March 6th, 2008

Panasonic released a new firmware for its LF-PB271JD Blu-ray drive, adding support for the new LTH Blu-ray disc.

The Japanese company is the first ODD manufacturer to offer such an update. The firmware Ver1.01 adds 4x reading/writing support for LTH BD-R discs to Panasonic’s LF-PB271JD internal Blu-ray burner. Panasonic will also release a firmware upgrade for its 2x BD burner, the LF-MB121JD, later this year.

The LTH write-once BD-R media feature an organic dye recording layer, making them different that the currently available BD-R discs that use inorganic materials. In LTH BD-R media, the reflectivity of the organic dye recording layer increases (High) after recording.

The advantages of the LTH manufacturing technology is that it can be applied without requiring large-scale manufacturing plant investments, allowing for using modified CD-R and DVD-R manufacturing equipment. The Blu-ray backers believe that this advantage will allow disc makers to increase their production easier, helping the penetration of the Blu-ray format on the PC segment.

Mitsubishi Chemical Media and Taiyo Yuden have already announced the availability of first LTH BD-Rs in Japan.

“Low to High” technology (LTH) was included in the “Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format Ver.1.2″ specifications.

Pioneer is also expected to offer such firmware updates for some of its existing Blu-ray drives.