If Sabic Innovative Plastics has its way, we could be looking at cheaper Blu-Ray discs in the near future. The company is currently testing Noryl material as a possible replacement for the polycarbonate that's used in today's generation of Blu-ray and DVD discs.

Sabic techs explained that Noryl, an alloy of polyphenylene oxide (PPO) and polystyrene, would actually make a better material given the way Blu-Ray discs are read. As Sabic engineer Greg Harley explained:

With DVDs, the laser is reading through a substrate, so the material has to be transparent. You can use an opaque material, or any color you want, with a Blu-ray disc.

One other advantage Noryl carries is that it's not moisture-absorbent, and won't require the lacquer coating that polycarbonates need. Put another way, this means that Blu-ray discs made from Noryl could have a simpler manufacturing process equating to lower costs. From a consumer standpoint, this could also mean cheaper discs for us. That's just about all the info we've got regarding this matter. Drop by again in case we run into more related news.