Pioneer finds 20-layer 500GB Blu-ray Disc "feasible"
By Darren Murph 
posted August 5th 2008 1:15PM
posted August 5th 2008 1:15PM
Now here's a rate of progress we could get used to. Nary a month after Pioneer trumpeted a 400GB Blu-ray Disc, out pops another press release from the firm boasting about a 500 gigger with a score of layers. Based on research at its Tokyo headquarters, specifications have been drafted for an incredibly capacious 500GB BD. Granted, this very company already had plans for a 500GB optical disc nearly four years ago, but there's no time like the present to make this stuff a reality, right?[Via TrustedReviews, thanks xdragon]
Feel free to explain what exactly you mean?
"I'd like to see these used in PC's instead of hard drives... "
In reference to that statement.
Yes fewer moving parts does mean more stability but flash drives weren't in question here. Don't call me a troll because I posted a reply to a comment that doesn't make any sense.
A 500gb optical disc spinning at a fast enough speed to replace a hard drive would be completely unreliable. I don't know if you old enough to remember the old 80x cd-roms but the discs used to shatter at high speeds. Optical can only go so far as it is. It's not storing the data that is a problem its accessing it.
And about the damn thing failing... everything breaks flash drives break just less often than hard drives. I've had two flash drives get corrupted and they are unusable.
Blu discs are a viable archive format period.
This is pretty pointless, really. In order to read that kind of disc, everyone would have to buy an all new expensive player. At that point it isn't an upgrade, it's a whole new format that just happens to be *based* on the Blu-ray spec.
you're right, we should never have stopped using sticks and rocks to kill animals to feed and clothe ourselves.
wait, we were supposed to stop killin animals with sticks n rocks? uh-oh...
actually, it would work with all existing players via firmware update... they use the exact same laser.... did you need to buy a new DVD player when to play dual layers? no? didnt think so.
I think 500gb is a lot of information. Also, I don't think it will ever become commercially practical. However, if this does come to fruition, I can see very long burn times in every DVD-bootlegger's future.
Be carefull what you say...you are the same kind of people that probably would have said the same thing when DVD debuted, "who needs all that space? Extra's? Fugk extras!"
Good old Bill Gates once said... who needs more that 64 K of memory anyways?
I think that should answer your concerns
I think the story was 640K, but yeah 500GB is nothing really.
20 Layers with that much data is a shakey deal at best, small scratches or easy errors are sure to pop up, as you all know the recording process is still an analog one, with the bumps written in the disc itself. The more bumps, the easier it is to mess up or misread. Idk, I thought the current size, or original size was enough ...sheesh...stick to tape drives to back up server enviroments, unless you want to spill coffee on your BD disc or scratch it only to lose your jorb haha. I'll stick to my hot swapable drive. As for movies in the store, I sure hope current players only require a firmware update for this...
also Blue ray is self repairing. I have often enough gone to pick up one of my BR discs and only to see a big scratch going right across the whole thing. Five minutes with a shamy cloth and the scratch is gone. THAT my friends is the difference, indestructible.
blu-ray disc has a hard coating that is scratch resistant. a blu ray disc is way more durable than a cd, dvd, or hd dvd. of course that contributed to its higher cost than hd dvd (irrelevant now...)
This will mean better graphics on PS3 games. Time to pack it in microsoft and concede defeat in the gaming wars. Because Sony always wins. A 500gb blue ray disc is a nice thing to read about, now we will have the room to make: MGS5 Big Boss, a GTA 5 titled GTA WORLD, Socom Complete Confrontation with 500 online players, Tony hawk like you've never experienced before ( clone of TH in the digital realm. @ Bluemanrule, people thought that DVD would never replace tape, guess what it did, now a 500 gb BR disc is about to do the same. As for burn times it would be no different than those of today's standard, the only thing is that you can leave the disc in the tray and keep burning it for years until you fill it up. I hate microsoft because they beat me up in middle school. nah j/k.
I hope you are kidding, because everybody knows ps3's graphics are worse than the x360's, and that probably won't improve unless they update their GPU AND expand their internal memory on it, because no matter how fast a GPU and CPU is if you got too little RAM which has to be shared too you WILL run into issues when trying to run games, even with huge cache's on the CPU die.
And they probably will need to update the blu-ray hardware anyway to read these high-capacity disks.
Be carefull what you say...you are the same kind of people that probably would have said the same thing when DVD debuted, "who needs all that space? Extra's? Fugk extras!"
Sorry for the odd post above me, the comment system here is so friggen wrong its not even remotely funny.
You're so friggin wrong that it is funny.
BUT DOES IT BLEND!?
I'll start burning now, it should finish in about 3 weeks!
AT the current market prices of Blu-Ray, a 500GB hard drive would be cheaper. Not to mention faster to write to.
But will it help the sony empire in getting money to hire some more rootkit coders and to finance the MPAA if you buy a HD? No it won't, see the issue there?
Hey guys, forget that blu-ray stuff! We're making an upconverting dvd player! It can play all your old dvds in super-mega-definition!
Already forgotten, if I need HD stuff I'll download it.
Look, if you're gonna use a zero in it, then it's spelled "pr0n".
I sense deja vu, I thought engadget posted this a couple months ago.
Although I do like the idea. 500GB of storage in an easy to carry form. Whoever makes it will instantly become a bootlegger's best friend.
Next step is adding a magnetic layer and putting a single disk in a 3.5" housing, this stuff is going places I tell you!
As long as it's not used for like, one big uncompressed movie (layer changes are too big a downside). It'd be nice to have a television series/season on one disk though.
I got a Blu-ray player for under 200 at www.consumerdepot.com it works great
If they keep adding layers then they're never release anything.