Blu-ray Disc Ready for Cost Effective Manufacturing

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced that Blu-ray Disc manufacturing is ready to go. Broad acceptance and adoption of Blu-ray Disc has contributed to process improvements and cost efficiencies that bring the long-term cost of manufacturing BD-ROM discs in line with current DVD replication costs. "There are a lot of companies trying to stake out a position in various aspects of BD-ROM manufacturing," said Kazuhiro Tsuga, executive officer of Matsushita Electric. "As a result, we are seeing multitudes of improvements in processes and technology, as well as the effects of economies of scale that make replication extremely cost effective." With these developments in the industry, replication facilities in the United States are setting up and preparing to mass produce BD-ROMs. Technicolor is establishing a complete pilot BD disc manufacturing process by July 2005. Cinram which already has a pilot replication line is awaiting the delivery of commercial lines.