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TDK's Durabis 2 coating protects 200GB Blu-ray discs
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 shipping Blu-ray media, still no players
Even 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).
