Volume production technology of HD DVD-R discs established

June 9, 2005

Just
following the recent announcement of cost
effective production plans for Blu-ray media, a group of four
manufacturers have worked in a joint development project to successfully create
a HD DVD-R prototype. The development includes using a new organic dye
specifically designed to be sensitive to the narrow blue-laser as well as offer
sufficient stability for reading.

As HD DVD-R is based on the DVD structure, existing
DVD-Recordable manufacturing lines can be used to produce HD DVD-R's by
utilising the new dye instead. Both Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku
Media/Verbatim have performed trial productions of HD DVD-R discs using their
existing DVD recordable production lines and can confirm that these can be used
to efficiently mass produce HD DVD-R discs. Commercial productions are
expected to begin next Spring, in time for the launch of standalone HD DVD
recorders as well as PC HD DVD drives.

The four companies are delighted with their
progress and expect the demand for HD DVD to substantially grow once the media
and drives are launched. As around 90% of recordable DVDs sold in 2004
were write once media, the Chief Fellow of Toshiba's Digital Media Network
Company expects the next generation HD DVD write once media to be just as
important.

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 2005--A group of four manufacturers today 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 commercialize 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. Standard
DVD-Recordable discs use a photosensitive organic dye as the data storage
medium in their recording layer. In the transition to HD DVD,
manufacturers had to meet the challenge of developing a dye for HD DVD-R
discs that could be used with the narrow wavelength of a blue laser and
offered sufficient readout stability. The newly developed organic dye is
highly sensitive to blue laser light, has the uncompromised readout
stability essential for practical use, and the solubility in organic
solvent required for easy production of the dye recording layer by a
spin-coating process. As the HD DVD-R disc is based on the same disc
structure as DVD discs, back-to-back bonding of two 0.6 millimeter-thick
substrates, already installed DVD-Recordable manufacturing lines can
utilize the new dye in efficient production of HD DVD-R.

Read the full
article here.

It looks like that while there are hopes to eventually make an agreement on a
unified format, the battle still goes on with Blu-ray ready for efficient
volume production and now a similar story with HD DVD-R. In my opinion, it
looks like both formats are here to stay and that the winner will likely be
which ever one leads the market, like in the Betamax vs. VHS days.

Feel free to discuss about HD-DVD and other next generation HD media on our
Satellite,
HD-TV, Blu-ray and HD-DVD Forum.

Source: Yahoo Financial News