,000 units, or 300's 250k combined high definition disc launch last year. Number watchers will also be keeping an eye out for Blu-ray's share of first week sales; last year Transformers set records with 190,000 HD DVDs compared to 8.3 million DVDs, with Iron Man averaging around 10% how many will chose Batman the way it was meant to be seen?

Imation brings first 6x Blu-ray recordable discs to US

by Darren Murph posted Sep 17th 2008 at 4:21PM


We had a dream back in June that America would one day be able to buy 6x BD-Rs for these 6x Blu-ray burners without relying on a Japanese importer, and today, that dream has been realized. Imation is bringing TDK Life on Record media to US soil, marking the first time 6x Blu-ray recordable (BD-R) and Blu-ray recordable double layer (BD-R DL) media has been available here. Unfortunately, this stuff is still absurdly expensive -- expect to hand over $13.99 for a single BD-R in October, while a BD-R DL 1-pack will ring up at a staggering $32.99.

TDK's Durabis 2 coating protects 200GB Blu-ray discs

by Thomas Ricker posted Jan 19th 2007 at 8:46AM


One of the consumer worries of Blu-ray Disc vs. HD DVD is the durability of that ultra-thin, 0.1-mm layer protecting your BD-stored data. HD DVDs on the other hand, use a comparatively thick 0.6-mm surface layer just like standard DVDs making them appear -- on paper anyway -- more rugged over the stretch, right? Not necessarily so. At least not when TDK or others apply protective coatings to their optical media. The 6-layer, single-sided 200GB BD disc on the right in the image above is coated with TDK's "Durabis 2" hard-coating technology -- the disk on the left is a standard DVD; both were subjected to equal treatment by the steel-wool and a Sharpie. Any questions?

[Thanks, Dave]

TDK shows off 6x BD-R discs

by Richard Lawler posted Jun 29th 2006 at 4:46PM

We don't even have 4x Blu-ray burners yet, but that didn't stop TDK from showing off 6x speed recordable media recently in Japan at the 8th Data Storage Expo. They also showed off a quad-layer 100GB Blu-ray disc, although it was only a prototype, they do expect to ship 4x discs before the end of this year. We're looking forward to burning 25-50GB at a time, we're not looking forward to waiting an hour for it to finish.  These high speed discs need to get here and fast, HD DVD-Rs need to get their speed up to compete (actually, they need to become available at all but thats just splitting hairs).

Pioneer shipping BDR-101A Blu-ray drives

by Richard Lawler posted May 18th 2006 at 11:08AM

One step closer to store shelves near you, the Pioneer BDR-101A recorder is now shipping enabling you to save 25GB at a time on your handy BD-R or BD-RE disc. It comes with Roxio burning software and a few TDK blanks (it should for $1000). PC World had good impressions of the drive when they reviewed it recently, having no problem burning Blu-ray discs, albeit with the tradeoffs of no CD read/write, managed copy support and a lack of included video editing software. These are interesting strategies by the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps, while HD DVD is seen as having support from PC companies like Microsoft and HP; they have pushed a standalone box out first, while Blu-ray is pushing PC-compatible drives in advance of the standalone player launch.

[Corrected manufacturer]

Blu-ray recordable media appears at Circuit City Stores

by Matt Burns posted May 15th 2006 at 7:33AM

Wow. This is a surprise. Circuit City is selling and stocking blank Blu-ray discs on their website and in their stores. They are single sided 25 gig TDK media for $24.99. We did know this was coming but not this soon. Do you think we need to go into how this is somewhat strange considering that there are no drives out yet to utilize these discs? Panasonic has a PC drive coming in June for $850 and and IO Data has their drive coming out a month later. But till then these discs will be nothing but a conversation starter.

Sony's Blu-ray blanks on the way; 50GB in June

by Richard Lawler posted May 7th 2006 at 11:44AM


Not to be forgotten in the BD-R and -RE party is Sony themselves, who have announced they are shipping single-layer recordable Blu-ray discs, with dual layer versions to follow in June, The pricing follows the model set by TDK, $20/$48 for BD-R single/dual and $25/$60 for BD-RE single/dual layer respectively. With the burners going for about $850, we'll take a raincheck, unless someone really needs to back up all their episodes of mariposaHD.

[Via Engadget]

Blu-ray appreciation day: Disc production problems solved, 200GB on the way?

by Richard Lawler posted Apr 28th 2006 at 1:25PM

Blu-ray discOk, ok, you found me out, I'm an anti-Blu-ray subversive (actually, I'm anti spending over $300 on a movie player but that's neither here nor there). Just so everyone knows there is no bad blood between Blu-ray and HD Beat we've got some good news to report.

A small company called Blue Ray Technologies claim they have solved production issues with Blu-ray disc manufacturing that have lead to as much as a 75% defect rate, and lower that to 25%, drastically cutting costs. We'd love to take these guys seriously but in light of Nintendo's Wii, wii're taking naming very seriously and adding an E to the end of the technology does not cut it. Also, if current failure rates are at 75% for disc replicators, we don't want to see anyone's face when their $47 TDK dual-layer Blu-ray BD-R makes a coaster, ouch. However if they can really help get prices down we're all for it.

Also, TDK has issued a release that they have developed a prototype 200GB Blu-ray disc that uses six 33GB layers to hold data. Sounds interesting; hopefully we'll see production versions soon.

See? We can say nice things about Blu-ray...even though it's not out yet and delays make us very very angry.

[Via CDRinfo & Newlaunches thanks for the tip!]

TDK shipping Blu-ray media, still no players

by Richard Lawler posted Apr 10th 2006 at 12:45PM

Blu-ray blankEven with Blu-ray (and HD-DVD for that matter) players still MIA on store shelves, you might be able to buy the discs somewhere. They announced today they are shipping single-sided single layer (25GB) capacity discs. You can get the write-once BD-R blanks for $19.99 apiece while the rewriteable BD-RE will run you $24.99. They also announced they will ship dual-layer 50GB blanks later this year for $47.99 or $59.99 depending on -R or -RE. The discs also include DURABIS hard coating technology to protect against scratches dust and fingerprints form damaging your valuable (25 bucks a disc, yeah thats valuable) data.

Eeesh. That certainly puts a damper on the whole create-my-own-archive-of-everything-ever-known-ever project. For $25 we can buy a 50 pack of single layer DVD blanks and get cases to boot. Heres to hoping prices come down (and quick).




    AOL News

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:

    Joystiq
    Download Squad
    The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
    BloggingStocks
    Joystiq Xbox
    Autoblog
    Big Download
    Fanhouse NFL Blog