New rewritable DVD media to be released on trial basis

TDK has announced that it will start manufacturing sample quantities of write once DVD-R and rewritable DVD-RAM discs. According to the manufacturer, the decision came after considerable interest was shown in the technology when it was exhibited at Comdex, Las Vegas last November.

DVD-R is a single-sided write once media with a storage capacity of 3.95GB and uses an adapted version of the company's patented Msi metal-stabilised cyanine dye recording material.

DVD-RAM discs use a newly developed phase change recording material to achieve 2.6GB of storage. Sample shipments of the product should be available this year.