PANASONIC INTRODUCES WORLD'S FIRST 6X WRITE-ONCE BLU-RAY DISC MEDIA*

Secaucus, NJ (June 18, 2008) – Panasonic today announced that it has developed the world's first Write-Once Blu-ray Discs (BD-R) with 6X writing speed*. The new discs will be available in both 25GB** and 50GB capacities.

Panasonic, which introduced the world's first dual-layer 1X BD-RE Blu-ray Disc in 2004***, 2X BD-R/RE Discs in 2006, and 4X BD-R Disc in 2007, is now launching the first 6X BD-R to meet consumer demand to read and write large amounts of data at higher speeds. The new 6X discs have a maximum data transfer speed of an amazingly fast 216Mbps. This transfer speed, along with the discs' high capacity, allows consumers to use these discs for a variety of applications such as storing high-definition video or backing up PC data.

The new discs feature a wide power margin at any writing speed from 1X to 6X. This enables high-quality recording, even if the drive's laser power fluctuates, resulting in greater overall drive compatibility.

Panasonic's adoption of newly-developed disc technology produces extremely level and well-balanced discs with highly precise signal grooves. This improves servo characteristics and enables the laser beam to focus to the right position even when the disc is rotating with 6X high speed, thus providing optimum reading and writing performance.

Specifications

6X BD-R

Format Name: Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format Ver. 1.3
Model Number: LM-BR25MDE, LM-BR50MDE
Data Capacity: 25GB, 50GB
Layer Constitution: Single Sided/Single Layer, Single Sided/Dual Layer
Recording Format: Phase Change Recordable
Laser Wavelength: 405nm （Blue-violet Laser）
Objective Lens Numerical Aperture (NA): 0.85
Disc Diameter/Thickness: 120mm x 1.2mm
Track Pitch: 0.32 μm
Minimum Mark Length: 0.149μm
Data Transfer Speed: 216Mbps(Max.)
Hard Coating

*As of June 18, 2008

**The capacity of Blu-ray discs is expressed in units of 1GB=1 billion bytes, but the capacity is slightly below that after formatting, so that the actual amount area that can be used will be less.

***Introduced in Japanese market only

[Panasonic and AVWatch]

The 16GB model can record up to 100 hours of digital terrestrial TV, programmable up to a month in advance on MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format. The battery will give you 36 hours' use if you're using it to play tunes on, and 6 hours if you're watching stuff. There's a noise-canceling function, and the 2.4-inch liquid crystal screen has 320 x 240 resolution.

Music-wise, you can record from CD and MD players, it supports ATRAC, AAC, MP3 and WMA, and there are five sound modes to choose from: heavy; jazz; pop; unique; and custom. Oh, and you can store your pics on it as well.

Prices are around 45,000 for the 16GB A919, 35,000 for the 8GB A918 and 30,000 for the 4GB A916. That's $389, $302 and $259 respectively. [Impress through Google Translate]