128GB BDXL Blu-ray disc specification finalized... and fabulous!
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted June 25th 2010 10:57AM
posted June 25th 2010 10:57AM
Looks like the Blu-ray Disc Association has published the final specs for the monster BDXL disc, opening the way for manufacturers to start introducing the technology in their optical drives. Not too much here that we don't already know: aimed at institutions and folks who need to archive lots and lots of... stuff, BDXL discs are available in either triple layer 100GB (re-writable or write-once) or 128GB quad layer write-once flavors. Of course, with all these layers (or layuhs in Brooklyn) the laser in the Blu-ray drive you already own won't be able to do the trick, so start saving your change for a hardware upgrade once these things become commercially available. PR after the break.
Blu-ray Disc Association Approves Final BDXL™ Format Specifications
Licensing Information and Applications Now Available
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced the finalization and release of the specifications for BDXL™, the new multi-layer recordable Blu-ray Disc™ format with up to 128GB of capacity. With the completion and approval of the specification, manufacturers can now obtain licensing information and license applications needed to begin production of the high capacity write-once and rewritable discs and hardware (http://www.blu-raydisc.info/).
Targeted primarily at commercial segments such as broadcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises with significant archiving needs, BDXL™ provides customers with triple layer 100GB RE (rewritable) and R (write-once) discs and quadruple layer 128GB R discs. Possible consumer applications include capture and playback of HD broadcast and satellite programming in markets where set-top recorders are prevalent.
"The BDA worked diligently to create an extension of the Blu-ray Disc™ format that leverages the physical structure of the design of the disc to create even more storage capacity," said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair. "By using the existing Blu-ray™ technologies, we have created a long-term and stable solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images. We expect further growth of the Blu-ray Disc™ market as the introduction of 100GB/128GB discs will expand the application of Blu-ray Disc™ technologies."
The BDXL™ specification was developed with specific market segments in mind, and newly-designed hardware addressing such markets will play back or record BDXL™ media. However, because the new media specifications are extensions of current Blu-ray Disc technologies, future BDXL™ capable recorders can easily be designed to play back existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Disc™ formats.
About Blu-ray DiscTM
Blu-ray Disc™ is a trademark owned by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) and licensed for use on discs, players and other products that use BDA's optical disc format for high definition audio-video and high capacity data software applications. A single-layer disc holds up to 25GB of data and a double-layer disc holds up to 50GB 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 BDA's optical disc format for high definition audio-video and high capacity data software applications. The BDA has approximately 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.
Blu-ray DiscTM and Blu-ray DiscTM logo are registered trademarks of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
BDXL™ is a trademark of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
Licensing Information and Applications Now Available
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced the finalization and release of the specifications for BDXL™, the new multi-layer recordable Blu-ray Disc™ format with up to 128GB of capacity. With the completion and approval of the specification, manufacturers can now obtain licensing information and license applications needed to begin production of the high capacity write-once and rewritable discs and hardware (http://www.blu-raydisc.info/).
Targeted primarily at commercial segments such as broadcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises with significant archiving needs, BDXL™ provides customers with triple layer 100GB RE (rewritable) and R (write-once) discs and quadruple layer 128GB R discs. Possible consumer applications include capture and playback of HD broadcast and satellite programming in markets where set-top recorders are prevalent.
"The BDA worked diligently to create an extension of the Blu-ray Disc™ format that leverages the physical structure of the design of the disc to create even more storage capacity," said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair. "By using the existing Blu-ray™ technologies, we have created a long-term and stable solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images. We expect further growth of the Blu-ray Disc™ market as the introduction of 100GB/128GB discs will expand the application of Blu-ray Disc™ technologies."
The BDXL™ specification was developed with specific market segments in mind, and newly-designed hardware addressing such markets will play back or record BDXL™ media. However, because the new media specifications are extensions of current Blu-ray Disc technologies, future BDXL™ capable recorders can easily be designed to play back existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Disc™ formats.
About Blu-ray DiscTM
Blu-ray Disc™ is a trademark owned by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) and licensed for use on discs, players and other products that use BDA's optical disc format for high definition audio-video and high capacity data software applications. A single-layer disc holds up to 25GB of data and a double-layer disc holds up to 50GB 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 BDA's optical disc format for high definition audio-video and high capacity data software applications. The BDA has approximately 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.
Blu-ray DiscTM and Blu-ray DiscTM logo are registered trademarks of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
BDXL™ is a trademark of the Blu-ray Disc Association.
Is the PS3 compatible with this?
@rob47
"the laser in the Blu-ray drive you already own won't be able to do the trick, so start saving your change for a hardware upgrade "
Yes yours, my, theres PS3 can play this
@rob47
"Of course, with all these layers (or layuhs in Brooklyn) the laser in the Blu-ray drive you already own won't be able to do the trick"
@rob47
No
@leefhead
Leef, you freaked me out man i had problems understand visuals for a few seconds
@rob47 yeah all it will need is a firmware update, too bad xbox cant do that, now the video games will be even more HD
@frohawk17
"...even more HD."
Really? More HD than Full HD?
Do you even hear yourself?
BD4K anyone? RED have already shown 4K video wavelet compressed playing from a DVD disc so I presume a whole 4K movie could be stored on a BDXL.
@frohawk17
Clearly you can flash the firmware of any PS3 to be able to do anything, and the rendering and computing is all probably done by its blu-ray drive...
Nothing wrong with logic there....
@rob47 Can you guys picture how much more stuff they'll put on a video game disk. Everything will be HD. I'd like to see Niko Belic from GTA 4 in HD.
@techee44
"Full HD" is just a marketing term. Ever heard of Quad HD?
But that's not really the point. The discs can have infinite space, the lack of "more HD" is due to the hardware limitations, namely the video processor. Most console games are barely running 720p, if that
@rob47 Not even a firmware update can save the good ol' PS3 this time.
@techee44 1600p is more than full hd. Although, this guy is an idiot. The ps3 can barely do 1080p.
@richb93
You really think they are going to give you a 4K res movie? Don't they already neuter digital copies res? I could be wrong, but I thought I read that.
Hard drives are still gonna be cheaper for archiving...
@techee44 Fuller HD, to be followed by Even Fuller HD, and then Fullest HD.
@PrezBO
Wow..
Does anyone else see the big picture here?
The PS3 hasnt been updated yet, like the 360 has.
So in the next year or so, we will be seeing a PS3 capable of playing discs with 128GB of data...
Thats alot of fracking data to be stored for games..
I see the PS3 smoking the 360 yet again.
@E71 Disks are more reliable than hard drives.
@rob47 HA! You made me laugh! PS3 came out 2006. There is no way that it is compatible with BDXL.
@uckApple
"PS3 hasn't been updated yet"? I guess you missed the release of the PS3 Slim then.
@Sea Urchin
I was suckered into buying that stupid game.
@rob47
Time for the PS4 to come out...
@frohawk17 no it cant lol... read my boy read... the box has more players than the ps3 and it has blu ray... and it has free online.... but we have way more members? y is that? your console isnt all of that when it comes to games....
@techee44 full hd is gimick for average consumers
full hd = 1920 x 1080
but yet computers can do up to 2560x1600
and some projectors do 3840 x 2160
so then what do they call those "True HD!!!" in Mr.T's vice
@Zylam
The laser upgrade is referring to *writing* BDXL, not reading. DVD drives were capable of reading from multiple layers when they were only intended to read from one, I'm thinking Blu-ray may be capable of doing the same.
@rob47 Yeah.
Stuff.
thats a lot of porn for a single disc.
@leefhead
Mmmm....porn... Uh, uh, I mean, uh... mmmm donuts... Yeah. That's it. Heh, heh... Is it hot in here?
Well, if you excuse me, I'm gunna go watch porn-I mean, eat donuts. Yup, donuts. Heh...
@leefhead You could fit your porn on their?
Psssh. amateur.
@leefhead What are u talking about there's no such thing as to much porn
@p0p0
On their what? Or did you mean "there"?
Psssh, amateur.
@leefhead
All joking aside, many porn actors are junkies and you are helping them into an early grave buying/using those films.
Take a moment to think about he lives porn destroys for just a moment.
@leefhead
Can't help but roll my eyes every time I hear a porn joke...
Come on, man! It's been done to death... LET IT GO!
This is getting ridiculous for optical discs. It'll take over an hour to burn because it's not like it's about higher density so much as just more layers.
You can partially burn an optical disc but the support is flakey and disc burning hasn't gotten more reliable so you will get to 62GB and then some stupid disc error will jump out and you'll have wasted a $40 disc.
For archival of large amounts of data like HD footage in edit formats fine but I'm on HDDs and I don't think I'll switch to optical before SSD gets cheap.
Within 3 years, we will be at 16nm and SSD will equal current HDD pricing. Although you will be able to get Blu-Ray backup cheaper than this, if you were backing up an HD project then $50-100 for every project is nothing worth bothering about, especially when you can update the files on them and have much faster access.
Optical is dead, what we are seeing now is merely the decomposition process.
@TinWard I like how you word it "decomposition process". I've been saying this for a while now no one ever believes me. BR disc is pretty much a last way to cash in on a medium that's already on it's way out "optical". By doing this whole stupid process of BR they delay digital storage tech. We probably could have had super fast and digital media with a whole lot of space by now if it wasent for the in between BR.
@techee44 you fail at trying to be funny...
@TinWard When the first CD Writers arrived, they only wrote at 1x which took up to 80 minutes for a single disc. Not to mention the possibility of buffer underruns :P Be glad how far tech has advanced.
i thought buying a blu ray player meant you could play blu rays.
guess i was wrong, how do they always get me
@Zylam
They did the exact same thing with DVDs. Early DVD players can't play modern two layer discs, which make up the majority of modern DVD movies now.
@Dafrety
Yes sir but blu ray has progressed alittle to fast or perhaps i've sliped with the times but buying another blu ray players feels sort of spearing from the inside out. I have some problems figuring it out but its good tech is progressing.. just heavy on the wallet as usual.
@Zylam
Personally, I'd rather they improve the standards we already have than come out with completely new ones. VHS to DVD wasn't fun. DVD to Blu-ray was acceptable (still expensive though.) Blu-ray to Blu-ray XL will likely be less expensive. This won't be the first format to do this either. SD cards became SDHC cards and now we will have SDXC cards. You can still put an SD card into an SDXC slot. USB has done similar as well.
@Zylam
"Yes sir but blu ray has progressed alittle to fast"
What?
@Zylam So Blu-ray somehow got worse because there's a new extension to the spec? That doesn't make sense. Did DVD become less good when DVD-Audio came out since you can't play them on your player?
Dafrety:
DVD was always dual-layer. I still have the first DVD player I bought (Sony DVP-S7000, first model they made) and it plays dual-layer discs.
LMAO, the Brooklyn quote
Upgrade your hardware, huh. No wonder jobs is holding off on them.
@Screwmicrosoft
Because not having a Blu-ray drive at all in your $2000+ computer now is preferred to having one that won't play a selection of discs in the future.
@Screwmicrosoft
Why so? That would follow his business model to a T.
@Screwmicrosoft
Jobs/Apple is ignoring Blu-ray because it doesn't fit into the Apple business model which is going the route of Digitally Distributed media. Apple is in favor of digital downloads and digital streaming over Blu-ray. i-Tunes and AppleTV is proof of that. At least they are being honest about it. Sony and other BDA companies are slowly trying to get digital distribution into house holds through their Blu-ray players because they know that the Blu-ray infrastructure is still very unstable and they want the consumer to think they are buying something that'll last for the long haul even if the main format fails.
I guess it's a good thing I didn't buy a Blu-ray drive for the desktop quite yet. I probably should though, all my devices need to have a nice bag of hurt.