Sony Shipping 50GB Blu-ray Discs

Sony on Wednesday announced it had begun shipping its 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray recordable media, which like DVD-Rs can be written to once. The discs store up to 4 hours of high-definition video and will cost $48 USD apiece. Rewriteable Blu-ray media is expected later this year.

Because Blu-ray discs are less resilient than rival format HD DVD, Sony says it has re-engineered its AccuCORE technology to provide scratch resistance, reduction of corruption and deterioration, as well as stable writing functionality to keep the disc level while spinning. Blu-ray discs can also hold up under high temperatures, Sony says.