Blu-ray Discs expand to 128GB under new BDXL spec
By Richard Lawler 
posted April 3rd 2010 10:41AM
posted April 3rd 2010 10:41AM
Blu-ray Disc Association Announces Additional Format Enhancements
LOS ANGELES --(Business Wire)-- Apr 03, 2010 The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced two new media specifications that use Blu-ray Disc technology to provide targeted functionality for commercial and consumer applications. The specifications for BDXL™ (High Capacity Recordable and Rewritable discs) and IH-BD (Intra-Hybrid discs) are expected in the next few months.
The BDXL specification, which is targeted primarily at commercial segments such as broadcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises with significant archiving needs, will provide customers with write-once options on 100GB and 128GB capacity discs and rewritable capability on 100GB discs. The discs reach these capacities by incorporating three to four recordable layers. A consumer version of BDXL is also expected, particularly in those regions where BD recorders have achieved broad consumer acceptance.
"Professional industries have expressed a desire to find optical disc solutions that enable them to transition away from magnetic media for their archiving needs," said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair. "Leveraging Blu-ray Disc to meet this need provides professional enterprises with a compact, stable and long term solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images using a proven and widely accepted optical technology."
The Intra-Hybrid Blu-ray Disc (IH-BD) incorporates a single BD-ROM layer and a single BD-RE layer so as to enable the user to view, but not overwrite, critical published data while providing the flexibility to include relevant personal data on the same physical disc. This allows for consumer specific applications where combining published content with related user data on a convenient, single volume is desirable. Both the ROM and the RE layers on IH-BD discs provide 25GB of capacity.
Because both BDXL and IH-BD are specially designed formats with specific market segments in mind, newly-designed hardware is required to play back or record BDXL or IH-BD media. However, because the new media specifications are extensions of current Blu-ray Disc technology, future BDXL and IH-BD devices can be designed to support existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Discs.
About Blu-ray DiscTM
Blu-ray DiscTM is the next-generation optical disc format for high definition audio-video and high-capacity data software applications. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc holds up to 25 gigabytes of data and a double-layer Blu-ray Disc holds up to 50 gigabytes of data.
About the Blu-ray Disc Association
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is responsible for promoting and developing business opportunities for Blu-ray Disc - the next-generation optical disc format for storing high-definition movies, games, photos and other digital content. The BDA has more than 170 members. Its Board of Directors consists of individuals affiliated with the following member companies: Apple Inc., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Hitachi, Ltd., Intel Corporation, LG Electronics Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Pioneer Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, TDK Corporation, Technicolor, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures and Television, and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
The Blu-ray DiscTM name and Blu-ray DiscTM logo are registered trademarks of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
BDXL™ is a trademark of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
LOS ANGELES --(Business Wire)-- Apr 03, 2010 The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced two new media specifications that use Blu-ray Disc technology to provide targeted functionality for commercial and consumer applications. The specifications for BDXL™ (High Capacity Recordable and Rewritable discs) and IH-BD (Intra-Hybrid discs) are expected in the next few months.
The BDXL specification, which is targeted primarily at commercial segments such as broadcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises with significant archiving needs, will provide customers with write-once options on 100GB and 128GB capacity discs and rewritable capability on 100GB discs. The discs reach these capacities by incorporating three to four recordable layers. A consumer version of BDXL is also expected, particularly in those regions where BD recorders have achieved broad consumer acceptance.
"Professional industries have expressed a desire to find optical disc solutions that enable them to transition away from magnetic media for their archiving needs," said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair. "Leveraging Blu-ray Disc to meet this need provides professional enterprises with a compact, stable and long term solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images using a proven and widely accepted optical technology."
The Intra-Hybrid Blu-ray Disc (IH-BD) incorporates a single BD-ROM layer and a single BD-RE layer so as to enable the user to view, but not overwrite, critical published data while providing the flexibility to include relevant personal data on the same physical disc. This allows for consumer specific applications where combining published content with related user data on a convenient, single volume is desirable. Both the ROM and the RE layers on IH-BD discs provide 25GB of capacity.
Because both BDXL and IH-BD are specially designed formats with specific market segments in mind, newly-designed hardware is required to play back or record BDXL or IH-BD media. However, because the new media specifications are extensions of current Blu-ray Disc technology, future BDXL and IH-BD devices can be designed to support existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Discs.
About Blu-ray DiscTM
Blu-ray DiscTM is the next-generation optical disc format for high definition audio-video and high-capacity data software applications. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc holds up to 25 gigabytes of data and a double-layer Blu-ray Disc holds up to 50 gigabytes of data.
About the Blu-ray Disc Association
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is responsible for promoting and developing business opportunities for Blu-ray Disc - the next-generation optical disc format for storing high-definition movies, games, photos and other digital content. The BDA has more than 170 members. Its Board of Directors consists of individuals affiliated with the following member companies: Apple Inc., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Hitachi, Ltd., Intel Corporation, LG Electronics Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Pioneer Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, TDK Corporation, Technicolor, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures and Television, and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
The Blu-ray DiscTM name and Blu-ray DiscTM logo are registered trademarks of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
BDXL™ is a trademark of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
@kjsin1994
" i doubt engadget would know if the ps3 could play it or not."
Jesus dude, read the article. Engadget isn't speculating on hardware requirements, it says in plain English that new hardware will be required to read these discs.
I wish people would stop being so lazy.
BDR/RW is expensive and slow compared to other options, nobody in their right mind would use it for serious backup work. This doesn't mean much for games unless you expect greater than HD quality video to be displayed on your 1080 limited HDTV. It is basically pointless for games unless you are going to include obscene amounts of video in them.
Does the new large BDXL format mean the old standard model was BDSM? :-)
Neat. Well I guess that $130 I just spent on a BD-Burner was a waste of money.:(
@Wag ask for your money back, what a joke.
Great!
wtf Blu-ray Discs that don't work in current Blu-Ray player. f.off Sony.
Unfortunately, its cheaper to buy an external HDD than BR media.
this is cool and all but dammit i just bought a new bd player last month!
I could see it now, if the PS3 was hardware capable of BRXL: "Haha we got Blu-Ray XL and you guys are still on DVDs el-oh-el"
I swear, did any of you even read this article? Its for BURNING ONLY, its not intended for movies or games.
Um....no..
Replacing Blu-ray with a newer version already is a bit ridiculous, as it still hasn't really caught on.
I'm a huge fan of Blu-ray, but I know that most HDTV owners still don't know/care about it. And now they want to update it without cross backward compatibility? That's just the stupidest thing since having a format war with HD-DVD.
Is it suprising to anybody else that apple is on there list of companies on the board. I thought they hated bluray?
@GroundBreakingGames
Apple is on their list of companies because in order to access the format requirements you have to be a member of BDA, Apple is not a primary member, or even a first level member of the group. Apple and Microsoft are on the same page, they have no intentions on supporting the format directly because they stand to gain more profits from streaming and downloading.
I haven't burned DVDs in a long time... mainly because I have a lot of blank media that are probably not the best quality so I worry about spending time and effort making backups only for the backups to become no good after a year or so. I've never heard 1 way or the other whether Blu-ray suffers similar issues. If they do, it's a shame.
Change disk and press play, or even fancier, switch to side B.
So in other words, they've made a new -incompatible- disc format that cannot be played on any existing hardware. How is this a good thing?
@Jak Crow
Its another thing Sony and other top BDA members can whore out for profit...
Yeah, and when the cost per G comes down to somewhere near what it is for a blank DVD now, (about 4 cents), I might be somewhat interested.
4k resolution with lossless video please.