Sony Produces 10 Millionth BD-50

Sony DADC has announced that they have produced their 10 millionth BD-50 disc. The disc, a copy of the upcoming 'Spider-man 3' Blu-ray release, was produced at Sony's Terre Haute facility in Indiana, one of three such facilities which produce the high capacity discs (the other two being in Austria and Japan). Together, the three plants have produced more than 50 million Blu-ray discs at a capacity of 21 million discs per month.

The huge increase in Blu-ray production can be attributed to gains in production yields. The BD-25 now has a consistent yield rate of around 85%, while the more difficult to produce BD-50 are consistently between 75% and 79%. Cycle times for the BD-50 have also greatly improved, meaning more Blu-ray discs are being made than ever before with levels for BD-25s approaching parity with their DVD production.

Sony has also extended assistance to Blu-ray disc replication equipment manufacturers Singulus and Oerlikon who are expected to release BD-50 upgrades for their popular manufacturing lines within the next few weeks.