Taiyo Yuden CD and DVD Production Update

Supplies of the only Japanese-made CD-r and DVD-r have been temporarily disrupted by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent high radiation levels in Japan.

JVC-Taiyo Yuden branded discs from Victor Advanced Media, a subsidiary of JVC and Taiyo Yuden, are manufactured in northern Japan. The plant sustained some damage in the events of March 11, 2011.

Taiyo Yuden

Some CD manufacturing has resumed, and DVD production will follow shortly. While news has been very positive generally, some supply irregularities are anticipated on certain products like Watershield CD-r and DVD-r media as well as white prism thermal CD-r.

While media production lines had been temporarily disabled as the precision facilities were recalibrated and power was restored, Taiyo Yuden / JVC is quickly returning to full production. Production at some of the lines has already been restarted, and JVC and Taiyo Yuden are working quickly to ensure a stable supply of the highly sought-after optical media is restored.

Logistical issues are still a major concern as many roads and bridges were severely damaged and the main shipping port in northern Japan is near the dangerous radiation leaking nuclear power plant.

Please contact techwaredist.com with any Taiyo Yuden CD-r and DVD-r questions you may have.

Taiyo Yuden CD, DVD, and BD Disc Production in Fukushima Remains Shutdown

As of March 18th 2011, the Taiyo Yuden recordable CD-r / DVD-r / BD-r disc production plant in Fukushima, Japan remains offline.

According to the published statement, the Fukushima manufacturing plant suffered building and equipment damage from the massive 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011. The ensuing power outages in the northern part of Japan continue to frustrate the company’s efforts to resume operations.

Please contact us at www.techwaredist.com about any Taiyo Yuden CD / DVD disc questions you may have.

Plextor announces new USB 3.0 Blu-ray Burner

Japanese drive manufacturer Plextor is preparing to release its new Blu-ray burner into the UK market next month. The new ultra-fast external PX-LB950UE Blu-ray burner boosts 12x writing speed as well as an USB 3.0 interface.

PX-LB950UE Blu-ray

Plextor Blu-Ray

Japanese drive manufacturer Plextor is preparing to release its new Blu-ray burner into the UK market next month. The new ultra-fast external PX-LB950UE Blu-ray burner boosts 12x writing speed as well as an USB 3.0 interface. For those without USB 3.0 ports, the Plextor Blu-ray burner can also connect via eSata. The Plextor PX-LB950UE will be available in March 2011.

For those without USB 3.0 ports, the Plextor Blu-ray burner can also connect via eSata. The Plextor PX-LB950UE will be available in March 2011.

Blu-ray disc production could reach 2 billion units by 2014.

Some interesting facts about Blu-ray in the future.

Worldwide pre-recorded Blu-ray video disc production is on track to exceed 400 million units in 2010, an increase of nearly 60% compared with 2009, according to a new research report from Futuresource Consulting. When factoring in PS3 titles, overall BD production volumes are somewhat higher.

via DVD intelligence

The Optical Media Industry Reflections: 2010

With the start of 2011, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the events of the past year in the disc duplication / replication world. 2010 was a year of ups and downs, and the CD / DVD duplication industry was no exception.

The troubled economy took its toll on the duplication industry with equipment manufacturer Verity Systems and packaging giant NexPak both going out of business. To be honest there needed to be some consolidation on the equipment manufacturing side and we expect weaker manufacturers to fall by the wayside in 2011.

On the media side, Taiyo Yuden cut back its production of CD-R, DVD±R and BD-R media from a current level of 110 million units/month to 65 million units/month. They also decreased inventory by roughly 40% and cut their staff nearly in half. Additionally, Taiyo Yuden also officially became JVC Advanced Media here in the United States. This move was made so TY could leverage the stronger JVC brand name in their marketing efforts here in the states. The only changes were in the box design and part numbers, the superior quality of the discs remains unchanged.

This year saw some major changes from Primera, who retired their famous Bravo II disc publisher in favor of the new Bravo Pro Xi and Xi2 line of automated disc publishers and printers. The new automated duplicators feature a larger capacity and faster robotics for better all around performance. The Bravo Pro Xi can also be outfitted with a Blu-ray disc burner, which was not available in the Bravo II duplicator.

Rimage 5400n

The world’s premier disc publishing equipment manufacturer Rimage was very busy this past year! They launched their new professional line of disc duplicators and printers, the 5400n and 3400 disc publishers. These new systems are based around the new Everest 400 thermal disc printer that is embedded with the robotics for an all-in-one system. Each of these machines boasts a huge 100-disc capacity and is available with your choice of CD / DVD burners and /or optional Blu-ray burners. The Rimage 5300n and 5100n disc publishers were quietly replaced by these two new units this past summer. As a side note, Techware has very attractive purchase and rental deals on a demo Rimage 5300n, 5100n and the latest 5400n unit.

On the supplies side, Rimage stopped selling the 1000-print transfer ribbons in 2010 for the Everest 600 (part# 2000491), Everest III and II (part# 203384-001) printers. These were both replaced by 500-print count ribbons. part number 2001469 for the Everest 400/600 printers and part number 203474-001 for the Everest III/II/I printers.

After such a tumultuous year, you might be wondering what the future holds for the optical disc industry. Our guess is that the need for Blu-ray duplication will grow in 2011. The CD and DVD industries have hit maturity, but the market for high-definition content is still on the rise. New technologies such as Blu-ray 3D and BD-XL will drive growth and sales in the duplication and data storage niches this year.

With prices on Blu-ray media and equipment rapidly decreasing, there will be an increasing number of people will be making the switch to Blu-ray this year. We will also see some exciting new products from Primera Technology (the 4100 series of Bravo duplicators/printers) as well as from the other top manufacturers Microboards and Rimage in 2011.

That is all for now. Please check back often as the DVD / CD / Blu-ray duplicator experts here at Techware will be regularly blogging about disc printing, duplication, replication, new equipment, supplies, repair, cost saving operating tips and more in 2011.

Buffalo & Pioneer Introduce the first BDXL Drives

Following our earlier reported post about the BDXL discs, it looks as if  Akibara News is  reporting the announcement of both external and internal BDXL drives forthcoming.

These new drives should offer much needed storage and archival expansion for medical images which continue to explode in size as newer technology utilizing multiple scans and 3d become more commonplace.

It will be interesting to see which of the three major disc publishers (Microboards, Primera, Rimage) will be the first to market with integrated BDXL drives into there systems.

-via Engadget by way of Akibara News

TDK Announces Breakthrough!

tdk_logo
Potential new technology could yield a rewritable optical disc that could contain up to 320GB of data. As more and more content is created in higher and higher definitions it has become apparent that BluRay storage discs may not be large enough.

TDK has always been one to push the limits. Back in August, we heard that the company’s roadmap included 960GB laptop drives and 3.2TB desktop drives. Now, we’re also hearing that it’s looking to push the same boundaries in the optical media realm. How does a 10-layer, 320GB disc sound? Sounds like Blu-ray whimpering.

via

It will be interesting to see if this is different technology than GE was discussing with the press released referenced here If not it may be a race to the consumer market to monetize this research.

Pioneer Introduces new DVD Burner for Netbooks

DVR-XD09_Open_med

Recognizing the growing popularity of netbook and notebook products, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. today announces a new slim portable DVD/CD writer, the DVR-XD09, that features the industry’s most compact design to date.

The new DVR-XD09 weighs approximately eight ounces and has an overall size that is slightly larger than a music CD case.

This new drive is targeted specifically towards the subset of computer users that have adopted the smaller more portable netbook style of computing that eschews traditional optical drives and sometimes even spinning magnetic hard drives. The drive connects over USB 2.0 and gives users access to traditional software and entertainment input methods on ever smaller computing devices. It is expected to be available next month.
-via