Last Updated From the Excite Site, news on "new" phase change material from TDK. Is this really new material or something that is liceensed from ECD?
7:38 PM ET October 14, 1998
TDK Breakthrough Heralds The Age Of Home DVD
Video Recording
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (BUSINESS WIRE) - The era of
home DVD video recording drew nearer last week as TDK
announced a major breakthrough in phase-change recording
material critical to the development of a rewritable DVD disc
capable of playback on DVD-Video players and computer
DVD-ROM drives. At technology seminars hosted by the
company in New York and San Francisco, TDK demonstrated
working prototypes of a 4.7GB DVD-RW disc using the
company's new ReCom (Rewritable/Compatible) recording
material. The disc, which was recorded in the company's research
laboratory, displayed high-quality video programming when
played on a variety of consumer DVD-Video decks.
According to a TDK research engineer who made the
presentation last week, the new ReCom recording material will
prove critical in the creation of compatible/rewritable DVD-RW
discs, as well as increasing the capacity of today's DVD-RAM
discs from 2.6 GB to 4.7 GB (DVD-RAM discs are not
playback-compatible with DVD-Video and DVD-ROM).
Compounded of silver, antimony, tellurium and indium, ReCom is
unique in its ability to form ultra-small, highly precise data marks in
response to very rapid laser pulses. In addition, the material is
extremely well-suited to multiple rewrite operations, and has been
tested in excess of 1,000 record/overwrite cycles.
In a related announcement, TDK also disclosed that it has
succeeded in creating a write-once DVD-R disc with a full 4.7
GB capacity, up from the 3.95 GB capacity of current DVD-R
media. Write-once DVD-R discs are playback compatible with
DVD-ROM and DVD-Video drives, and with 4.7 GB capacity -
the same as pressed read-only DVD discs - the new TDK
DVD-R discs will be a more flexible and convenient medium for
multimedia producers and DVD authoring professionals.
TDK has achieved 4.7GB capacity in its DVD-R discs by use of
its proprietary MSI metal-stabilized cyanine dye technology,
which was retuned for the shorter laser wavelength necessary for
higher-density optical recording. TDK, which pioneered in the
development of cyanine-based recording materials for its line of
Certified Plus CD-R discs, noted that other types of organic dyes
currently used by some CD-R manufacturers do not have the
properties necessary to create 4.7 GB DVD-R discs.
According to Mr. Kuni Matsui, president of TDK Electronics
Corporation, recordable optical media represents the future for
many business and entertainment applications. Said Mr. Matsui,
"The success of CD-R has proven beyond a doubt that optical
disk-based recording is the way the market will go. This year,
industry-wide sales of CD-R discs in the U.S. will total some 150
million pieces, and should double within three years. And as
recordable DVD technology begins to reach home and desktop
users - especially with media that is playback compatible with
DVD-Video and DVD-ROM drives - the market will grow even
faster. Though there are many hurdles that must be overcome
before the age of home video recording on DVD can be achieved
- not least of which are the needs of copyright holders and content
creators -- the technologies to create a disk-based optical
recording universe are rapidly coming into place. It is in this
universe that TDK sees its future."
TDK currently offers a broad variety of recordable DVD media,
including 3.95 GB DVD-R discs as well as 2.6 GB (single-sided)
and 5.2 GB (double-sided) DVD-RAM discs. The company
expects to offer 4.7 GB DVD-R and DVD-RAM discs in the 1st
and 4th quarters of 1999, respectively. Timing for the introduction
of DVD-RW discs must await publication of standards for the
format, but market introduction could be as early as the 2nd
quarter of 1999. |
