I find it interesting that “Hard Coat Protection” for CDs and DVDs has been available since at least 2005. It appears that TDK, Mitsubishi, and others had been developing the hard coat protection coating for the new Blu-ray discs knowing that the surface would have to have this protection in order for us to adapt to the new blu-ray media. Blu-ray first came out in a cartridge because even the slightest of fingerprint smudges would render the disc useless.
Then, they started using the coating on DVDs, TDK first introduced their hard coat version back in 2005. RMGProducts (us) introduced this disc as the LuxPro. It is and was a very good disc. It was a basic TDK shiny silver DVD with a heavy duty hard coat protection on it. It protected the recording surface from some serious scratches and fingerprint smudges.
The problem was that TDK shut down the Luxembourgh plant and discontinued that version of the hard coat DVD.
Last year, Mitsubishi introduced us to the Century Disc, which we now have the exclusive distribution rights in the U.S.A.
The Century Disc is not just another shiny silver DVD with a hard coat. It is a truly Archival Gold Layer Disc with a shiny silver layer for compatibility. The reason we have found that the hard coat version of other discs hasn’t really taken off is because you have to have a really excellent disc to start with.
The Century Disc works because every disc is one of only 25,000 produced per stamper die run. Which means, they make 25,000 nearly-perfect discs before they add the hard coat resin which protects the recording surface.
I’m not sure why the other manufacturers’ hard coat discs haven’t really taken off but I can tell you there really hasn’t been a whole lot of hype about them. Until the introduction of the Century Disc, I didn’t even know there was a hard coat disc that actually worked, let alone knowing that there was such a thing.
I an tell you that Mitsubishi tells us that this hard coat protection is many times harder than the disc itself. I can tell you that I tried to scratch it with my car keys and it wouldn’t even scratch. I can tell you that I have taken razor blades, a serated butter knife, a pair of scissors, and other items to scratch the surface and all of them play flawlessly even after some serious scratches.
The Century Disc uses a spin-coat technology that allows the resin to be poured onto the disc, then spun at high speeds in order to create an even coat all over the recording surface.
This resin is another product which Mitsubishi Chemical Corp created for their blu-ray discs. This resin dries clear and is so transparent, it barely adds additional block errors (BLER) to the Century Disc. Which goes to show you, if you have an excellent, near-perfect disc to being with, adding a clear coat to protect the recording surface may take away a little bit from the clarity, but in this case, it really is only a little bit.
We have had the Century Disc tested and each one is only 15 BLER (Block Errors per Second) or less. The results stated that on average the BLER for the Century Disc is 15 and at least one out of ten has an even lower BLER of about 10.
Considering Taiyo Yuden discs, which are an excellent product, have an average of 40-50 BLER and doesn’t have a hard coat, I’d say the Century Disc’s doing something. In fact, at there rates, I have to say, the Century Disc blows away its competition. There is no other disc on the market that even compares. If I am wrong, please feel free to let me know and I will post those results here.
I digress. I started this conversation about the hard coat and got a little sidetracked. The Century Disc has a scratch-resistant coating which we call SRS technology. It is a resin applied to the surface exactly the same way they put the Ultra Hard Coat on the new blu-ray discs. It is a proprietary spin-caot process which applies an very even coat over the entire surface ensuring clarity, even thickness throughout, and is so clear, you cannot even tell there is a coating on it until you scratch it.
Even with scratches like I have never seen on a playable disc before, the Century Disc still plays. In fact, it play flawlessly even with scratches and multiple fingerprint smudges. I wasn’t aware that oily fingerprint smudges could, over time, render a disc (especially DVDs) useless. I guess it only makes sense that since a DVD has grooves 7 times smaller than a CD, that it is easier to damage and render useless.
So, I guess in all of this rambling (it’s late and It’s past my bedtime) I really only wanted to share how amazing this hard coat protection really is. I always think of the Century Disc as the predecessor to the Blu-ray disc.
It has precise groove engineering, which if the blu-ray didn’t have, it couldn’t work because the grooves on the blu-ray are about 35 times smaller than those of an ordinary CD. So, in this respect, the Century Disc is not only a near-perfect product (Thank God someone finally began making one), it also has the hard coat option using the exact same material used on the blu-ray discs. The Century Disc also has a deep dye color due to the newly formulated AZO Media Dye. Which some tests state that supposedly the Pthalocyanine media dye lasts longer, not! I don’t care what ‘they’ say. We live in Florida and our sunshine is intense Y’all. Our company stuck many varieties of discs out in the sun for days at a time and at the exact same time of day, every day. When all was said and done, the only discs still working at the end of the study, were the Mitsubishi discs (including the Green Tune for Audio Mastering CD-R) that used the newly formulated AZO Media dye.
Because of the hard coat, the deep purple/blue media dye, the 24-karat Gold Archival layer that protects the silver compatible layer, and the Universal Printable label surface on the Century Disc, and the Ultra Precise Groove Engineering that goes into every Century Disc made, are the reasons I call this the predecessor to the Blu-ray disc.
I like to say “The Century Disc, is an ALL-Options Inclusive disc, and Failure is not an option.
Did I mention this is an A++ rated disc? It is the highest rated disc quality on the market in terms of any CD or DVD made.
Read my article on why ordinary discs fail. “Ordinary CDs and DVDs Exposed!” This article will give you a little insight to disc ratings and why most ordinary discs have such a high failure rate. You can also download the Disc Grade Chart from the PDF downloads page.