Hitachi Maxell to Launch 50GB Rewritable Professional Optical Disc

Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. will launch Professional Disc with rewritable 50GB recording capacity worldwide in December 2008, offering compatibility with dual layer Professional Disc system for ‘XDCAM’ of Sony Corporation. The new product makes its debut at Maxell booth of the 2008 InterBEE show (November 19 to 21, 2008) at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.

Today, as demand for optical discs in professional broadcasting applications is expected to increase further in recording, retrieving, transferring, editing and saving HD contents in a file base. Professional Disc system, which satisfies all these needs, is highly reliable in rewritability, long-term storage capability, random access and is ideal for IT system, and its market demand is expected to increase in a future.

Maxell’s new Professional Disc PD-50DL is a recording media which is specially designed for Professional Broadcasting optical disc system ‘XDCAM’, offering high capacity storage and fast transfer rate by introducing a blue-violet laser. Incorporated dual-layer structure on one side and optimized recording layer which is ideal for high density recording, Maxell achieved enormous 50GB recording capacity in addition to high dependability which was enabled by precise spin-coating and durable hard-coating technology.

Furthermore, Maxell’s new Professional Disc PD-50DL is fully compatible with MPEG HD422 recorder, offering outstanding picture and sound quality, and is capable of recording approximately 95 minutes with sampling rate 4:2:2 and recording bit rate 50Mbps.

Main Specifications of PD-50DL
(Comparison with single layer disc PD-23SL)

MODEL                       PD-23SL     PD-50DL (New Product)
Recording layer      single layer           dual layer
Recording capacity     23.3GB              50GB
Data transfer rate:     
Playback               max 172Mbps      max 126Mbps
Recording             max 172Mbps       max 86Mbps
Laser wavelength        405nm(blue-violet laser)
Disc diameter                      120mm
Disc thickness                      1.2mm
Cartridge size            128.6mm×130.6mm×9.1mm
Recording method          phase change recording
Track pitch                           0.32µm
Rewrite cycle              more than 1,000 times
Playback cycle           more than 1,000,000 times
Estimated shelf
and archival life            more than 50 years
Weight  Cartridge                    88g
With hard case                       190g
With inner box                      1,020g
With outer carton                   11kg
Packing unit:                 5 pcs. / inner box
                                    50 pcs. / outer carton