HD DVD-R/RW media available July 5 in Japan

Hitachi and Mitsubishi have both announced today that (in Japan at least), they will be releasing single layer HD DVD-Rs, with RW and dual layer blanks to come later this summer. Still no recorders announced, but with their importance in the Japanese market and media now scheduled, they can't be very far off. Impress approximates the price at about 2,000 yen ($17.75 US), which is about  the same price as single layer Blu-ray media. What the press releases don't seem to say is whether this media is 1X or 2X speed rated; because of the difference in the specifications 1X (36.55mbps) media could still play HD DVD content, but would be a slower burner than the Blu-ray drives that are coming out rated at 2X (72mbps) or higher. Impress only mentions the Hitachi as being 1X.

[Via Impress Watch]

Read - Hitachi HD DVD-R/RW
Read - Mitsubishi HD DVD-R/RW

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 8th 2006 8:25AM]

What have the HD-DVD recorders been selling for? I did not notice any.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 8th 2006 12:22PM]

Too expensive.

$17 for what is less than two DVD-DL 8.5GB discs which would be about $5. I know pricing comes down but at the price/GB of the new Optical Media I'm really trying to see the updside of these Blue Laser formats when you have HDD just exploding in capacity and speed.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 8th 2006 1:41PM]

I posted the same thing on Engadget...
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Hate to do this to youse guys, but you REALLY should read the press release. Both Hitachi and Mitsu are doing both HD and BD. Impress Watch might have been a little biased towards HD or their post was to focus solely on HD-DVD, but if you look at the companies' websites, you'll see they offer both BD and HD. On top of that, Maxell is releasing info about the DL and RE versions too.

Kinda makes the whole statement about HD beating out BD moot, eh? This would even warrant a post title change.

BTW, Maxell = Hitachi? If not, edit, edit, edit!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 8th 2006 1:57PM]

Sorry TheG, no bias here we just didn't feel like Blu-ray discs being announced in Japan where they've already been available for some time is particularly breaking news. You can read the Hitachi press release and see that yes, it does = Maxell. Unfortunately we didn't say anything about HD beating Blu-ray, in fact we suggested it might be losing due to slower speeds, so I can't help you there.

Thank you for the comments, we appreciate them.