Panasonic 6X BD-R Media to Be Available in July

Panasonic, the brand by which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known, has developed the world’s first Write-Once Blu-ray Discs(BD-R) with 6X writing speed.

The new discs will be available in Japan with both 25GB and 50GB capacities in this July.

Panasonic, which introduced the world’s first dual-layer 1X BD-RE Blu-ray Disc in 2004, 2X BD-R/RE Discs in 2006, and 4X BD-R Disc in 2007, is now launching world’s first 6X BD-R to meet consumer demand to write and read large amounts of data at a higher speed. The new 6X discs have a maximum data transfer speed of 216Mbps, which is 20% faster than that of 16X DVD-R discs. This transfer speed, along with the discs’ high capacity, allows consumers to use these discs for a variety of applications such as storing High Definition video or backing up PC data.

The new discs have a wide power margin at any writing speeds from 1X to 6X. This enables high-quality recording, even if the drive’s laser power fluctuates, resulting in greater overall drive compatibility.

Panasonic’s adoption of newly-developed disc technology produces extremely level and well-balanced discs with highly precise signal grooves. This improves servo characteristics and enables the laser beam to focus to the right position even when the disc is rotating with 6X high speed, thus providing optimum reading and writing performance.

Blu-ray disc drives compatible with 6X write-once Blu-ray discs are planned to be commercialized in Japan by the end of September 2008.

Specifications

Format Name: Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format Ver. 13
Model Number: LM-BR25MDE (25GB) and LM-BR50MDE (50GB)
Data Capacity: 25GB and 50GB
Layer Constitution: Single Sided / Single Layer (25GB), Single Sided /Dual Layer (50GB)
Recording Format: Phase Change Recordable
Laser Wavelength: 405nm Blue-violet Laser
Lens: 0.85
Disc Diameter/Thickness: 120mm x 1.2mm
Track Pitch: 0.32 μm
Minimum Mark Length: 0.149μm
Data Transfer Speed: 216Mbps(Max.)
Hard Coating: Yes