Sony to ship Blu-ray disc media to Europe this month

Sony today announced that its first Blu-ray Disc media will ship in Europe in March 2006. Single-layer BD-RE (Blu-ray Disc Rewritable) media will be available in store from mid March and single-layer write-once BD-R (Blu-ray Disc Recordable) media will be available from April. Sony is also set to launch dual layer discs later this year.

The single-layer Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BNR25A) and Blu-ray Disc Rewritable (BNE25A) media offer a storage capacity of 25GB, more than five times that of a normal DVD and enough for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes of video at a bit rate of 24Mbps, or 10 hours and 30 minutes at 5Mbps. The new generation media support 2X speed which equates to a data transfer rate of 72 Mbps (9 MB/s), making the discs suitable for video recording as well as data storage and file backup. In addition, Sony’s Blu-ray Disc media will feature its unique AccuCORE technology as standard, ensuring reliable data recording, increased disc protection and enhanced durability.