Sony gets their 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs out the door
By Paul Miller 
posted August 16th 2006 10:17AM
posted August 16th 2006 10:17AM
[Via HD Beat]
posted August 16th 2006 10:17AM
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The USA military, intelligence and government will buy millions of them right off the bat, and hundreds of the drives. Then there's the billionaires, the millionaires, and the large corporations who will do similar. Good business move, Sony. Lower the price in a year or so for us bottom-of-the-pyramid blockheads. :-)
"i agree with most comments on here about the priceing heck its cheaper down the road of buying one 50 gig disk for 50$ thats $1 a gig compared to 3$ for a duall layer DVD for 8.5 gig for 2.80 a gig"
lol, that made my day. kinda feel sorry for ya jason H
@James
I assume it was sarcasm and that Sponge was referring to scratching of a disk, not a HD.
3$ for a 8.5gig DVD = $0.35 per gig
Jason's Comment
"I agree with most comments on here about the priceing heck its cheaper down the road of buying one 50 gig disk for 50$ thats $1 a gig compared to 3$ for a duall layer DVD for 8.5 gig for 2.80 a gig"
You've got your math wrong. Its.34 cents per gig not 2.80 for a dual layer so that $1.00 per gig is not cheap.
"well at least Sony appears to be doing Blu-Ray to help the customer for a change"
bwahahahahhahahhahahhahaha!!! oh man... hahahahhahahahaha... no really... you're hilarious!
WOW it's funny how ppl are complaining, when it's still your desicion whether you want it or not. Everything now-a-days is getting more expensive.
Why is everyone so suprised?????
Last time I checked gas is the biggest issue of something getting more expensive. I also recall my grandfather telling me when a bottle of coke was only 10 cents; or was that just a myth?
Can someone tell me how much was the big black 4" floppy disks when they first came out; then tell me how much DVDs were when they first came out. Now, I know this may be a little suprising but I did notice an incline of prices. OMG!!!
Daniel says, "If there is some important data you aboslutely HAVE to have, I would feel safer having it burned onto a BD disc, and stored away for safe-keeping."
Are you serious? From what I have read, Blu-ray discs are very prone to damage from scratches - more so than DVDs because the data layer is only 0.1mm from the surface.
Durabis is a brand name for a clear polymer coating developed by the TDK Corporation. The need for a protective polymer arose due to the fact that Blu-Ray discs write much closer to the readable portion of a disc than do other disc formats, including HD DVD. One of its principal applications at first will be for scratch resistance in Blu-ray and other optical discs. It is claimed to be tough enough to resist screwdriver damage and make scratched optical discs (CDs and DVDs) a thing of the past.
You should read more Steve.
@Leonard Nimrod,
…but add in the cost of the player or burner, how much are we talking about? $1048, $848? And where the hell are you going to carry it to? How many people do you KNOW that have a blu-ray player in order to see it? Mmm…?
At work? At school? At your mom’s? Where? Great $50 bucks for 50GB, but is pointless (for anything other than data storage) if YOU’RE the only one that as a player.
@stvjns
“The USA military, intelligence and government will buy millions of them right off the bat, and hundreds of the drives, and the large corporations who will do the same”
What??? Businesses are the slowest to upgrade to ANYTHING. As for the government… who know WHAT they’ll do NEXT? The last SOFTWARE Company I worked for was still using Windows 2000. Is that OS going to work for the Blu-Ray?
What do billionaires care about the BR, HD-DVD, PS3, Wii, 360, PSP, DS blog site argument? When you have THAT much money – you can afford the buy 10 of each and have them all go obsolete, without giving it a second thought. But with us regular people -- It’s a WHOLE another story.
Regular people don’t have time or money to waste on ANOTHER of Sony’s bullsh_t formats to go bell-up. Most people don’t even know what were talking about? I’m serious, they REALLY don’t? In that case, most people, will chose format no. 3 – that is the disk that keeps their money in the bank, because DVD's work just fine and they're $10 bucks a pop.
If you buy an HD-DVD drive and the HD-DVD format flops, then your drive is completely useless. I mean, it's sole purpose is for MOVIES only.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3152888
At least your bluray will be used for games if that format flops, right?
"The price difference here is portibility and new technology. If these things do catch on then they will be easier to transport (mail/carry/kick) and dispose of than a hard drive."
You want to dispose of an HDD? Sledge-farking-hammer. It's not that hard. You break the read-write head and it slams against the disk platters, and the HDD is unwritable permanently, or for a hefty price, as it would need to be opened in a clean room. I can see a scratch taking out 5GB of one of these disks.
When you've been in the PC business as long as me, you still remember those SyQuest 44 and then 88 MEGABYTE removables that cost about $100 each. The drive was $700. I got like 3 or those! That was not so long ago--1991 I believe. You also remember in 1993 those Panasonic PD drives. (could read CD and write PD) I got one for $500 (and that was a price break--they cost $1000 before) and each 650 meg rewritable, enclosed CD, cost around $50. I bought like maybe 10 or more of those. How about the first CD-recorders which cost around $1000 in 1997 I think?
So it doesn't surprise me at all that the BluRay is $700. That's in fact not too bad compared to the past. And $16 to $50 per 25 or 50 GB disc isn't surprising either. Hey $50 for 50GB when I paid $50 for 650 mb? That's cheap!
But those prices will drop soon and within a year or so the drives will cost maybe $200 and the discs maybe $5 to $10.
As for comparing these to HDs. No comparison. An optical disc can be stored away safely and you can make 2 copies as well. If kept well, and you do a check after writing, it is pretty much secure for years. A HD, you don't know when it will develop bad sectors and you will lose data or when something might go catastrophically wrong with the mechanism or electronics. Also they are not as easy to plug and unplug. Each has their own applications... I would love to backup my whole system on 3 of these 50 GB disks...