Blu-ray goes for video recording market

THE BLU-RAY POSSE is about to drop an ace from its sleeve, and go mini. The main players in this attack are Verbatim, a division of Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), Hitachi and Sony.

After the original BD format failed to capture the market in a way standard-pushers were hoping, attention is now focusing on signing up as many CE devices as possible..

After Hitachi released a Mini-BD camcorder in Japan during August, the time has come for European and American markets.

Verbatim is launching two different types of Mini Blu-ray media: BD-R (Recordable) and BD-RE (Rewritable). are intended for mini-BD camcorders like the existing Hitachi and upcoming models from Sony.

Eight centimetre, 7.5GB capacity - single-layer. Dual-layer will have to wait for technology to develop.

Measuring 8cm (3.15") in diameter, Mini BD-R/RE media feature capacity of 7.5GB (single-layer), or a gigabyte less than one dual-layer DVD medium of regular size. Manufacturer claims that 7.5GB is enough for 60 minutes of FullHD video (1920x1080, or 1080p), or 120minutes of video capture when a resultion of 1440x1080 pixels is being used.

Verbatim claims that you can forget downloading the video to the hard drive, since BD-RE media is capable of editing the video and deleting/rewriting the content on the medium itself.

Both BD-R and BD-RE media come with SERL, and Hard Coat, anti-static, anti-scratch protection layer. This should prolongue life when compared to regular media from the stores. In order to ensure quality, Verbatim is manufacturing these discs only in its factory in Japan.

These two will be available in European stores in November. µ