- 1 March 2006 -

Philips unveils Blu-ray disc products and media launch schedule

Founding member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, Philips has made a major announcement which could help decide the continuing contest for the next-generation higher density optical storage market in the consumer sector.

Philips says it will introduce its first Blu-ray Disc consumer products over the coming year. These include the home entertainment player (BDP 9000), an all-in-one PC Writer (TripleWriter) and new Blu-ray media (BD-R and B-RE, single layer 25 GB and dual layer BD-R and BD-RE 50 GB).

The BDP9000 consumer player will be available in the US in the second half of 2006 and the TripleWriter (SPD7000) will be available in Europe and the US in the second half of 2006.

Philips says its new Blu-ray solutions offer “consumers the ultimate storage platform for high definition (HD) entertainment and digital archiving, providing consumers the ability to store massive amounts of content on a single disc”. In a grander prediction it contends that the Blu-ray Disc is the “next generation platform for HD playback of video content and will be supported by most of the major movie studios and other content providers. Through Blu-ray Disc, consumers can enjoy enough storage for nine hours of HD movies, 23 hours of standard definition content or 72 CDs on a single disc”.

Along with the partners in the Blu-ray Disc consortium, they are convinced that it has the support and technological innovation behind it to be the industry leader and is supported by more than 160 of the world’s largest gaming manufacturers, movie studios, consumer electronics and PC manufacturers. That said Sony recently was said to have postponed plans for the introduction of its Blu-ray based Playstation 3. That said, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Lions Gate, have just set the official date for the first release of a motion picture on the new Blu-ray disk (BD); May 23. The date will see the release of 13 titles, along with the launch of the BD player, by Samsung.

This week, Philips introduced four robust and easy-to-use disc types: 25 and 50GB versions of BD-R and BD-RE. The Blu-ray Disc has a ‘revolutionary’ protective cover layer utilizing an advanced hard coating technology, offering superior robustness, better than CD and DVD. This coating prevents fingerprints and scratches and will provide ease of use by improving cleansibiliity without the risk of damaging.

Finally, the new Philips TripleWriter (SPD7000) showcases Philips’ ability to integrate PC products and technologies into the consumer electronics realm. The drive features recording and playback capabilities of all popular optical storage formats including CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc, which allows users to select their media of choice depending on the preferred application. Philips’ TripleWriter features a 2x (72 Mb/s continuous data-rate) read and write speed on BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE media. The drive reads and writes a variety of legacy media including CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD+RW and DVD-RW. Additionally, Philips will launch four types of discs (BD-R and BD-RE, single layer 25 GB and dual layer BD-R and BD-RE 50 GB) together with the introduction of the TripleWriter. The TripleWriter can be built into any PCD featuring S-ATA interface.

The BDP9000 consumer player will be available in the US in the second half of 2006. The TripleWriter (SPD7000) will be available in Europe and the US in the second half of 2006.