TDK has announced that is has commenced shipping mass-production samples of its bare-type (cartridge-less) BD-R (write-once type) and BD-RE (rewritable type) Blu-ray Discs. TDK’s Blu-ray Discs Achieve a High Capacity of 25GB on a Single-Layer and 50GB on a Dual-Layer at 2x Recording Speed. To ensure the new discs will be resistant to scratches and dirt even without external cartridges, they will be coated with TDK’s new DURABIS 2 hard coating. DURABIS 2 technology has been specifically formulated for Blu-ray Discs. TDK has announced four varaints – 25 GB (Single layer, Write once / Rewritable disks) and 50 Gb (Dual layer, Write once / Rewritable disks).

DURABIS 2 coating provides significantly greater resistance to scratches and dirt (particularly fingerprint smudges), ensuring safe use even without a cartridge. Unique high-precision spin coating creates a supremely flat cover layer, resulting in highly stabilised recording and playback. The BD-R disc utilises a recording layer of an inorganic material which is unaffected by exposure to light, thus offering outstanding archivability. The BD-RE disc utilises a highly sensitive phase-change dye in the recording layer that realises stabilised characteristics even after as many as 10,000 rewrites. High-precision stacking technology precisely overlays disc layers, delivering stabilised characteristics on both the upper and lower recording layers in a single-sided, dual-layer (50GB) disc.