Hitachi introduces quad-layer 100 GB Blu-ray Disc

[Desolus]

story courtesy of daily tech:

5 October 2007 12:53 by DVDBack23
Hitachi introduces quad-layer 100 GB Blu-ray DiscThis week at the CEATEC JAPAN 2007 event, Hitachi announced that they had successfully created a quad layer Blu-ray disc that can store up to 100 GB of data.

To sweeten the pot even more, Hitachi says the discs are compatible with existing Blu-ray players and drives after an easy firmware update.

Hitachi says they are now working on "improving the signal quality of its quad-layer technology" so that it can be ready to hit the market soon. The company also boasted that they were working on a eight-layer Blu-ray disc capable of storing 200GB of data.

What is left to be pondered is how expensive these discs will cost to manufacture. Movie studios may just opt to release their titles over two standard Blu-ray discs than invest in new expensive equipment necessary for these larger capacity discs.

This is not the first time recently that we have heard of improved capacity on optical media. In March, New Medium Enterprises developed a four-layer DVD it called the Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) that is capable of storing 20GB of data, double the current DVD-9.

HD DVD is also in the process of approving a new triple-layer disc capable of storing 51 GB of data, one GB more than current Blu-ray discs.

Should be interesting to see how these technologies continue to improve as well as manufacturing costs.

Source:
Dailytech

[Kulaf]

Can wait to see the per unit cost on that.....considering what the standard unit costs.

[Ddrak]

I'm just waiting for some sort of standard to emerge. All this churn is really holding the adoption back.

Dd

[Klast Brell]

Hard drives have always been so cheap (and i have never been a big pirate/collector/hoarder) I never felt the need to burn anything to DVD. So ya, I'm just waiting for the dust to settle and one standard to win out. Given the way things are going that standard might just end up being something that isn't even out yet.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

History repeats, really.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I'm just waiting for some sort of standard to emerge. All this churn is really holding the adoption back.

I have about 700 store-bought, wide-screen movies, not counting the TV shows. Am I supposed to buy them all in some new format du jour? Fuck that. So I'm not in any major hurry for the new format wars to play out. And as Klast points out, is a new DVD format even relevant? I don't even really use CDs / DVDs anymore for data. With UltraISO I just mount images to a virtual drive and install everything from there. Maybe in a year or so, the cost per terabyte will be low enough to rip all my movies and never touch a disc again. My DVR holds about 180 hours, and I hardly ever use it - mostly I watch movies on-demand, and comcast has a pretty good selection of HD movies.

So let the mega-corporations duke it out, and let the early adopters gamble on the winner. In the mean time, I'm more likely to spend that money on a new home theater PC than a blue ray player.

[Ddrak]

I have about 700 store-bought, wide-screen movies, not counting the TV shows. Am I supposed to buy them all in some new format du jour?

That's pretty much the movie studio's plan for making money. I agree though - fuck that.

I found it interesting that Blu-Ray discs are starting to not work on early adopter's players as they tinker with the DRM. I really don't want a standalone player that needs firmware updates just to play new movies either - that's bullshit.

Dd

[Kulaf]

I'm just waiting for some sort of standard to emerge. All this churn is really holding the adoption back.

Dd

"No mas"

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/19/technol ... 2008021904

[Rsak]

I really don't want a standalone player that needs firmware updates just to play new movies either - that's bullshit.

You have to have some kind of upgrade process which is why all the models for both HD and BluRay is to include ethernet ports for upgrading. Still today they recommend the PS3 for a BluRay player since it has future compatibility for the full BluRay standard.

[Ddrak]

Network connectivity is mandatory in the Blu-Ray spec (see my earlier post about DRM).

It sucks that Blu-Ray won. It's the less consumer-friendly format, and also cost a bunch more to manufacture the discs and players. At least with HD you were guaranteed that they weren't going to fuck with the DRM if they wanted to remain standard compliant. Blu-Ray gives no such guarantees.

Dd

[Finglefinn]

At least it's not divx.

[Rsak]

For perspective DVD players certainly had problems with hardware becoming obsolete by changing standards. I have given/thrown away 2 DVD players due to changes in disc types or the double layering.