Royal Digital Media trots out 100GB-per-disc Blu-ray competitor

Look out HD VMD and CH-DVD -- an all new Blu-ray rival has just sashayed into town, and this one means business. By way of a random DreamStream press release, Royal Digital Media has introduced its bona fide Blu-ray rival... while casually forgetting to name it. These "high-definition discs" will be able to store up to 100GB and will boast military-grade encryption that an aimless hacker will surely destroy in a week or two. According to DreamStream's Chief Development Officer Ulf Diebel, RDM's format "will transform perceptions of high-definition," as it is able to "display the next generation of high-definition: 1920p." For whatever it's worth, this here tech is based around "inexpensive red laser technology," and RDM is hoping to "replace traditional DVD technologies with a comprehensive, next generation HD system." So, when can you buy into this sure-to-be-awesome format? Q1 2009, and for a price "equal" to that of traditional DVD players. Sold!

[Ignatius @ Oct 29th 2008 1:02PM]

So much for TrueHD. I'm holding out for cheaper TVs now.

[ybd @ Oct 29th 2008 5:04PM]

Introducing 1920p - now you too can see the mustache traces on your favorite actress.

[SimbaDogg @ Oct 29th 2008 8:49PM]

i think they have toshiba's attention. j/k

[yuriythebest @ Oct 29th 2008 1:03PM]

wohooo! can't wait!

[kal326 @ Oct 29th 2008 1:07PM]

Let me know when they get the cost per GB down anywhere remotely near that of HD storage or hell solid state for that matter, and we'll talk.

[Juaquin @ Oct 29th 2008 1:34PM]

Huh? Optical media is cheaper than HD's (especially solid state), and it probably will be for maybe a decade more.

5GB DVD @ $0.50 =$0.10/GB
500GB HD @ $70 =$0.14/GB

I didn't see any prices mentioned here anyways so I'm not sure what you're talking about. Also, I don't think movie studios are going to be releasing movies on HD or SSD anytime soon (besides the fact that it would be overkill).

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 29th 2008 1:38PM]

"tech is based around "inexpensive red laser technology'" "for a price "equal" to that of traditional DVD players" with higher-storage capacity and higher resolution capabilities.

What's there to lose?

[Juaquin @ Oct 29th 2008 1:39PM]

Of course, you could be referring to Blu-Ray, but you have to remember that it's a relatively new technology with fairly little market penetration (at least as far as burning your own discs goes), so discs are still inflated in price. Within 2-3 years Blu-Ray prices will plummet like DVD's did and optical media will still be a better deal per GB than HD/SSD.

[maveric101 @ Oct 29th 2008 2:29PM]

btw, i think you guys mean HDD when talking about hard drives (hard drive disk). HD refers to high definition. kinda confused me for a second.

[maveric101 @ Oct 29th 2008 2:31PM]

oops. i mean HDD is hard disk drive. then SSD would be solid state drive.

[Precurse @ Oct 29th 2008 2:35PM]

@Juaquin

Whooa.. 4.37GB DVD @ 50 cents?? Where do you buy your media?

even up here in Canada a 100 stack of TDKs cost me a mere $15 + tax... so 4.37GB @ 0.15 = 3.4~3.5 cents/GByte.. still in your favour =)

[Lars @ Oct 29th 2008 5:02PM]

Yeah, 50 cents per DVD is way overpriced. You're getting shanked there buddy... apparently not on the HDD though, that's a pretty decent price.

On topic: Should I even bring up that article from a year ago which said they achieved 150GB on a single BD? Must have been using many layers I assume... which is probably the same way they're accomplishing 100GB with a red diode.

[loosely_coupled @ Oct 29th 2008 7:25PM]

exactly... Once Blu-ray writers are in all the new PCs, then 50GB writable discs will be $0.50 a piece. I remember waiting seemingly forever for DVD-R prices to come down.. Now they are ubiquitous..

[Juaquin @ Oct 29th 2008 8:22PM]

@precurse

Yeah I was going high to avoid anyone coming back and bitching. I also went low on the "HDD" (as maveric101 insists on calling it, although HD can stand for hard drive), choosing the best price/capacity at the moment. I could have gone with a 1TB or 1.5TB and totally skewed the analysis.

[Wwhat @ Oct 30th 2008 8:47AM]

You can probably get 50 cent dvd blanks, but they'll have a failure rate of >50% and a shelf life of 10 months before they degrade I expect.

[Tanya @ Oct 29th 2008 1:11PM]

I totally agree- haven't they heard we're all in a recession??

[tom @ Oct 29th 2008 1:19PM]

+1
I am gonna sit back and watch it crash and burn.

[mick @ Oct 29th 2008 1:46PM]

no not "all" mostly just americans

[happy_penguin @ Oct 29th 2008 1:55PM]

If you think recession is mostly an American problem you apparently haven't been paying close attention to what's going on. It is a global problem and it's getting worse all over.

[Mike10010100 @ Oct 29th 2008 4:12PM]

I've got a way to solve the recession!

How about we invest in alternate energy sources, like MIT's fuel cell device, and the device made by Discovery Project Earth (the one that uses satellites with Fresnel lenses that beam the energy as microwaves down to earth)

Then export/ charge for that cheap energy until the machines pay for themselves

....Profit!

[kjb434 @ Oct 29th 2008 5:18PM]

What recession? I'm not hurting over here Most people's daily lives are unaffected unless they let a news report scare them...

[James @ Oct 30th 2008 12:28AM]

If you didnt buy a house you cannot afford you are probably going to be ok...at least for americans.

[Speney G @ Oct 29th 2008 1:13PM]

Someone please send them a press release asking them to fornicate themselves with a stick. No more format wars.

[Exolon @ Oct 29th 2008 4:17PM]

If the industry had listened to you, we would still be using floppies (or maybe paper punched cards).

Format wars = Competition = Evolution = We get better, bigger, faster, cheaper media.

[ITRanger @ Oct 29th 2008 1:17PM]

No thanks!

Now that the HD DVD/Blu-Ray format wars are over ... I'm loving Blu-Ray.

Not in the least bit interested in any replacements any time soon. I've already got investments in Blu-Ray movies. IRON MAN is great!

Anyway, why would I care about higher resolution, I'm not sure I could tell or appreciate the difference unless I had a much larger tv.

[tom @ Oct 29th 2008 1:21PM]

," as it is able to "display the next generation of high-definition: 1920p."

It is ABLE to, doesn't mean it will only play 1920p. Anyway, we don't even a consumer based 1920p tv and who knows if this thing will survive until then.

[Charles Knight @ Oct 29th 2008 1:45PM]

I remain unconvinced that bluray is going to take off, I think it's going to be a lost technology that is skipped over from DVD to the next thing..

[phanbouy @ Oct 29th 2008 1:48PM]

yeah, screw new tech, Iron Man is teh rox0r!

[Coyote @ Oct 29th 2008 1:18PM]

And they totally stole engadgets logo color and all. Do I smell lawsuit?

[Bill @ Oct 29th 2008 1:19PM]

The bright side is that maybe the price of Blu-Ray will come down a little more in response. If this is viable competition, Sony might want to crush it as quickly as possible. I'm all for standards but geez, why did it have to be expensive, proprietary-everything Sony?

[thrasherbill @ Oct 29th 2008 3:25PM]

Agreed! anything to combat sony is welcome, I cant stand how everything they do is so proprietary and then try to lock it down so noone can compete.
and to the other comment: its not about a format war its about advancing the tech, even if studios don't jump on board think of what this means for data storage, if it really is a simple mod then it should come out cheaper right in the beginning as no one has to wait for the rights or investing in more new production equipment, this is what hurts adoption more than anything, the fact everyone has to "reup" the factories again like they do with new tv designs or pc ram etc. gotta create machines, build assy lines, then start a whole different product design.
this way they can possibly just change a chip in the production line= very little cost to release.
badass, hope its real as im not a fan of blue ray anyways (not a big movie buff) so i could care less if the studios adopt it (think dat recorders and tape) been around for years still very popular for recording but never got used as a mass market delivery system just data.

[eggothewaffle @ Oct 29th 2008 1:21PM]

Hag of burt.

[farfisa @ Oct 29th 2008 1:27PM]

Who, Loni?

[Burt Reynolds @ Oct 29th 2008 3:49PM]

What did you just call me?

[Chris Are @ Oct 29th 2008 1:27PM]

Makes sense that another company is trying to pick a fight w/ Bluray- the format war wasn't decided by consumers, and the scales tipped in a matter of days- Bluray just barely won. But it's already become an established format, and I don't see this coming about for many years.

[Rebel6381 @ Oct 29th 2008 3:19PM]

I don't really believe that Blu-Ray has won anything just yet. Sure HD-DVD is gone but that doesn't mean someone else won't step in like Royal Digital Media is trying to. There is no downside to this competition anyway. If Sony feels that these guys really are a threat then Blu-Ray prices will drop. If RDM is boasting this awesome resolution, price, and storage capacity then its a win for us. And if this whole format wars really does gets peoples panties in a twist then I would recommend growing a pair and switching to boxers.

[icepop4who @ Oct 29th 2008 1:27PM]

too little, too late

[Juaquin @ Oct 29th 2008 1:37PM]

I wouldn't say it's too little (100GB + 1920P + "military-grade encryption" is pretty good), but it's certainly too late. Blu-Ray won this generation - Royal Media will have to wait at least 5 years and come out with something even better then if it wants to gain any ground.

[ion55 @ Oct 29th 2008 1:29PM]

If the price is similar to that of current DVD players then i'm all for it. With the price point of DVD's and picture quality that can far exceed Blu-ray, i say bring on the competition. If this format is real, then so far i'm sold.

[Mehdi Cheddadi @ Oct 29th 2008 1:30PM]

This is stupid. 1080p on a 52in screen you have to be 7feet close to the tv to actually be able with perfect vision to see a pixel
with 1920p you'd have to have a 100inch tv to be at "only" 7 feet from it to benefit from the resolution upgrade. anything farther and it's like trowing away your money.

1080p is FINE! it's not even being broadcasted yet...

stupid capitalism

[rcappo @ Oct 29th 2008 1:52PM]

I have a 120" 1080p projector screen that I sit between 5 and 12 feet away from. It would be hard to imagine what 1920p would look like, but there are a few times where it could be beneficial.

I don't think this resolution would be good enough for movie theaters though. And that would be the one place I could see them really being used.

[BratPAQ @ Oct 29th 2008 7:49PM]

if ferrari advertises a car that can run as fast as 500mph, doesnt mean you have to drive it at that speed.

[Billy Gun @ Oct 29th 2008 1:31PM]

I tought that CH DVD - was an HD DVD derivative for China. And ok its 100gb, but it does on a single layer? I realy dont think that dual, triple or more layer disk can get popular. I prefer to wait till 2010 for the 5tb HDD

http://www.trustedreviews.com/storage/news/2008/07/07/Hitachi-Claims-5TB-HDDs-By-2010/p1

[Brent @ Oct 29th 2008 1:34PM]

Which hardware manufacturers and movie studios are backing this? None you say? Blu-ray better watch out!

[Ryan @ Oct 29th 2008 1:35PM]

I'm betting it turns out to be vaporware.

[alex904 @ Oct 30th 2008 2:50PM]

That's indeed a vaporwear. Red laser...
This may be a big news for soccer moms, but anyone who is remotely familiar with technology would laugh. Unless they found the way to create super multi-layers disks cheap. I highly doubt that. Nobody heard about any breakthroughs in this department. I think it's one of those russian dudes like Artmiy Lebedev who get attention around vapor product and never deliver it. Remember OLED based keyboards? Where're they? How much money they wasted on that vaporwear?

[nxp3 @ Oct 29th 2008 1:43PM]

eh...I beleive it when I see it in stores. So many dreams shattered beffore it becomes a reality...oops.

[Boarderwoot @ Oct 29th 2008 1:47PM]

Am I missing something here? Why is there all the hate? Better resolution (theoretically) playing a disk with more space for a traditional DVD price of about 15 bucks on a traditionally priced DVD player now about 50 bucks brand new as opposed to BD which has less space only supports 1080p and costs 27 bucks for a new movie on a player that costs atleast $250. I think you're all pissed off because BD is charging you so much for being an early adopter.

[Sariena @ Oct 29th 2008 3:03PM]

People are tired of the format wars-hence the hate

[Neeko @ Oct 29th 2008 2:47PM]

I totally agree... The only people who would be upset over this would be the "early adopters" who invested heavily into BR.

There is nothing WRONG with another company creating a cheaper,better format then BR. Its been months and were no closer to BR full market penetration then we were when HDDVD was still around. And at a time when everyone is trying to get there $$s worth out of everything we buy i would love some competition in the market. If Sony and the other BR MOB Bosses are allowed to sit on there ass and keep producing $300-$600 BR players we will never get anything of value.

Plus dont forget we STILL DONT HAVE a cheap data backup option besides DVD. Im waiting for BR to become cheap so i can archive my data. This would revolutionize Media archinving. DVDs would be OLD tech like backing up to CD.

SO STFU i want more value for my $$. Im tired of these companies being able to drag there feet with innovation once they release a
product.

I have backed up 700GB of media on my 1TB drive id love to be able to save all that onto a couple disks. Besides technology is supposed to evolve nobody said you get little gradual changes. Dont bitch just cause you invested HUNDREDS of dollars into something that wasnt guaranteed to last more then 2yrs without something better popping up.