Maxell Exits the Disc Manufacturing Business

Maxell has announced that they are ending production of CD, DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD discs at the end of March. Frankly this isn't much of a surprise, as the majority of Maxell branded discs are currently produced by Ritek of Taiwan, with most of the rest divvied up by CMC Magnetics, Mitsubishi Chemical, Ricoh, and Taiyo Yuden. The Maxell brand name will continue to be used on packaging, but the era of being "blown away" by Maxell is definitely over as they are buying from the same OEMs used by the rest of the optical disc industry. If you are curious about where your Maxell blank discs actually came from, a free program called DVD Identifier will provide the real manufacturer name and media code for any blank DVD, HD DVD, or Blu-ray disc.