Hitachi develops 400-hour DVD

Hitachi has developed a technology which allows up to 400 hours of DVD-quality video on a single DVD disc. The capacity is achieved by using more than two layers to store the data. Current DVD specifications allow a maximum of two layers per side, and two sides per disc. That adds up to around eight hours of video at a decent bitrate.

Hitachi hopes to make the technology commercially available by 2007. I'm sure there will still be demand for a 900 GB optical disc then, even with the release of the blue-laser formats.

Source:
ZDNet

Written by: Jari Ketola @ 20 May 2003 13:58

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12 comments

Sgt_USMC

2007 ???, come on stop teasing us.

20.5.2003 15:23 #1

AND1

900GB WTF?? Emagine how long that would take to burn...

AND1

20.5.2003 20:47 #2

wbarney4

THAT WHO REALLY BE SOMETHING

21.5.2003 00:12 #3

DVDBURN

Ill be a year older by the time I completly watch the entire 400 hrs DVD! NO THANKS! With a 900GB HD why would we need to burn DVDs!? DUH!

21.5.2003 01:54 #4

YodaX

remember six years ago people were saying
would have said the same about 200 gig harddrives and 3.6 ghz pc's

When Did I Realize I Was God?
Well I Was Praying And Suddenly
I Realized I Was Talking To Myself.

21.5.2003 03:06 #5

dRD

By the time this hits the stores, the 900GB storage media is already a ridiculously small, if its really going to be 2007 when it comes available. Compare it to HDD sizes -- in late 1996 when I bought my first x86 computer, 5GB was a LOT in terms of home users, but not unheard of. Now, 6.5years later, 300GB holds pretty much the same status -- 60x increase. By same factor, by 2009 the size will be 18TB.

So, I suspect that on 2007, there is already a new format, but it doesn't hold "400 movies", but holds one movie that takes 1TB of space -- it simply just has damn much higher resolution and bitrate than current DVD-Video discs have. Seriously, you could go to streets and cheer even now: "WOHOOOOOOOOOOOO! 7 hours of VCD on one disc!".. Obviously you can still squeeze the 400 DVD-Video discs on one of those, but by that time, you are already so used to watch better quality movies that you don't bother.

Petteri Pyyny
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21.5.2003 03:08 #6

YodaX

I dont think resolutions will get to the point where a movie will take up 1tb.
because the human eye will be unable to tell the difference.I do think that they will come up with new inovations such as maybe being able to watch the entire movie from many different camera angles or something like that.

When Did I Realize I Was God?
Well I Was Praying And Suddenly
I Realized I Was Talking To Myself.

21.5.2003 03:24 #7

dRD

YodaX: Actually you can tell DVD from original pretty easily, if you have huge plasma TV and those babies are making their way to living rooms pretty quickly at the moment. So, once TVs get bigger, the video resolution has to go bigger and also the bitrate has to go higher.

Petteri Pyyny
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Please read our guides before posting questions! Guides are available here:
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21.5.2003 03:29 #8

mystic

900gb hdd now that would cause a person to shoot them self if it crashed ....no thaks 2 80gb hd are plenty and as for burning it by the time the released the first dvd it would be a year or two after the movie came out so who would want it? the Goverment think of burning everyones data as a back up or can I get one for my tebo so I can record all the tv I want? talk about mass storage hey most mother boards have a hard time setting up a burners in XP whats its monster going to do.... and think of how long it would take to format will they release a rewriteable one?......

21.5.2003 08:14 #9

awesomejt

My christmas list for the year 2007:
1. 900 GB DVD drive, slthough, I'm not sure if I should go DVD-900 or DVD+900. I guess I'll have to wait for Sony to make a drive that does both. Or maybe I'll wait another year for the ultra-violit laser.
2. Brand-new 50 Megapixel Nikon dSLR.
3. Of course a 512 GB CF card (for the camera)
4. Nice 120" hyper-plasma TV/HD Hologram set

My signature sucks.

21.5.2003 15:08 #10

tart

As for the burning issue, I don't think there will be a problem. These disc seem to use standard DVD technology, just more layers. How many layers can your DVD burner burn... only one perhaps. whereas commercial DVDs can be up ~18Gb atm, Dual-sided/Dual-layered 4.9Gb discs, but we are stil confined to burn 4.9 only. What we really need to hear is someone saying that we can burn many layers to a DVDR, that would be better news.

22.5.2003 05:04 #11

loaded

Sorry, but I disagree about the plasmas. I have a 42" high resolution Fujitsu and even the difference between a compressed (DVD2ONE) DVD and an original is not really noticable (if at all!), but I am not a purist. Sometimes people focus too much on the specs and forget to enjoy the movie ;-)

Paul.

Do you think that make me less dangerous...or more dangerous?

22.5.2003 09:44 #12

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