A group of companies has set out to create a de facto standard for the Blu-ray stampers.

This group consisted of Sony, Singulus Mastering and Technologies, Sibert and technotrans.

As with all Optical Disc formats, the standard only describes the properties of the final disc. This leaves room for alternative manufacturing processes in order to come to the well defined result.

However, this also means that the properties of the intermediate tools are not defined. This is not in the interest of the Optical Disc Manufacturing industry.

Therefore, a group of companies has set out to, at least for Blu-ray Disc, create a de facto standard for the stamper. The stamper is a crucial part in the production chain, and can be well defined in terms of characteristics and properties. It is also the interface between mastering and replication facilities.

Over several months, the group has defined and verified the optimum BD stamper?s physical characteristics, based on the members? technology and expert knowledge.

Information on the new BD Stamper Characteristics document can be obtained by Singulus Mastering, Sony DADC, Sibert and Technotrans.