Panasonic Opens First U.S. DVD-RAM Plant

Annual capacity is six million blank discs

By Frank Moldstad

Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corp. has begun domestic production of 500,000 blank DVD-RAM discs per month at a new optical disc plant in Torrance, Calif., and the company held a press conference at the new site Oct. 14 where it announced new market research showing DVD-RAM with a 55% share of the worldwide DVD recorder deck market.

The 200,000-square-foot Torrance facility is the first U.S. manufacturing site for rewritable DVD blank media, supplying North, Central and South America, said Mark Horiki, president of Panasonic Disc Manufacturing Corp. The factory has an annual capacity of six million blank discs, he said. Both cartridge-based and conventional discs are being produced.

In addition, Horiki said there are plans to establish a DVD-RAM Verification Lab at the Torrance location, joining the DVD Video and DVD-Audio labs already there for certifying that discs meet industry standards.

The 4.7 GB rewritable discs are designed for use with DVD-RAM recorders in computers and home entertainment centers. The DVD-RAM format bridges the PC and AV markets, with unique special features, such as the ability to edit a disc?s content after it has been burned. For the home entertainment market, expectations are that DVD-RAM recorders will replace VCRs completely.

One of the big consumer selling points is the DVD-RAM decks? ability to simultaneously play and record, the way a VCR can. The decks offer multiformat playback, including DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, CD, CD-R/RW and MP3.

For computer users, Panasonic?s DVD-RAM multidrives record to DVD-RAM / DVD-R / DVD-RW / CD-R / CD-RW media. In addition, they can read DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-R, CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, CD-DA, Photo CD, and Video CD media.

A new report prepared by Understanding and Solutions projects that DVD recorder sales will surpass DVD player sales in 2006, said Tony Jasionowski, Senior Group Manager, Panasonic Technologies Company. Jasionowski also serves as executive technology director for RAMPRG (RAM Promotion Group), an industry consortium of DVD-RAM manufacturers whose members include Hitachi, Matsushita, Teac, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic, LG Electronics and JVC.

Eventually, Jasionowski said, the Torrance plant could be used to manufacture Blu-ray DVD blank media.