Panasonic announced today that they will begin shipping the first 100GB BD-RE XL media (LM-BE100J) to the Japanese market on April 15th. These new triple-layer, rewritable Blu-ray discs are fully compliant with the BDXL specification and can hold about 12 hours of terrestrial digital HD (17 Mbps) or 8 hours and 40 minutes of BS Digital HD (24 Mbps) video. Panasonic's new BD-RE XL media also features a special coating that helps protect against dirt, fingerprints, scratches and dents.
Panasonic has not released pricing yet. However, the discs are expected to cost about 10,000 Yen ($119US) a piece. Yikes!
