Since Taiyo Yuden discs began appearing with the JVC moniker, forums have been abuzz with speculation, innuendo and rumor as to what this all means to the quality of the beloved
Taiyo Yuden media. So, here's the news behind the name change.
In May 2008, Taiyo Yuden bought 65% of JVC's magnetic and optical media business. As part of the whole buy-out/merger thing,
Taiyo Yuden can use the JVC name on its discs. In fall of 2009, there was a formal announcement from Taiyo Yuden that it would begin to do just that.
(DigitalFAQ did a terrific job of explaining the merger and those of you who
follow PolylineCorp on Twitter saw we sent links to the
original article to help get the word out. If there's something going on in the industry, keep an eye on our Twitter updates. We'll keep you in the loop and get you good information from reliable sources.)
When the JVC/Taiyo Yuden name change was announced, distributors like Polyline, had warehouses stocked with discs there were packaged with Taiyo Yuden labels. So each distributor announced the name change as they depleted their existing stock of discs labeled as Taiyo Yuden. (We like to keep a couple months of product in stock. So, for us, we
started to see the JVC labels appearing in December. Some distributors ran out sooner, because they don't keep as much product in stock. Others are just beginning to announce the change, now.)
Here's what we know about the merger and about Taiyo Yuden discs:
• All Taiyo Yuden discs will now be sold under the name JVC media and the manufacturer's numbers
will change.
• The discs are still being manufactured in Japan.
• Your favorite discs are exactly the same...we'll just have to get used to calling them JVC, now.
• Under the name JVC, more disc options and finishes are being added to the
product line.
Some discs sold by Polyline are already going out with the new JVC labels. We'll be updating our Web site
slowly over the next few weeks to incorporate the JVC name on our existing product pages.
