Japanese researchers devise method for cramming 42GB on a DVD

Never mind those fancy BD-R critters, how's about a 42GB DVD? Researchers with a good deal more intelligence than us over at Tohoku University have reportedly figured out a way to "multiply the amount of data that can be stored on a DVD or CD by 9." Based on our best guess at translating a foreign language (we kid... sort of), the achievement was realized by shaping the pits on a DVD's surface like Vs, essentially making the disc more capacious in the process. Unfortunately, said project will probably never see any mainstream attention, as existing DVD / CD players won't recognize the malformed media, and worse still, the process can't be applied to Blu-ray Discs.

[Via CrunchGear]

[George @ Jun 27th 2008 12:13PM]

There is still hope Toshiba!

[bohsocks @ Jun 27th 2008 12:56PM]

What's a DVD?

But yeah....

After BR, the age of compact discs should come to a close. With antique recording devices, you have to be careful when handling it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anFtSTHWaSc).

With CDs, you had to be careful with them even though they were new. I like abusing flash drives and SD cards... down with compact discs.

[Micanos @ Jun 27th 2008 1:59PM]

Looks like the 360 doesnt need to move onto Blu-Ray after all!

YIPPPEEEEEEEE~

[Shinigami @ Jun 27th 2008 2:07PM]

Not really, Toshiba's players won't recognize this kind of DVD so you'll need to buy a new player. Toshiba doesn't need it anyways, they have super-scaling technology, which makes 1 pixel look like 16 different ones xD

[SITEiNK @ Jun 27th 2008 2:59PM]

nah, they should have done this on HD DVD in the first place.
too late now, the market could not handle a revived HD DVD even though the technology was pretty good.
save this tech for the new 4k players.

[JJ @ Jun 27th 2008 6:42PM]

A single BR-D can hold up to 200G, can't it?

[loosely_coupled @ Jun 27th 2008 11:29PM]

lol.. this is a complete waste of research attempts... Since this technology is NOT compatible with existing DVD devices, It doesn't matter whatsoever that it is even related. It could hold data on paint rollers, and have just the same value....

[Leroy Vargas @ Jun 28th 2008 2:56AM]

Maybe not a waste of research resources. What if they make such "V-DVD" player backwards-compatible with DVDs and CDs? Initially it was thought that BD players wouldn't be backwards-compatible with DVDs or CDs, but then all BD players we've seen so far ARE backwards-compatible, even the PS3 (which also does SACD but not DVD-Audio).

[Lowest Ranked @ Jun 27th 2008 12:16PM]

So you increased the capacity a CD to 7.2Gb (DVD9?) and the capacity of a DVD to 42GB (Blu-Ray?) but current CD and DVD players can't read them.

Whats the big news? This was done 20+ and 5+ years ago respectively.

[xstream @ Jun 27th 2008 12:23PM]

the difference is that this isnt the same technology
you could have a dvd with 42gb but without the need to use expensive blue lasers and highly sensitive discs that need a special protective layer like blu-ray

[Pochi @ Jun 27th 2008 12:45PM]

Still though... if it can be applied in no way to consumers, who cares?

[Lowest Ranked @ Jun 27th 2008 1:27PM]

Its just a higher density optical medium!

They achieved the same thing using a different approach.

Thats it!

[Kyle C. @ Jun 27th 2008 12:20PM]

This could have been soooo good if it had popped up 5-10 years ago.. :(

[Ayman @ Jun 27th 2008 5:25PM]

Still the BD can reach 50GB
also cant they apply the same technology on the BD hence 9*25GB=225GB

[ethan @ Jun 28th 2008 2:03AM]

could someone explain WHY blu ray can't do this?

[Nicky-Larson @ Jun 27th 2008 12:21PM]

WOW, just WOW.

[Shinigami @ Jun 27th 2008 2:08PM]

More like

WOW... So?

[michas_pi @ Jun 27th 2008 6:31PM]

The WOW starts now?

[Akshat @ Jun 27th 2008 12:21PM]

What niche attention will it receive? IE what exactly is the point?

[Jared @ Jun 27th 2008 12:29PM]

Sometimes you do something just to see if it can be done and see what will come out of it later. Ever heard of LASER??

[Vidit Bhargava @ Jun 27th 2008 1:44PM]

well...this might be implemented in the future and come up with new storage discs who knows

[Tomas @ Jun 27th 2008 12:24PM]

Any particular reason given as to why it will not work for blu-ray?

[CraigJ @ Jun 27th 2008 1:03PM]

since it is a polarizing effect it probably has something to do with the frequency of the laser.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 27th 2008 12:27PM]

Another drawback, there'd be no way to make recordable versions of these. Lasers can turn on or off, but can't change shapes.

This is a cool idea, but as media gets closer to the limit of data that can be recorded by the frequency of laser that is used, it'll be impossible to add more info by shaping the pits. Perhaps this is what went wrong with BluRay.

[Jason @ Jun 27th 2008 12:27PM]

So.. MGS4 on 360 is confirmed!!!

[IT-Accountant @ Jun 27th 2008 12:34PM]

wtf?

^relevant how?

[Jawad @ Jun 27th 2008 12:45PM]

IT-Accountant, LOL wow, nevermind.

[CJLopez @ Jun 27th 2008 1:03PM]

Poor die hard, it was stated that this technology would never see the day of light as there's no actual reader that can read this media efficiently

[yode @ Jun 27th 2008 12:35PM]

There is no point if it doesn't work on normal DVD players.

[robert @ Jun 27th 2008 12:38PM]

The only thing i could see this being used for is a video game format to prevent bootlegs.

[Dave @ Jun 27th 2008 3:19PM]

hey... shush!!! Dont give them any ideas!!!! (not that I pirate games or anything... no really.. Im being serious)

[GiF @ Jun 27th 2008 12:42PM]

Just make them a bit smaller and put like 5 in an iPod classic.
Thinner than ever and has pointless amounts of extra space!!
The new 210GB iPod Classic. Let your senses guide you.

[Shinigami @ Jun 27th 2008 2:09PM]

Nah, new 320gb single-layer and 640gb double-layer iPod Classic. HDD rules xD

[Timmy @ Jun 27th 2008 12:51PM]

BAM!!!, take that Blu-Ray!!! In 10 years and billions of dollars of new equipment later you'll see whats up, bitch, na, now what do ya got to say, i didn't think so.

[Dan @ Jun 27th 2008 12:51PM]

Guys, the point is, you can make a new DVD player that uses the exact same technology in a different way to read these disks. That means you can build new players at essentially the same cost as the ones we have now, except they'll have much higher capacity.

That's what's cool about this.

[primetime4 @ Jun 27th 2008 1:53PM]

All you need a blue laser to read the CD/DVDs... Wait a minute.

[Manuel @ Jun 27th 2008 12:53PM]

This is a nice idea. But there is the catch: which laser is able to "burn" these Vpids? If there is laser, that can, i would be better to use other holes. Like asynchrone W holes for example. You can safe more information in an asynchron W than in a V.
I think the problem is the laser.

[Nipponese @ Jun 27th 2008 1:26PM]

It seems from the attached PDF that one of the great advantages of this is that there will be less read error rates than BD since it doesn't require a smaller focal point to read the data. Perhaps this will be great for archives?

[caleb @ Jun 27th 2008 1:34PM]

What this means is you could have a 29$ high def player.

[d00d @ Jun 27th 2008 1:43PM]

This is all just a new concept they figured out... just so happens that its easier for university students and professors to have proper access to tecnology thats a bit older; but proving this to work would easily get them sponsorship toward a project to properly study blu-disk tecnology so that this can be applied there...

450gb disks in 2012? I certainly dont doubt it...

[Mark @ Jun 27th 2008 1:54PM]

Once Hollywood gets it, it'll be DRM'd to beyond usefulness.

[Neeko @ Jun 27th 2008 2:13PM]

Why does every always think short term..having a large amount of data isnt just for MOVIES..i work for a company that would def love to have 50Gb of data backed up on a disk..

Only problem i see here is how much will the disk or new drives cost? its always the price of media that hold the popularity up.

[Josh @ Jun 27th 2008 2:46PM]

I remember the 100GB CDs that were supposed to be made about 6 years ago. No one ever gets these technologies out.

[BigD145 @ Jun 27th 2008 3:56PM]

Current DVD/CD players can't play BlueRay or HD. So what? Media changes and you need new burners and readers.

[james @ Jun 27th 2008 4:44PM]

I can't believe I am the first to post about this. This tech works for optical media such as CD and DVDs. This means it most likely could be adapted to work with blu-ray as well which means 50 times 9 ......carry the 4.....plus the coefficient of drag....divided by the rate of change of digital media and you have 450gb of data on a disk that will become obsolete as soon as it is developed. It's time for a form of data media that can keep from being obsolete for at least 20 years. Data, programs and files have been around since computers came into existence, just our form of storing it has changed. Solid state is my pick for a winner but with so many companies fighting against consumer rights do you think they will ever promote a format of data storage that is so readily copied?

I do see a market of this product if they could get cd/dvd player makers to implement it. You could buy a CD that not only has music on a track that can be read by any cd player but you can have a v pit track with music videos or live concert footage. You could make dvd's that can play in a dvd player that also carries a HD version for v pit players.

"Another drawback, there'd be no way to make recordable versions of these. Lasers can turn on or off, but can't change shapes."

Your joking right, with adjustable lenses and mirrors there is definitely a way to make a burner, the question is is it worth it?

[loosely_coupled @ Jun 27th 2008 11:35PM]

"Solid state is my pick for a winner" - Yeah you and everyone else so naive as to believe the cost of 50GB of flash memory is going to be ANYWHERE NEAR the price of pressing a blu-ray disc.

And the idea of carrying around a harddrive and downloading movies from a kiosk isn't realistic for joe six-pack. optical media will be around for awhile....

[jaapV @ Jun 28th 2008 7:15AM]

The other problem is that you can't really make a master for CD mass producing with V-shaped hills. Ridges are fine to electroplate, but metal doesn't electroplate into a hill shape by its self

[Anh Le @ Jun 28th 2008 11:50AM]

Whoa Awesome!

[Roho @ Jun 28th 2008 6:08PM]

I think a lot of posters aren't realizing that new media wouldn't be necessary, as regular DVDs are being used, which means all some company would have to do is come up with a reader/writer using this tech and voila... we have a 0.3 CENT / Gigabyte backup medium. I think a lot of companies would pay for this, even at quite a cost as the savings due to Media cost would be enormous.

[Roho @ Jun 28th 2008 6:12PM]

I think a lot of posters aren't realizing that new media wouldn't be necessary, as regular DVDs are being used, which means all some company would have to do is come up with a reader/writer using this tech and voila... we have a 0.3 CENT / Gigabyte backup medium. I think a lot of companies would pay for this, even at quite a cost as the savings due to Media cost would be enormous.