Mini Blu-ray Discs To Ship

By John Laposky On Aug 6 2007 - 6:00am

Verbatim and Imation announced shipping plans for the first wave of Mini Blu-ray recordable/rewriteable (BD-R/RE) media to reach the consumer market.

The new 8 cm 7.5GB discs provide approximately one hour of continuous video capture time on a single side in 1920 by 1080i high definition, and approximately two hours of video capture time with images recorded at 1440 by 1080i.

Verbatim will make Mini BD media available in August in Japan, where the new Hitachi BD-compatible camcorder (see p. 4) will be launched. Verbatim will begin shipments of the media to other parts of the world, including North America, when the new BD-compatible camcorders become available locally.

The discs will retail for $20 each.

Imation's TDK branded discs will begin shipping in the U.S. in September at suggested retails of $24.99 for -R and $34.99 for -RE respectively.