Pioneer's Blu-ray disc hits 400GB across 16-layers
By Thomas Ricker 
posted July 7th 2008 3:47AM
posted July 7th 2008 3:47AM
16-layers -- that's how many layers it takes to the hit the center of a 400GB Blu-ray disc, pops. That's 25GB per layer just like those dual-layer 50GB discs available for retail. Best of all, the technique used by Pioneer is expected to be backward compatible with existing Blu-ray gear since the specs and lenses required for pickup are identical. The prototype is read-only for the moment but R&D's on it so let's give them some time to work it out.
Update: Now that the English press release is out, it's less clear whether the new media -- whenever it might come to market -- will work in existing Blu-ray players or not. While "it is possible to maintain compatibility between the new 16-layer optical disc and the BD discs," players would seemingly require a modified optical pick-up mechanism to see the data. We'll learn more on July 13th when Pioneer discusses the breakthrough in detail.
[Via Impress]
Update: Now that the English press release is out, it's less clear whether the new media -- whenever it might come to market -- will work in existing Blu-ray players or not. While "it is possible to maintain compatibility between the new 16-layer optical disc and the BD discs," players would seemingly require a modified optical pick-up mechanism to see the data. We'll learn more on July 13th when Pioneer discusses the breakthrough in detail.
[Via Impress]
You have to be careful to not turn into a cheney and never hear anybody that disagrees with you.
I'm not sure what jake is on about though, must be some misunderstanding.
Current players would only need to be able to read one layer of the new disks - store a 1080P version on that layer and store a 2160P version on the remaining layers.
If this will be compatible with the current Blu-Ray Drives, and Pioneer can produce it cheap. Then Digital Media will crumble.
What on god's green earth would you need 400GB for? The high def. movies most certainly don't need that much, and if I get backlash saying "oh you can store data on it durrrrr" I will slap you with the definite remark that I most certainly know that disc will probably cost more than an external hard drive with the same space that will not degrade when fido bites it, or it is misplaced and scratched. Neat tech, but really unnecessary ATM...
People have been burnt by saying that something is enough.
While this 400 GB probably will never come to futrition in the Blu-ray spec, unless they create yet another patch (profile) to add it, nevermind the fact that the HD spec only goes to 1080p. The obvious choice would be to include more material on the discs, but like you said, the cost will hold it back.
I can see this being very benificial in the archiving realm though. I think I would love to be able to burn 400 GB of data to a disc. It could possibly the cheapest method for home users to backup data.
You my friend, are very moronic. It is an optical medium not a storage medium. Go ahead, install windows to you Blu Ray drive, I DARE YOU...
Kick Ass!
Blu-Ray discs don't crash or have moving parts that can fail like a HD.
Which is exactly why I would love to have access to this for backup purposes.
If I could back up my entire music/video collection in one burning session, with no disc errors, I would be extremely happy.
Hahahahaha
hahahahaha
hahahahaha
Holy crap some people just make you laugh.
But will this be affordable? Or will it only be used by the Government and major corporations for now? I still can't justify paying the price for a single layer Blu-Ray Disc let alone this monster and I've stuck to buying regular DVD movies instead of their BD version because the upconvert on the PS3 is so good.
And also the "Almost-Unscratchable" Blu-Ray Discs :D
I dont think the disk has much of a future. R.I.P
Sorry Pioneer. gareh doesn't approve of your work. Please scratch this idea and try to do better next time.
No wonder this media hasn't really took off, they are busy worrying about how much content they can store and how much they can charge for a player.
Just release some damn HD movies and get the players below $200.
you can get a LG bluray reader for the PC here for $160, but a writer costs double, still it's already below 200 for players it seems
I want a cheap standalone.
This is great and all, but movies will never be able to use anywhere near that. And I don't mean they'll never fill it up, I mean they can't use that many layers for movies because the older players won't read it.
Great news for data storage, though.
Yeah they can add some functions to MS office and release the next version on it :)
Go Toshiba! You can make it better!
Someone should call pioneer and tell them hd-dvd lost already and they can quit this fake PR nonsense.
Sweet! So 16x the chances of getting bit-rot and having an unplayable disc!
"If this will be compatible with the current Blu-Ray Drives, and Pioneer can produce it cheap. Then Digital Media will crumble."
Until people need to edit data rather than record it once...
and only want to pay 60queen gold for 500GB rather than spend their life savings on a prototype blueray disc :P
Lots 'o PORN!!!
Now just find a name for it that doesn't imply that it was invented by five-year old morons, and we're set. "Blu".. What the FUCK were they thinking?
Oh Shit, here goes another 400 GB because i set on my blue ray disk
people, nowadays if i scratch one personal data CD, i keep crying for 10 days,
too bad no one can pack more mileage into gas like this
It would be nice if Blu could finalize their current players first. This reminds me of the Arthur C. Clarke short story "Superiority". Instead of working on the next great thing that will revolutionize the product, they need to get reliable players on the market at a low price.
I would like see a this same density in a minidisc sized package.
Yea, well Toshiba is making a VCD player that scales video up to almost DVD quality!
This is excellent. I can condense all my pr0n. Seriously. I have pages upon pages of Fellowes™ binder disc sleeves that hold 4 discs per side/8 per sheet. I have stacks of them for data, mp3s, and the largest one, pr0n. :"> Most pr0n goes onto CDs but I do come across files that are >701.3.
They have just brought out Dual layer Blu-ray recorders, and its already a obsolete technology, since it took so long to come out. 50Gb is nothing now days, you can get 1000Gb hard drives for $200. By the time this gets into main stream(in 5yrs time) it will be obsolete too. These companies take so long to get their act together, by the time it gets released for us to buy is already replaced by something better.
why it loos transparent???
400GB is just huge! i've no idea whether i have 400G stuff!!
------------------------------------------------------------
忆忆： http://yiyi519.blog.sohu.com/