Hitachi has revealed that they have developed a four-layer Blu-ray disc capable of storing 100GB of data. While this has been successfully proven in the laboratories by other companies, Hitachi claims that current Blu-ray drives would only require a firmware upgrade to be compatible, rather than a specialized drive other companies are promoting.
They are still working on stabilizing the signal quality further before releasing the product to the public, but a consumer ready product may not be far off. The company is also working on an eight-layer disc using the same technique, but is having difficulty with the laser penetrating each layer. The reflective quality of each layer diffuses the laser, making it difficult to read top layers. They are currently working on a solution they hope will rectify that issue.
yay... hd-duders will say "30GiB is enough!"... that's why smallville is on 4 blue and 5 red... now we can get our LoTR extended AND theatrical cuts on THE SAME DISC with LPCM, AVC, and 1080p extras... "30GiB is enough... enough for crap, and that's what you get!"
How about uncompressed VIDEO and Audio. That would be something. That would kick HD DVD in
the
privates!!
Bring it on I say. This is fantastic, all this development means Blu ain't going anywhere but up!!
Hitachi rocks and tag this in with their camcorders and you can really see just how much is going on behind the scenes with Blu-ray even though not everyone is releasing standalone players, you know?
i wouldn't want all films on one disc though... i like having muliple discs... but muliple discs of one movie kinda blows... like having muliple discs of one game...
This is great news for BD-R. However, can studios release on this type of product? Does the spec mandate that BD-50 is the maximum studios are allowed to use to release their products?
Is this just a computer data back-up issue?
Also, this technology is only as good as the studios use it. If they cram 6 movies on one disc (like wsciv123 said above), it's not right. That would be like putting three movies on a BD-50. No thanks.
Here's what I'd do: One movie on the BD-100. Constant maximum Bit-Rate (forget variable bit rate) AVC codec, with Uncompressed PCM, TrueHD & DTS-MA (and a DD+ track only for people who don't have HDMI). All Extras in HD.
It's funny that the HD DUD format is trying to stretch its capacity via the TL-51 disc. The TL-51 is rumored to not be compatible with earlier players and drives.
Now Hitachi comes out with this and if it is compatible with 1st gen BD players, it will make even their TL-51 look woefully inadequate.
This is extremely great news for us Blu-Supporters, but very very bad news for HD-DVD supporters. Oh well, there are winners and then there are losers. Glad I am on the winning side.
great news
Not only are those TL-51 meaningless bitrate-wise, they are now officially meaningless size-wise and functionally since they dont seem to be as simple to use. BD-100 only needs firmware update.
I think they will probably not ever release these discs. Nice idea though. They still have problems with Menu encoding. Is it really time to start thinking about 100GB discs. Blu-Ray doesn't need any more problems. Let's get the original stuff working first guys!
Hey guys, here's a perspective that might be of value to you.
In our business we produce custom DVDs and HD video. It's common to see customers with 30 to 40 hours of home movies. That's about 20 DVDs. We need to get the product to the customer and also make archives. We desperately want blu-Ray to become ubiquitous and we desperately need media with more storage (we're taking BD-R here).
So these advancements by Hitachi and others in the Blu-Ray arena are going to be our life blood. And we use hundreds and thousands of units. (Not even considering HD-DVD, btw.)
Gotta love Blu-ray. 50gb was superior, 100gb freakin' rocks! Let's hope this will be used by Movie studios on certain big blockbusters and TV-series etc, that would be nice...
So now when selling blu-ray to people. Blu-ray has 100gb and hd dvd has 30gb. If thats all I knew I would pick blu-ray. Take that hd dvd fanboys you can't spin this now!
I wonder how is that going to affet future PS3 games, with MGS4 already using more then 25gb i can see alot of games using more then 50gb 2-3 years from now and it will only require a simple firmware update, oh man i love it, Blu-ray keeps getting better and better.
lol, the funny thing is, a lot of hd-dud fans were celebrating because they heard a triple layer hd dvd
disc was coming out. They were hoping that it would crush blu's 50 gb. Wait till they here about 100
gb
Oh yes it was going to happen sg-1 on 3-4 discs with that in mind stargate atlantis could be a bonus feature lol and its now the property of sony pictures come on bring it onLOL
The HD web sites made such a big deal about HD DVD out dooing BLU RAY in storage. I bet there will not be much news on the web about this. The few commits that i have seen has been that this is stupid, who would need this much storage and that movies wont need this much. I say let the studios decide. This has to be a very embarissing but kicking to hd dvd.
Not only is this great news for blu ray and its supporters but for those of you that collect TV shows on DVD, this is awesome! I am sick of having my favorite TV shows take up four or five rows on my rack! I cant wait until they are all put together, on one disc (maybe 2)! This is fantastic! Ahh! what a great morning!
Thanks for that usage scenario as these are the kinds of areas that appealed to me personally with BD. Archiving our families life onto 100GB disks, making backups and storing them is a lot more feasible and reliable than magnetic or other electronic devices like HDD's with their ever changing interfaces that become obsolete/difficult to find over time. Keep disks at the house, stick other ones in the safety deposit box, etc etc...
As people's lives are more and more captured/consolidate around digital content - instead of the old shoe box with paper photos model - the digital assets *increase* in value because of the ease of access and sharing capabilities. Because of that consolidation they are also more vulnerable to being lost with a single failure of your HDD - your family's history gone in a moment.
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! I know those HD-DVD advocates will be squirming over this one. They
made their 51 GB disc that is still in development and testing, and only 1 GB more than the Blu-ray.
Now we made the 100 GB! And it is much farther along from what it sounds like. We may see this
next year! SWEET!!!
Hitachi has revealed that they have developed a four-layer Blu-ray disc capable of storing 100GB of data. While this has been successfully proven in the laboratories by other companies, Hitachi claims that current Blu-ray drives would only require a firmware upgrade to be compatible, rather than a specialized drive other companies are promoting.
