A few months back I listed the BDXL blank discs that can be found online.
There were discs branded Sony, Panasonic, TDK, Verbatim, Sharp and also no-names like Digistor or Line 1 Media.
I seem to have missed Maxell BD-R XL discs at the time, but it makes little difference since most of them are only branding other manufacturer's discs.
Let's take a closer look at the Manufacturer IDs for some of these discs:
Sharp BD-R TL: TDKBLD
Panasonic BD-R TL: TDKBLD
TDK BD-R TL: TDKBLD
Sony BD-R TL: TDKBLD
Maxell BD-R TL: TDKBLD
Panasonic BD-RE TL: PAN
Sony BD-RE TL: SONY
The Disc Manufacturer ID & Media Type ID licensee list tells us a different story: there are 3 manufacturers of Recordable TL discs, 2 makers of Recordable QL discs and 2 makers of Rewritable TL discs.
Recordable TL discs
Panasonic - PAN
Mitsubishi - VERBAT, VAMKM
TDK - TDKBLD
Recordable QL discs
Sony - SONY
TDK - TDKBLD
Rewritable TL dics
Panasonic - PAN
Sony - SONY
So where are Sony and Panasonic's 128GB recordable discs? I don't want to believe optical media is dead, but the signs are here.
The 100GB's are available in the US from Fry's Electronics and Microcenter. Not sure about 125GB... With the longevity of 30-200 years for DVD/BD and going through nearly 3 HD/SSD failures in my home fileserver just in the last year (maybe my luck?) I am still buying BDs for the data I can't lose.
Thanks for the input, Mikhail. I totally agree about BD storage, I think it's the safest way to archive important data if you choose quality blank discs and a good writer.