Taiwanese disc maker
Ritek plans to start mass producing BD-RE (Blu-Ray Disc Rewritable) discs as
well as HD DVD-RE (high definition) discs in the third quarter of this year, a
small but important step to helping reduce the cost of such discs for users.
Initially, however, BD-RE and HD DVD-RE discs will still be pricey. The average
cost per disc will remain around $10 in retail outlets, despite production costs
of around $5 per disc, said Eric Ai, a Ritek representative. Prices won't likely
come down until other mass disc producers in Taiwan win accreditation to make
the discs, and ramp up volumes. Each single-layer BD-RE disc has a capacity of
25GB, enough to hold three hours of terrestrial digital high-definition TV, or
six hours of standard TV. HD DVD-RE discs can hold around 20GB of data, while
DVD discs hold 4.7GB.