Hot news yesterday, debunked rumor today. PC Magazine reports that Wal-Mart has denied rumors that it placed a substantial order with a Taiwan supplier for ultra-cheap HD-DVD players. The rumors, which centered on Taiwan-based consumer electronics manufacturer Fuh Yuan partnering with TDK in China to manufacture US$ 250 HD-DVD players surfaced earlier this week.

In an e-mail to PC Magazine, a Wal-Mart spokesman said that the rumor, which first appeared in AVS Forums and was picked up by other websites, "was full of inaccuracies and we had no participation in it. Most of the facts, including the purchase, were untrue."

The spokesman also added that she was "not sure how it originated," but declined to comment when asked about a statement appearing on Fuh Yuan's site, which, according to PC Magazine, implies the retailer is at least interested in ordering the players. Fuh Yuan, on the other hand, released the following statement in their website on Thursday:

We are sorry to correct the statement that we have two million HD-DVD players order from Wal-Mart and manufactured by China Great Wall Group. The actuality is that we had not received yet. We are asked to provide the schedule to Wal-Mart and cost to determine the quantity even more than two million, if the cost is good enough and timing is correct. So the capacity is under consideration. Any qualified manufactured base group will be welcome.

Wal-Mart is currently selling both Blu-ray and HD-DVD in their approximately 750 stores nationwide. If the retail giant decides to choose one format, though, it could very well be the death knell for the other.

There's been talk about super high-capacity discs for some time now. TDK even said something about having a 200GB Blu-Ray disc in August. Well, word's just trickled out that this week, Hitachi-Maxell will be organizing a showcase to present their latest offering to the public: their new 300GB holographic CDs.

Now that's a whole lot of space for data. Hitachi-Maxell's new 300GB holographic discs also have a transfer rate of 20MB/sec, combining high-speed transfers with sky-high capacity. These babies will no doubt prove invaluable for storing, say, uncompressed movies and music files that could be edited at a later time.

That's not all, too. InPhase has a second-generation 800GB rewritable optical disc with data transfer rates of about 80MBbps in the works for 2008, with plans to expand its capacity to 1.6TB by 2010.

Of course, with increased capacity comes a proportionately increased price tag. The 300GB discs are expected to fetch a price of around US$ 100 to US$ 125, while the optical drive that'll be used to operate them is expected to have a whopping price of US$ 15,000. Definitely not something that the common everyman can afford right now, but when the second-gen discs roll out, we expect these ones to get a price cut.

In an earlier article, we followed the buzz about TDK coming out with a 200GB Blu-ray disc, and about the problems they encountered in developing it. But during the IFA 2006 held in Berlin, TDK once again announced that their prototype 200GB Blue-laser disc is currently in the works.

The 200GB disc is going to be made up of six layers which will hold 33.3GB each. The single-sided disc will be coated with Durabis, which will protect the disc from fingerprint and scratches. If all this is true, this could mean 18 whole hours of HD video all in one disc! But before you get too excited, let's not forget that TDK's 100GB disc prototype is not even being produced yet. Then how come TDK just keeps announcing these stuff?

While TDK seems to be fond of keeping us drooling for the 200GB disc by giving "hints" that they will release such a disc, at least there's one thing they also announced that we're sure is really existent, the 50GB Blu-ray media. According to TDK, their 50GB Blu-ray media is now available and will be sold for $45 for a write-once disc and around $58 for the rewritable one.

No one knows for sure whether TDK really will come out with the 200GB disc. We're keeping our fingers crossed but hopefully the next time they announce something about it, it's already about the release - or at the very least, about it being in the production stage already.

The MiniDisc (MD) was targeted as a replacement for analogue cassette tapes as a recording system for Hi-Fi equipment. Unfortunately, the format wasn't as successful as Sony had hoped. But it's still the format of choice of some audiophiles, so until now MD enjoys a loyal niche following. It's probably for this reason that TDK unveiled, without much fanfare, the new MD Media series for 2006. Although MD isn't very visible these days, it's still great to see a new line of recordable MDs, in striking colors to boot.

The "WA" series MD will be available in both 74- and 80-min variants, and in packs of 5 and 10. No word yet on pricing.

   

 

TDK gets a big headstart in the Blu-ray burning race when it showed off its superfast drives at the 8th Data Storage Expo in Japan. With Blu-ray burners limited to just 2x write speed, TDK ups the ante with its 4x drive capable of writing more than 200GB of data to 8-layer discs.

But that's not the end of it. The company also unveiled its 6x BD-R disc with storage capacity of 25GB. It's really not just about huge storage space. With the 6x BD-R disc, we're looking at burning 25GB to 50GB at a time. So, you can say goodbye to long hours of waiting. TDK didn't let up with its show of force when it re-introduced the 100GB quad-layer BDR. It had been on display at last year's expo but it seems some modifications were made.

All these Blu-ray peripherals are slated for a 2007 release.