Pioneer finds 20-layer 500GB Blu-ray Disc "feasible"

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]

[Joe Rodricks @ Aug 5th 2008 1:20PM]

Cool!!!!! Let me know when I can afford a BR player. :-/

[Colin Potter @ Aug 5th 2008 1:47PM]

hopefully the cheaper chinese players will find their way onto market before the end of the year so that the bigger names will have to try to undersell them by dropping MSRP... then everyone can enjoy REAL HD content :D

[r-o-b @ Aug 5th 2008 2:09PM]

buy a ps3!

[Ignatius @ Aug 5th 2008 2:58PM]

Yeah... a PS3 is not cheap.

[avester @ Aug 5th 2008 3:22PM]

You spend 2000$ on a full-hd TV, then you go BAWW THE PRICE on an 400$ Blu-Ray player

[macserv @ Aug 5th 2008 4:52PM]

"BAWW THE PRICE"

I just spit coffee all over. That was damned funny.

[Guillermo @ Aug 5th 2008 11:35PM]

Apart from being able to afford a BR Player, how about the 1080p 62" screen to go along with it. Oh, and don't forget that Sony soundbar. How about that leather sofa with the seat warmer and cup holder as well with a universal remote control and the remote control light dimmers. Now that I mention that, I think there is an Iphone app that does that. I

[Wwhat @ Aug 6th 2008 4:18AM]

I'll say it again for good measure: they sell blu-ray players for computers for about $100 to $130, yeah yeah I know, you want standalone andsoforth.

[qazeqaz @ Aug 5th 2008 1:21PM]

thats bigger than my current hard drive :( this made me sad lol

[TomTom2007 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:28PM]

Why sad?
Now you can finally burn all the p0rn on your drive to one convenient single 500GB disc, and allocate hd space for new p0rn downloads... sweet...

[macserv @ Aug 5th 2008 4:54PM]

Look, if you're gonna use a zero in it, then it's spelled "pr0n".

[Wwhat @ Aug 6th 2008 2:19AM]

Trust me on this: those disk will be more expensive than a 500GB HD.
I hope that comforts you.

[Rage @ Aug 5th 2008 1:21PM]

GTA is going to have a hard time filling that...

[Chino B @ Aug 5th 2008 1:27PM]

More like MGS5

[GenBanks @ Aug 5th 2008 1:50PM]

GTA: USA :D

[scott @ Aug 5th 2008 2:59PM]

word GenBanks...word.

[Mike10010100 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:22PM]

Hehehe......gigger. Sorry, just love how sometimes techno-babble can be so accepted and yet sound so funny.

[nathan.wong @ Aug 5th 2008 7:12PM]

Love the picture of the cat with the ears down.

Oh yeah, I like the 500GB drive too.

[nathan.wong @ Aug 5th 2008 7:15PM]

Love the picture of the cat with the ears down.

Oh yeah, I like the 500GB drive too.

[rv @ Aug 5th 2008 1:23PM]

That s 25 times bigger than my current hd....
This tech would be sweet. An entire season of tv on one disk. I guess it would be useful for 1440p/2160p when it starts being used. Not enough space for 4320p though.

[Pochi @ Aug 5th 2008 1:24PM]

You need a bigger HDD.

[Down @ Aug 5th 2008 1:29PM]

Your hard drive is 20 gb? Shame on you.

[rv @ Aug 5th 2008 1:34PM]

Well my old laptop broke, right now until I buy a new one I am using a refurb dell thats a couple years old. I'm in wait for something special...

[Ryback @ Aug 5th 2008 1:48PM]

It's 62,5 times bigger then the harddrive in this computer. That's awesome!

[jed @ Aug 5th 2008 1:30PM]

im really glad sony blew a huge amount of money on blu-ray, because i hate sony quite a lot, and i'm glad to see how much they've wasted. 20 layers huh?]

if you put a one layered cd in the best cd burner available, you have about a 5% failure rate immediately, which is not to mention over a long time. trusting some chinese lowest bidder to find and utilize 20 optical layers on a plastic blu-ray disc with no errors is really far fetched.

so knock yourself out guys, keep on hoping for the best when you burn those discs, try not to keep track of the coasters, and definitely try to ignore that networking is getting faster, usb sticks are getting cheaper, and a 500gb hard drive is down to 50 bucks.

imagine scraping up a disc that has 500gb of important data on it.

cd's and dvds are on their way out, its time for the wild, off center, loud, unreliable media to disappear, and not a moment too soon.

[Leindurstit @ Aug 5th 2008 1:38PM]

More like "FAILsible." Ironically funny web 2.0 blogosphere internet memes.

[skins21 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:41PM]

lol. you mean on the way out when the internet catches up. Im hoping that change happens in 20 years or less. But if im in my 40s and I still need discs Ill be pissed off

[Colin Potter @ Aug 5th 2008 1:44PM]

let me know when i can download a Blu-ray quality film (not just 1080P, but over 20mbps too, with lossless audio) in less time than it takes me to go shopping, buy a disc, get stuck in traffic on the way home, make dinner, forget to watch the movie for a few days, and then put the disc in my player.

[Pochi @ Aug 5th 2008 2:23PM]

"because i hate sony quite a lot"

Beat you up in high school, hm?

[Maeztro @ Aug 5th 2008 3:04PM]

How do you "hate" sony?

And...believe it or not, they are only part of the Blu Ray Alliance...so make sure you spread the hate evenly...

[brainy @ Aug 6th 2008 2:36PM]

lol i never once burned a coaster from media failure in the last 10 years! Myabe i just been lucky, or use good media

[MMisterio @ Aug 5th 2008 1:34PM]

but can it store Crysis?

[Dead_Rebel @ Aug 5th 2008 1:43PM]

You suck at life.

[fieldcar @ Aug 5th 2008 1:50PM]

I understand the attempt at comedy, but I ask you why? The game clocks in at 6Gigs. =P

[Lowest Ranked @ Aug 5th 2008 2:49PM]

DVD9 can store Crysis.

The question is:

But can you math?

[anonymous @ Aug 5th 2008 5:03PM]

It could probably hold 20+ copies of the entire Crysis trilogy (and stand alone expansion pack), provided they individually don't go over 6gb.

[Apreche @ Aug 5th 2008 1:40PM]

Hooray, we'll have a backup solution that isn't just "more hard drives."

[bob sakamano @ Aug 5th 2008 1:46PM]

if they can put the whole back to the future trilogy on disk ill buy it

nilay ryan and josh wanna come over and watch??

[diode3diode @ Aug 5th 2008 2:15PM]

Back to the Future?!?
Nah, what we need is another of those "Star Wars Trilogy: Director's Cut High Definition Blu-Ray Edition."
(hohoho, I kid)

[Nihility @ Aug 5th 2008 4:48PM]

@diode
Too late, it'll be your fault when it happens!

[EricLMcCormick @ Aug 5th 2008 1:55PM]

Maybe this will be the answer to more storage on the Wii.... j/k
This technolgy will last all of 2 seconds when holograpic memeory is brought to the front which I think Nintendo is playing a part of developing.

[James @ Aug 5th 2008 1:55PM]

With the death of HD DVD, you would think that BR has the HD media market cornered. It does, but the adoption of it seems to be slower than while HD DVD was still around. BD movies are still much more expensive than DVDs. And with the majority of the consumers think their $50 upconverting DVD players does a good job so why would they bother spending $300 on a new player and $30-$35 on a blu-ray movie..

[alexmueller @ Aug 5th 2008 2:25PM]

I don't think you get how it works. Why would Blu-ray be the same price as DVD after they won? Sure it's going to replace DVD but it's a higher quality format than DVD so it costs more. When Canon released the XSI did they make it the same price as the XTI? No, sure it's replacing the XTI but it wouldn't have made any sense for them to release it at the same price the XTI was currently selling for especially when it was better. Plus a lot of companies spend a lot of time in research, marketing, etc in Blu-ray. They want to make their money back, otherwise they would being seeing red for awhile. In due time prices will go down.

[chefgon_ign @ Aug 5th 2008 2:35PM]

I'd be willing to bet that the majority of HDTV owners have their DVD players hooked up to their TV using composite cables, and still have no problem with the picture quality.

I think the only reason DVD got so popular over VHS was because it added "special features." People don't really care about picture quality.

Hell, I know more than a few people who think the definition of HDTV is "a tv that is flat and you can hang it on the wall."

Blu-ray's slow adoption rate is a result of consumer ignorance. Nobody knows what it's for outside of a few buzzwords that they don't really understand. I really doubt that there are a significant number of people who are holding off because they think their upconverting players give comparable picture quality. I would be *shocked* if a significant percentage of consumers have even heard of upconverting players.

[tha-don @ Aug 5th 2008 2:54PM]

currently, i'm satisfied with an upscaling dvd player. i'm plenty aware that it's not the same quality, but it is good enough for me. the major drawback to blu-ray for me isn't so much the players as the movies themselves. the cheapest ones are what? $25? i can get dvds of movies that i actually want for $5 or $6 now. i do have an hdmi cable from the dvd player to the tv though. mainly just because i like the idea of only needing one cable to do both audio and video because my tv isn't expensive so the hdmi only does so much.

[Nohone @ Aug 5th 2008 3:26PM]

@alex

Yes, the disks will be a bit higher price for a while, but this is not just about disk price. When Toshiba/Microsoft were giving away free movies with a HD DVD player, the BD fans were yelling that they were trying to buy the market. Sony announced that they were going to give away free movies, and it was a brilliant business move. Toshiba/Microsoft lowered the prices of their players, and the BD fans were yelling about subsidies. Sony lowered the price of the PS3, and it was a brilliant business move - even though the PS3 has never sold at nor above cost. There was talk about a low-cost Chinese HD DVD player, and the PS3 fans were saying that they would not be low quality junk, and yet the 2nd post to this article talks about how great it will be once Chinese BD players are released, it will be wonderful for the consumer. When HD DVD announced there would be a 51GB disk, there were shouts from the BD fans that it would not be compatible with existing players, but cheer on 500GB BD disks. When HD DVD has rich interactivity, the BD fans say that nobody watches extras, but when BD introduces 2.1 profile players, it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

The issue is that all of the advancements that HD DVD made forced BD to do the same. Now that HD DVD is dead, you no longer get 5 free movies (expired Jan 31st). The prices on players have not dropped (Sony said no PS3 price cuts because they spent their money on the war). Amazon used to have BOGO deals, once the deal active the day HD DVD died expired, the sales stopped. When HD was alive, there was a fury of releases from both sides, now that HD is no more, there have been no (IMO) good BD movies released except for what was once exclusive to HD DVD. And really, this has been the first bit of news from the BD group since HD DVD died.

[BigD145 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:55PM]

That's a lot of info to break over your knee.

[Rudolphe @ Aug 5th 2008 2:00PM]

I'd like to see these used in PC's instead of hard drives... once the read speed on the drives speed up anyway. Wouldn't have to worry bout failing HD's anymore atleast... i guess no one know's the amount of stress these disk can take over a long time

[yesimalex @ Aug 6th 2008 10:32AM]

I'm not really sure if a response is needed here. You want an Optical disk as your Hard Drive?

F......A.......I.......L

[Rudolphe @ Aug 6th 2008 10:48AM]

no, not exactly, but if i didn't have to worry about the damn thing f...a...i...l...i...n...g like HD's are known to do... Shit if flash memory was fast and cheap enough i'd that instead of a traditional HD if i could. Less moving parts = less chance of failure. Maybe i should explained more clearly before the trolls rolled out.