Hitachi Develops 100GB Blu-ray Disc

[jed]

Just posted:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/1037

It's not ready for primetime quite yet, but Hitachi says it has developed a Blu-ray disc with twice the storage capacity of a BD-50 disc.

Although other companies (including TDK and Panasonic) have developed similar prototypes, each have required a specially developed optical head in the player to read the disc.

By contrast, Hitachi's new four layer disc is believed to require only a firmware update to be compatible with existing drives.

According to a report from PC Pro, the manufacturer is working to stabilize signal quality before considering a commercial roll-out for the new discs.

Like the 51 GB HD DVD disc currently in development by Toshiba, it's expected that if Hitachi's 100 GB Blu-ray discs do hit the market, it will be for data storage use to begin with (and not movies).

PC Pro reports that Hitachi is also developing an eight layer disc that would hold 200GB of data.

[rmoody]

in 3...2...1...

It's the DEATH of HD! Death I tells you DEATH!

[ccphilly1984]

more like 3...2...1...
"TOSHIBA ANNOUNCES NEW 102GB six layer disc"... lol

these hdm camps are silly... it's like watching bugs and daffy... next thing we'll have crosses (like "duck rabbit duck" where bugs dresses up like a duck and daffy does vise versa)... "hd dvd now supports bd-j and blu ray supports hd-i"... lol

[joeymac]

For PC purpose that going to be really expensive. The 25GB discs are still £15 here... Hell DL writeable DVD's are still prohibitively expensive for their capacity.
If you want 100GB of storage you might as well buy a USB hard drive.
I can't see this discs ever being useful.

[MidnightWatcher]

"Like the 51 GB HD DVD disc currently in development by Toshiba, it's expected that if Hitachi's 100 GB Blu-ray discs do hit the market, it will be for data storage use to begin with (and not movies)."

I think you mean "Unlike the 51GB HD DVD disc". The triple-layer 51GB HD DVD discs are going to be used for movies. Any 100GB Blu-ray disc would, for one, be too problematic and expensive for movies.

[freekedoutfish]

Originally Posted by rmoody

in 3...2...1...

It's the DEATH of HD! Death I tells you DEATH!

Why in gods name do we need 100GB of storage space for a film? Honestly!!!

Its already got rediculious with 50gb!

Seriously what is going to take up that extra 50gb+ of space? what could justify the higher production costs and possibly higher film prices? they dont even use up the current space they have!

Look at films like Matrix on HD DVD and Pirates on BD and it shows we dont need more space. This is all just gimics and the two sides trying to out do each other.

Customers will get even more confused into thinking BD is better because it holds more.

Are these higher capactity discs even going to be compatable with current BD and HD DVD players!!!

[Copywriter]

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

Are these higher capactity discs even going to be compatable with current BD and HD DVD players!!!

The article says the BD100 discs will work with currently players (perhaps) after a FW update.

It's mainly for storage.

Lots of BLU titles don't even use BD50 discs, so a BD100 evidently isn't needed anytime soon.

[garak]

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

Why in gods name do we need 100GB of storage space for a film? Honestly!!!

Its already got rediculious with 50gb!

Seriously what is going to take up that extra 50gb+ of space? what could justify the higher production costs and possibly higher film prices? they dont even use up the current space they have!

Look at films like Matrix on HD DVD and Pirates on BD and it shows we dont need more space. This is all just gimics and the two sides trying to out do each other.

Customers will get even more confused into thinking BD is better because it holds more.

Are these higher capactity discs even going to be compatable with current BD and HD DVD players!!!

It's use is not just for films. You'll be able to use this to backup data on your hard drive. In that case, I'd welcome a 100GB disc.

[vektsilver]

oddly this stuff is for the beginning of data center storage which i find hilarious. Anyone who has ever worked with optical jukeboxes knows these things should not be used for archiving. Panasonic makes alot of these data center things I know my freinds company just put a similar system in at his company and I just hope they dont need the data quickly lol

Its easier to just get a nas it alleviates the inconvenience

This is not a movie product

[freekedoutfish]

Originally Posted by garak

It's use is not just for films. You'll be able to use this to backup data on your hard drive. In that case, I'd welcome a 100GB disc.

True, but that requires a person to have a BD writer and re-writer on their PC. I cant say ive seen many, or atleast ones that are cheap.

That is one commitment I dont want to make just yet. I paid £1,600 for a new PC recently. I wasnt going to pay another £200 for a BD drive too.

It seems a bit pointless to back things up if you either cant transfer them to a different PC or a new one. Ill stick to DVDs and external harddrives myself for backing up.

[cubedone]

freekedoutfish, calm down buddy, they said it's mainly for storage, who knows if they will use these for films too? Until film companies start releasing actual disk space usage for all their movies we will never really know how much space they are actually using. Having this much space is probably going to be problematic for a while anyways, and i'm sure the Bd camp just needed to combat Toshibas 51gb disk, hence the announcement.

[Vincent Grayson]

Originally Posted by Copywriter

The article says the BD100 discs will work with currently players (perhaps) after a FW update.

It's mainly for storage.

Lots of BLU titles don't even use BD50 discs, so a BD100 evidently isn't needed anytime soon.

If nothing else, you could do seasons of TV shows on half as many discs.

[canoehead]

I would be nice to get an entire season of a TV show on one or two disks - cheaper shipping and manufacturing for the studio, easier for me to store (and I don't have to get off my ass to change disks!).

[garak]

Originally Posted by freekedoutfish

True, but that requires a person to have a BD writer and re-writer on their PC. I cant say ive seen many, or atleast ones that are cheap.

That is one commitment I dont want to make just yet. I paid £1,600 for a new PC recently. I wasnt going to pay another £200 for a BD drive too.

It seems a bit pointless to back things up if you either cant transfer them to a different PC or a new one. Ill stick to DVDs and external harddrives myself for backing up.

Don't you remember, DVD writers used to be expensive and very rare also.

The price of BD writers will come down, and they too will eventually be common place.

[MNTWISTER]

If a television series, say Bewitched, were ever mastered in HD (as I think some of these series eventually will), you could actually fit all seasons with extras on one disc. I think this is part of our future. For movies, what about including 5.1 PCM, DTS Master and Dolby True all on one disc with 3 versions of a film (original, director's cut, ect) and many different picture in picture commentaries? Or including a full interactive game (for instance, like the Spiderman game)? How about the entire Planet of the Apes film series with all the extras on one disc?

I see alot of uses for a disc like this. I think it will have an important meaning for blu-rays future. I guess the 51gb Toshiba announcement has little bearing now.