Singulus Says It Has no Data To Disclose on Costs, Yields of 100-GB Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs

Blu-ray disc replication equipment maker Singulus Technologies concedes it’s “more complicated” to produce 100-GB Ultra HD Blu-ray media than a 66-GB disc (see 1510130055), but has no data to disclose on the 100-GB disc's relative costs and production yields, spokesman Bernhard Krause emailed us Wednesday. For a UHD 100 disc with a storage capacity of 100 GB, “you will need 3 layers with 33-GB each,” Krause said. “One layer is coming from the molding machine, the other 2 storage layers are produced with two embossing stations compared to only one used for a dual layer BD 50 disc.” Krause was vague on the deployment schedule for replicators commercializing 100-GB discs for Ultra HD Blu-ray using his company’s Bluline III manufacturing equipment. “We are waiting for potential customers to get started,” Krause said. He also declined comment when asked whether Singulus expects specific studios to come to market in 2016 with Ultra HD Blu-ray discs produced on the Bluline III equipment. The Singulus Bluline II production equipment can produce existing 50-GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs with a cycle time of about four seconds per disc, Krause said. “Our machines are running typically with a yield about 88%.” For the new Bluline III system, “we have no data yet in terms of cycle time, yield, etc.,” he said. “The investment will be higher” for a Bluline III compared with a Bluline II for the BD-25 and BD-50 formats “because for UHD 100 we have in addition one metallizer, embossing station and the related lacquering stations integrated,” he said.