AfterDawn: News

Hitachi aims 200GB Blu-ray disc for 2009

Hitachi hopes to boost Blu-ray in the market in 2009 by offering a 200GB Blu-ray optical disc. The capacity, which is 4 times what today's largest available Blu-ray discs offer, is achieved by packing eight layers onto a single side of the platter. Blu-ray already has an advantage over its rival, HD DVD, in terms of capacity, offering 25GB per layer compared to HD DVD's 15GB per layer.

A triple layer HD DVD disc has been produced, packing 17GB into each layer for a total of 51GB storage capacity. While it would push HD DVD's capacity over that of the currently available Blu-ray media, the development from Hitachi shows that it might not be too hard at all for Blu-ray to go over the top again,... far over.



A triple layer HD DVD disc also would surely have compatibility problems with today's available hardware anyway (as surely an eight layer Blu-ray disc would also) and that's not even to mention the cost of producing either format's discs with more than 2 layers anytime soon.

Source:
Inquirer

Written by: James Delahunty @ 18 May 2007 19:34

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• 19 comments

• ThaJazz

  for what do anybody need this.

  18.5.2007 21:00 #1

• gozilla

  you wouldn't want to scratch one of these disks. at eight layers, the tinniest of scratches will render the said disk useless.

  18.5.2007 21:12 #2

• scott2k7

  Originally posted by ThaJazz:for what do anybody need this.
  somebody might want to put lots of games or films on it so they would be good

  18.5.2007 21:37 #3

• pigfister

  Originally posted by ThaJazz:for what do anybody need this.for all the new layered Sony DRM ,they are going to need that much space to slow the hackers as a 2 hour film takes less than 20gig, but it may be for advertising space i suppose, or all the great extras on films like every trailer ever made and commentary in 7.1 sound!
  

  
  
  "In a world of universal deceipt, telling the truth ia a revolutionary act." George Orwell 1984
  
  Tor: anonymity on-line STOP the spying! http://tor.eff.org/
  
  

  18.5.2007 23:21 #4

• hughjars

  Notice that there is not a word to let owners of all the current BD hardware that they will not be able to use this
  (you simply don't have blue lasers able to read 8 layers).
  
  It's just so typical of the BD propaganda.
  It's not like these claims have not been made before (hmmm, typical spin tactic, repeatedly reannounce previous announcenments).
  This is for the berks who go in for that ludicrous spec-sheet flag-waving but don't like to engage their brains to know too much about the subject.
  
  All the fanboys will now coo and twitter about a spec & a 'capability' they do not actually have and that they never will actually have - unless they shell out very very large amounts of cash.
  
  Your PS3 will not be using 200gb media guys, get over it.
  
  Notice also that there is also no mention of the outrageous likely cost of this media (even if it does ever see the light of day).
  
  I suggest people look into the difficulty they have had getting just the dual layer 50gb media in satisfactory mass-production (with tales still of low yields and high costs) & to market
  and look at just how much dual layer 50gb discs are (if you can find them anywhere for sale)......
  
  ...... before they get too over-excited about something that will be extremely expensive and that they will not even be able to use without some new and extremely expensive hardware.
  
  The fact is that both BD & HD DVD were originally designed to go to 3 layers.
  In theory they can both go to ten.
  
  I do not expect to see anything beyond 3 on regular commercial sale.
  
  If anything beyond that appears it is most likely to be very expensive short-run production media being used on even more limited-run and even more expensive production hardware for professional data storage only.
  
  SD DVD could in theory go beyong 2 layers too but no-one ever saw it in the regular market.
  Ultimate theoretical capacity is not the 'be-all and end-all' in this.

  19.5.2007 02:39 #5

• borhan9

  I understand that we can fit one drive as big as 200 but what else are we going to do with this disc. Pretty huge.

  19.5.2007 03:55 #6

• hughjars

  Originally posted by borhan9:I understand that we can fit one drive as big as 200 but what else are we going to do with this disc. Pretty huge. - What drive?
  
  This stuff is not out of the lab yet nevermind anywhere near actual mass-production.
  
  This is just corporate wang-waving - almost entirely aimed at the shallow-'thinking' inadequates who imagine it reflects well on them if they say they like it or will probably definitely buy it.

  19.5.2007 04:01 #7

• pigfister

  Originally posted by hughjars :
  This stuff is not out of the lab yet nevermind anywhere near actual mass-production.
  
  This is just corporate wang-waving - almost entirely aimed at the shallow-'thinking' inadequates who imagine it reflects well on them if they say they like it or will probably definitely buy it./agree, and the point of that it will not be compatible with current hardware. its just more spin and piffle that all sides do to dupe the public! SPIN
  

  
  
  "In a world of universal deceipt, telling the truth ia a revolutionary act." George Orwell 1984
  
  Tor: anonymity on-line STOP the spying! http://tor.eff.org/
  
  

  19.5.2007 05:23 #8

• borhan9

  What i mean as drive is we can use these disc too back up a Hard Drive that is at the most 200gigs.

  19.5.2007 09:35 #9

• hughjars

  Originally posted by borhan9:What i mean as drive is we can use these disc too back up a Hard Drive that is at the most 200gigs. - Well if they ever arrive and you have the hardware to use them (which is currently not available) then yes that would be true.
  
  But you'd undoubtedly find it far cheaper to just use even bigger HDDs (nice portable USB2 ones too) to do the same task.

  19.5.2007 10:28 #10

• sukhvail

  Although I doubt that it would ever go to mass production, it would be perfect for tv seasons- 1 season is around 24 eps and is approximately 44 mins long, which totals 1056 mins of video. If a typical HD movie is 20gb per 2hrs, you're looking at something around 176gb, so it would be perfect for a season of tv.

  19.5.2007 12:31 #11

• NexGen76

  Originally posted by sukhvail:Although I doubt that it would ever go to mass production, it would be perfect for tv seasons- 1 season is around 24 eps and is approximately 44 mins long, which totals 1056 mins of video. If a typical HD movie is 20gb per 2hrs, you're looking at something around 176gb, so it would be perfect for a season of tvThat would be good to see a season series or more on one disc.

  19.5.2007 13:43 #12

• scott2k7

  to much money though probs around £60 for one so dont scratch or mess at all and but then u gotta buy the player how big will these disks be in size bigger than a normal disk (thickness not 200gb)???

  19.5.2007 13:49 #13

• ivymike

  Originally posted by ThaJazz:for what do anybody need this.Useful in backup data storage. Figure that MOST people use a 160 Gb HDD or less or a series of seperate HDD's.

  19.5.2007 17:47 #14

• pigfister

  tape is cheap and reliable and has huge storage capabilities, i cant see many companies shilling out for this for data backups.
  

  
  
  "In a world of universal deceipt, telling the truth ia a revolutionary act." George Orwell 1984
  
  Tor: anonymity on-line STOP the spying! http://tor.eff.org/
  
  

  20.5.2007 04:10 #15

• scott2k7

  thinkin about it i need a new hard drive cos mi laptop has 80gb and i only got 20 left when i get XSATA for my 360 im gunna use that as a hard drive

  20.5.2007 05:59 #16

• Unfocused

  That is a lot of data. I'm still waiting for the price to come down on blank DL DVD's. I don't even want to think about the price of this.
  
  It is hard enough to organize enough data to fit onto a DVD in a format that will make sense to me later. Short of doing HDD backups, this really doesn't have a practical use in the home PC consumer market. By 2009, it will probably be around $50 for a 2TB HDD anyway.

  21.5.2007 18:42 #17

• scott2k7

  exactly and also you dont have to have a program to move stuff onto it

  22.5.2007 06:56 #18

• RDrr

  When they're available, when the price comes down to reasonable levels... people will fill these disks with audio and video, for sure.
  There's a 'law' that says "no matter how much storage space you have, your need/content will expand to fill it"... that eventually comes true. Movies, tv, music, music videos... every home will need terabytes of storage... especially with High-Defn. And it's nice to be able to fit 'collections' on one disc... and not multiple. Tape sux for home use, always has, always will...

  13.9.2007 18:33 #19