Panasonic Brings 6x BD-R media to Japan - USA Has the 6x Recorders

[tigeraudio2007]

Panasonic has announced they are going to be first to market with 6x compatible 25GB and 50GB BD-R discs begining July 10th in Japan. While Japan will have 6x burnable media, the US will have the LG's 6x capable Blu-ray recorders. Panasonic says that Blu-ray recorders compatible with 6x media will be available in Japan by the end of September 2008. Panasonic has made no announcement of a US release date for 6x media. Hopefully sooner than later the hardware and software will meet, giving everyone the opportunity to burn large capacity discs in a reasonable amount of time.

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 the first 6X BD-R to meet consumer demand to read and write large amounts of data at higher speeds. The new 6X discs have a maximum data transfer speed of an amazingly fast 216Mbps. 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 feature a wide power margin at any writing speed 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.

Specifications

6X BD-R
Format Name Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format Ver. 1.3
Model Number LM-BR25MDE LM-BR50MDE
Data Capacity 25GB 50GB
Layer Constitution Single Sided/Single Layer Single Sided/Dual Layer
Recording Format Phase Change Recordable
Laser Wavelength 405nm (Blue-violet Laser)
Objective Lens Numerical Aperture (NA) 0.85
Disc Diameter/Thickness 120mm x 1.2mm
Track Pitch 0.32 É m
Minimum Mark Length 0.149
Data Transfer Speed 216Mbps(Max.)
Hard Coating YES

[deacongreg]

The industry moves forward and advances. Great.