With focus on Blu-ray, Sony quietly kills PDD

We suspect that, as far as media extinctions go, the death of Sony's PDD (Professional Disc for Data) format will probably rank somewhere above the demise of the 8-track tape, but well below the end of vinyl. Still, we should take a moment to remember the format, which is, after all, the precursor to (and a "pro" version of) today's Blu-ray disc, which is now taking its place as the golden child of Sony's media roadmap. If you've already made a sizable investment in PDD, you're not clean out of luck, however. Sony will keep selling PDD drives through the end of next year, and will provide tech support and keep media available until at least 2014. But if you were hoping for a next-gen PDD that could hold more than today's 23GB discs, it's time for you to start singing the Blus.

[Thanks, Indeego]

[JK @ Mar 1st 2006 2:30PM]

Vinyl isn't dead. It has a higher noise floor, but none of the phase noise artifacts that are FUNDAMENTALLY UNREMOVABLE from a digital signal.

Yeah, screw this PDD stuff tho.

[invaderluj @ Mar 1st 2006 2:45PM]

another media gone the way of the 8track, jaz drive(i love mine), and sonys own minidisc...

oh and both vinyl and betamax(betacam) are still "alive"

[Andy @ Mar 1st 2006 3:05PM]

Sony has just released their already successful range of XDCAM Pro Television camcorders based on Professional Disc, including a full HiDef one just a matter weeks ago.

Even if the data only version of the format disappears, we will see the pro-video version for a *long* time. That will mirror Betamax's progression into Betacam in 1982, then Betacam SP, DigiBeta, HDCAM and recently HDCAM SR. All are developments of the same original tape form factor.

[Surur @ Mar 1st 2006 3:23PM]

Hopefully the same will happen to blu-ray. Given Sony's track record, I'm surprised anyone invests in any of their media projects at all.

Surur

[bermuDa @ Mar 1st 2006 3:28PM]

Another memory format I've practically never heard of gone extinct. If there's one thing about Sony I deplore is the frickin proprietary memory formats! If they adopted the standards they would stand to gain much more from an influx of new consumers that their losses on their worthless memory formats...

My biggest peeve right now is the 1gb memory stick pro duo that I bought for my s710a phone, only to find "only supports memory stick duo" under a microscope on the manual. Oh well, now I have a gig of memory for my sony camera :

and for the record, minidisc is still thriving in Japan.

[nemi @ Mar 1st 2006 3:58PM]

#7 I had exactly the same experince with my 710a and a 512mb Pro duo stick. lol.

Anyway, ditching the old format makes sense for Sony. It doesn't take much IQ on the part of the media types using digital cammeras to figure out that BluRay recordables will be cheaper to source within a few months and the DL versions can hold more than the 23GB of the Pro discs. Which would you choose?

[steve (the jewish kid) @ Mar 1st 2006 4:04PM]

ya bermuDa is right
minidisc is still alive
http://forums.minidisc.org/

its just not popular in the US because......
well i dont know
maybe they arent marketed good or something
but ya i listen to my himd player
25 hrs of batt life on a single AA
plus 1 gig discs

[Kamalot @ Mar 1st 2006 4:31PM]

Expect UMD to follow soon. They even share look-alike plastic caddies.

[Karl Viklund @ Mar 1st 2006 5:13PM]

Hum.
I didn't even know that this format did exist. Guess it was wise Sony to kill it. It's just costing money for them and it will go nowhere.

[glad @ Mar 1st 2006 6:13PM]

yep Betamax is still alive in other parts of the world and vinyl well it ain't going away anytime soon as it's the must have item if you are a DJ or proper music buff or audiophile. Vinyl Lives

[Kyran @ Mar 1st 2006 6:45PM]

This is really no surprise. The whole point of this was to be a high-priced professional solution to optical storage when there wasn't much else to fill the nitch. There was no intention to turn this into a consumer grade product as that's what Blu-ray is for. All PDD was is a precursor to Blu-ray and now that BDs are going to be rolled out, PDD is completely redundant.

If you ask me, it's just a clever way to help curb a little of that R&D cost.

[Kyran @ Mar 1st 2006 6:51PM]

I should add, like with any other format, that Sony would likely have preferred to keep it around for obvious reasons, but there's not much point when there's very little adoption.

[The Liberal Avenger @ Mar 1st 2006 8:09PM]

Exactly ONE ad on eBay for blank PDD media.

Look, Mom! A $60 coaster!

[JD @ Mar 1st 2006 9:03PM]

BetaCam, HDCam tapes are just as expensive as PDD.

sony professional gear is always #1...look at any studio and you will see Sony decks, sony professional monitors etc. sony also make some of the most widely used cameras out there - Cinealta, f950...serious hardware.

again, most of you will have never heard of this format...try panasonic 'p2' format for a serious cash burner

[tiuk @ Mar 1st 2006 10:19PM]

If a Sony media format dies.. does anybody really care?

[Bryan @ Mar 2nd 2006 12:14AM]

I know this is kinda off-topic, but if the stupid people would come together on a SINGLE next generation High Definition audio standard (instead of the DVD-A and SACD separation), we could get rid of vinyl once and for all. HD Audio is at such a high bits per sample and high sample rate that its BETTER than vinyl.

And yeah, Sony's needs to chill out on the proprietary crap and go for accepted standards.

[Jasper @ Mar 5th 2006 4:50AM]

tiuk,
You don't know the impact of this news. The whole XDcam format works only with PDD disks. And they sold a lot of those camera's I'm sure. Imagine an edithouse desides to replace their equipment with XDcam, then suddenly Sony says their not gonna develop it anymore, people really start shaking then...