News on HD DVD Recordable Format front

[June 8, 2006] Original post.
[June 22, 2006] Updated with new infomation from MKM on HD DVD-R DL blank media.

Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd (MKM) have both announced the availability of HD DVD-R (15GB) 1x blank media in Japan starting July 5.

[June 22, 2006] MKM has announced that the HD DVD-R DL (30GB) 1x blank media will be available in Japan late July.

Hitachi Maxell expects its HD DVD-R DL (30GB) blank media to be at retail in Japan around September.

The single layer HD DVD-R (15GB) blank media can record up to 75 minutes worth of HD broadcasts/video encoded at 24Mbps.

The dual layer HD DVD-R DL (30GB) blank media can record up to 150 minutes worth of HD broadcasts/video encoded at 24Mbps.

At 1x speed, both the HD DVD-R 1x and HD DVD-R DL 1x blank media can be recorded at standard data rate of 36.55 Mbps.

On the HD DVD-RW front, at the DVD Forum's 34th Steering Committee Meeting, the DVD specifications for:

>> High Density Re-recordable Disc (HD DVD-RW) Physical Specifications, Version 1.0, and
>> High Density Re-recordable Disc for Dual Layer (HD DVD-RW for DL) Physical Specifications, Version 2.0

has both been approved. So it is likely that we will be seeing the HD DVD-RW blank media soon before the year ends...

As for the market outside of Japan, it is reported that MKM/Verbatim will ship the HD DVD-R blank media when the supported hardware is available in those areas.