TDK today announced that it has begun shipping 25GB recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Disc media to U.S. retailers.

Retail pricing is set at $19.99 for a 25GB BD-R (recordable), $24.99 for a 25GB BD-RE (rewritable). In addition, TDK will ship 50GB Blu-ray Disc media later this year with retail pricingset at $47.99 for a 50GB BD-R (recordable) and $59.99 for a 50GB BD-RE (rewritable).

The high-sensitivity inorganic CuSi recording material utilized by TDK for the write-once type BD-R is completely different than the recording materials used for CD or DVD.

For TDK's rewritable BD-RE Blu-ray Disc media, a specially designed high-sensitivity phase change recording material is utilized. TDK says that its new rewritable discs show virtually no performance degradation even after ithas been overwritten 10,000 times. The 25GB and 50GB BD-R and BD-RE discs offer 2x (72Mbps) rated recording speed.

Every TDK Blu-ray Disc includes DURABIS protective hardcoating formulation.

TDK technologies have also enabled creating 100GB, quad-layer Blu-ray Disc prototypes and a 216Mbps (6x) speed. The company is in the process of developing the world's first 200GB Blu-ray Disc prototype.