New Blu-ray laser from Sharp burns triple, quad layer discs but can't cut red tape (yet)
Sharp stepped up at the 70th Autumn Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics to promote its new 500mW Blu-ray laser that is reportedly production ready and waiting to churn out triple and quad layer (100GB) discs at 8x speed. The only thing holding it back from release now is the lack of an official spec from the BDA. Geeking out over details of the aluminum oxynitride film that enabled this breakthrough (pictured above) continues beyond the read link.
[Via Blu-ray.com]
[Via Blu-ray.com]

















Awesome, now I can watch 1080p HD videos encoded at 100Mbps! That will look so much better than the already perfect 25-40Mbps 1080p video...
Or better yet, I can backup my entire hard drive onto one optical disc. I don't see how anything could possibli go wrong.
K, yeah, this is overkill for movies, but won't it be nice when you can get entire seasons of TV shows in 1080p on a single disc.
That way, if you scratch that one disc, you're boned.
I'll never understand people who ridicule advancement in storage capacity.
It's because you trust storing that much data in that small space.
Sorry, poor phrasing. What I mean is that people have reservations about storing that much data in a small amount of space.
"people have reservations about storing that much data in a small amount of space."
yeah, they'd be better off better off backing up/storing all their data on 5.25" floppies. Who needs a whopping 100MB hard drive?
/sarcasm
2 words: Multiple copies.
@Paul34
It's great that they have advancements, I just don't trust optical media. CD's and DVD's get scratched easily, worn out in the sun, sometimes they shatter in the drive!
Hard drives aren't perfect but they're still much more practical and reliable. I just checked amazon and a single BD-RE 25gb costs $16. $64 for 100gb You can get a 250gb HDD for $50. (and that's not even taking into account the price of the blu-ray writer)
Current blu-rays are more than good enough for movies, and optical media is still really viable for movies, but for backup and storage solutions, it just doesn't seem viable.
@CaramelZappa
Don't trust optical disks? HDD are just as prone to damage and malfunction.
You know the good thing about optical disks? You can make multiple copies. If its data that is absolutely crucial you should back it up frequently, not all your Blu-rays are going to get scratched, and have a copy on your HDD.
Atop that Blu-rays are required to have a scratch resistant protective coat that DVDs and CDs never had. But you'd be a fool to exclusively backup your sensitive data only a HDD, they will die sooner or later.
Also, Blu-ray blanks can be purchased from $2~5 per disk if you buy it in a 10 pack or more.
http://www.meritline.com/blu-ray-dvd-media-disc---c-7568.aspx
Might also be handy as an optical network driver, if it can handle heat and lives long and is tiny but can push 500mw, that should go for quite a distance in fiber one would think.
@CZ: "I just don't trust optical media. CD's and DVD's get scratched easily, worn out in the sun..."
Yeah, because when you put your freshly burned disc into a case and put that case in a desk, filing cabinet, safe, etc, it's going to get soooo scratched up and sun-damaged. The biggest problems facing optical media are careless users.
/me waits for someone to rip the diode out and put it in a laser pointer
Yea you do that. Then we'll shine it in your eyes :)
breath on this thing wrong and you are done = D
I've hear that you need a girl with a machete to cut through red tape.
I hear she's touring the facility, and picking up slack
I love it that other people like CAKE
Is this the same girl that trader her MG for a white Chrysler LeBaron?
Who doesn't like cake- it's so yummy! :P
I want a girl with a short skit but no jacket might be better.
I can't vote you up enough.
Pffft. I'm still still betting on HD-DVD.
I'm sticking with VHS myself...
BETAMAX and Cassette Storage FTW
15 comments and nobody mentions that it's made with transparent aluminum.
For shame.
"Computer? Computer?"
*speaking into mouse*
"Hello, computer..."
For shame indeed -_-
Transparent aluminium...
What does this mean? Burn single layer BD at 64x? XD
Now they only need to make a holographic data cube instead of a spinning disk and we got what we expected to see in 2010.
Blu-Rays are scratch resistant. If anyone has a ps3, go look at your discs. I can bet you that none on them have anything more then a smudge on them, which I can't say the same about my PS2 discs that I barely even touched. But despite them being scratch resistant... They Seriously are NOT Crack Resistant (Like a lot of DVDs and CDs which take the might of Thors Hammer to break).
I had a PS3 game in my cargo short pocket (Dont ask why.. Really dumb reason) and forgot it was there. I sat down on it, barely bending it,... and it literally broke into tiny little pieces, like shards of glass. You can fix scratches, its only plastic, but uhm.. yea go try gluing your blu-ray disc back together and see how that turns out for ya. Trust your information of an anorexic little disc that will even Float on glass. Fun times. AT LEAST an HDD or SDD is protected by fucken Metal.
(Oh and about what i did with it? I just send it back to Gamefly, and they never asked, lol)
"Welp Hunny, there goes every single family video we've every taken. Whoops." most idiots will be saying.. Ok maybe putting in my pocket was idiotic too. Go me.
Or most likely your highly prized porn collection you were dumb enough not to back up anywhere else... Yea Porn, I said it. You know that's what you used this breakthrough technology for. Don't lie you cheeky bastard.
Maybe when a shard gets through your skin all the chemicals will get in your blood and make you a superhero, blue lasers will shoot from your eyes or something.
(Or it'll kill you)
Man oh man, how far we've come. I remember going nuts for the first CD-ROM drives like the one that came with my Mac LC630 >.
@stevennjc
LOL @ PORN COLLECTION.
Mine's backed up on my External and up on RS ;) FREE CHEESY PIZZA (google it)
Yay Technology!
Uh....people are actually complaining about advancement in technology??? (Queue Twilight Zone music) I'm still in America right???
America is the land of "good enough". Haven't you noticed?
That's why we're behind on literally everything. But whatever, if it means we don't have to upgrade a thing and keep all of the profits and then go bankrupt, we don't care.