Taiyo Yuden cutting back on production of optical media

[Kerry56]

Taiyo Yuden has announced a 40% reduction of their output, due to rising value of the yen. http://www.newzfor.me/news/95926888.aspx And from that article, they may release OEM orders to Ritek and CMC Magnetics.

TY had already announced a cutback in personnel in their optical media division.

This can't be seen as good news for anyone looking for high quality media.

[Backpain]

I guess that means we will pay more or unable to get our favorite disc's. Now that would really suck.

[Bullworth]

Bummer. When I was really into DVD backups I went through a lot of media before hearing about TYs and from that point on used them exclusively.

It's a shame because they are top quality but that does not mean there are no alternatives. I've used Verbatim, Maxell and TDK with good results every time. On the other end of the scale I will use Phillips for making quick copies for friends and have never had any complaints about their discs but I wouldn't trust my media to it for the long run.

[victoriabears]

As hard drives / pvr's become more reliable and flash drives even bigger and the VHS to DVD fraternity dwindling, the needs for blank dvd's will go away I am afraid

[El Heggunte]

^
^

the needs for blank dvd's will go away I am afraid

DVDs can store "generic data files", not only .IFOs, .BUPs, .VOBs and .AOBs.

And FWIW, "Compact Disc" is nearly 30 y.-o., and remains alive and well.

[victoriabears]

point proven, blank cd's are more durable than blank dvd's I think time will tell

[Noahtuck]

And FWIW, "Compact Disc" is nearly 30 y.-o., and remains alive and well.

30 years ??
I don't think so, maybe 20 tops, but i seriously doubt 30

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc

And recordable cd-r's did not appear for some time after that, and it was some time after that, that burners and recordable cd media became available on a consumer level, that the the ordinary person could afford.

If they were 30 years old i would have been 15 when compact disc's were invented, and i think cassette was just the big thing when i was 15.....

point proven, blank cd's are more durable than blank dvd's I think time will tell

Funny thing about that is, when one format is 10+ years older than another format, no one will ever know, not in our lifetime anyways, because CD-R's will always' be older.

And there are so many variables, media quality, how they were recorded, hardware, software, how they were stored, ect.

[terryj]

I'm sure that Ty will have exacting standards that CMC will have to follow.
TY would not want their
brand to be percieved as inferior, and they have worked hard to maintain that,
even after the JVC merger.

Since the Yen is maturing, what this simply means is that manufacturing costs will rise.
Manufacturing cost rise, they cut back on production to 40%,
to stay at current manufacturing costs.
Suppliers will then look at waht discounts TY offers for them to buy media,
meaning you'll see less discounts on TY Premium and possibly Value Line media
through Q3 ( now to Dec 31st), as their margins will be slimmer.

We'll still get TY, we'll just pay a bit more, and we'll have to watch the codes....

[16mmJunkie]

And FWIW, "Compact Disc" is nearly 30 y.-o., and remains alive and well.

30 years ??
I don't think so, maybe 20 tops, but i seriously doubt 30

Okay, he missed it by 1 year since the article you provided states CD since 1982....... Guess you were close to 15 then.

[yoda313]

Well the cd might be that old but the point of recordable cds being much younger is definitely true.

[classfour]

Hate to reminisce, but I remember the first CD burner that I used: 2X, took forever to burn anything, and that baby was state of the art.

Still have an original 2X Panasonic, doubtfull I'd burn anything with it - likely a coaster.

[yoda313]

likely a coaster.

Ah but it would be a HISTORICAL coaster not some new fangled off the shelf coaster....

[Noahtuck]

And FWIW, "Compact Disc" is nearly 30 y.-o., and remains alive and well.

30 years ??
I don't think so, maybe 20 tops, but i seriously doubt 30

Okay, he missed it by 1 year since the article you provided states CD since 1982....... Guess you were close to 15 then.

Man, i am trying to remember when i first found out about music compact disc's, that was indeed many many moons ago...

But i thought the main subject was about CD-R's, not pressed compact disc's, which is basically 2 entirely different things.

in 1990, CD-Recordable were introduced

Well the cd might be that old but the point of recordable cds being much younger is definitely true.

Yep!!

Hate to reminisce, but I remember the first CD burner that I used: 2X, took forever to burn anything, and that baby was state of the art.
Still have an original 2X Panasonic, doubtfull I'd burn anything with it - likely a coaster.

Yep, i still have my first 2x cd burner, bought it new in 1998 for $200.00 with a $50.00 rebate!! LOL!!

I used to have a program like DVDINFO but for cd's, it would tell you who they were made by, when they were burned, ect.
but i searched and found a bunch of them but they won't work on my W7 machine with any of my SATA DVD drives

Anyone know of one that will work for getting this info ?
Otherwise i may have to hook up an old XP machine and throw in an old cd only burner to see if i can get the info, because i know i have some old music and game cdr's from 1998 that still work.

[Moontrash]

doesnt matter to me...i use verbatims...better scans and better quality control...never knew how many ty discs i would get with fingerprints or scratches all over em...i gave up and went to verbatim....no worries now

[16mmJunkie]

Yep, doesn't make that big of a deal to me either.... I've used bargain DVD +R DL +R CD R for years burned 1000's and have had little to none in the error department. I always burn slow. storage formats are going to change....that's a give.Tech goes so fast the i7 I have is already dated.

[lordsmurf]

Y storage formats are going to change....that's a give.Tech goes so fast the i7 I have is already dated.

But blank media does not change often, or quickly. Unlike CPUs, etc, most media is ditched in R&D. A lot more care goes into media research, and new formats require major adoption hurdles. It's not like CPU or RAM, where it's mostly a matter of cramming more stuff onto a small chip. If you want to compare media to CPU, then you'd have to compare the i7 to non-x86/x64 architecture. How quickly would computers change to a completely new type of CPU? Not very.

Tech "changing fast" is a myth in many ways -- it can't be used as much as people try to do.