AfterDawn: News

Sony, Panasonic building optical discs with 300GB capacity

Showing a strong belief that consumers still care about optical media, Sony and Panasonic have begun jointly developing a next-generation optical disc that can store, at minimum, 300GB.

The companies hope to have the disc available by 2015.



Both companies agree the discs will be marketed, at least initially, to professional industries that move large amounts of data, including high-definition film.

There could also be some consumer interest, if the price is right, being able to backup your entire life to one disc rather than the cloud or multiple flashdrives.

Last year, Sony introduced its optical disc archive system, housing "twelve optical discs within a compact cartridge as a single, high-capacity storage solution. Each disc within the cartridge holds 25GB capacity, offering a total range of storage capacities from 300GB to 1.5TB." The new discs could theoretically offer more than 300GB into the future, as well.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 30 Jul 2013 8:59

• Previous article

• iOS 7 beta 4 includes references to biometrics, fingerprint scanner

• Next article

• Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding campaign not likely to hit target at current pace

• 12 comments

• Interestx

  Put me in the 'I'll believe it when I see it in the shops worldwide - and not just a small release in Japan' camp.
  
  After the costly undertaking that has been Blu-ray I don't see anyone leaping to do it all over again, and certainly not now fibre is spreading across the western world along with a whole fibre TV infrastructure that is being planned in many countries.
  
  Blu-ray promised the studios so much security and has failed on every single release to date.
  
  The underlying problem is disc sales are down & Blu-ray has done nothing to halt that slide.
  I doubt too many will listen to that sort of come-on again.
  

  30.7.2013 13:55 #1

• hearme0

  Oh man I agree with ya Interestx!
  
  And I would imagine ANYONE would be totally down with 'optical media' if it was worth while. DVD-R..........AREN'T, and 25GB blu-rays..........AREN'T.
  
  300GB.........now that's a different story. Couple of those and I can back up some seriously critical data and even an image of my HDD so bring it on!!

  30.7.2013 16:23 #2

• Mrguss

  Good tech for 4K movies that required 100GB+
  

  +5000

  30.7.2013 20:40 #3

• xnonsuchx

  For movies worth have the most pristine copy and viewing experience of, I'm all for whatever technology provides it. Even though Netflix and other sites offer 1080p streamed movies, it's noticeably far less quality than an actual Blu-ray. Most people probably don't care enough about quality to complain about that, but many do and they will always be at least a niche market probably worthy of catering to (since they are willing to pay rather than bitch about everything not being free).

  31.7.2013 03:52 #4

• Interestx

  Originally posted by xnonsuchx: many do and they will always be at least a niche market probably worthy of catering to. That's the point tho, a niche market, this is never going to be for the mass market, cheap & ubiquitous like DVD - or even the large niche Blu-ray has.
  
  The idea that it will be useful in areas without good net is dubious to me, because it assumes that those areas will have a worthwhile number 4k TVs demanding it.
  I just don't see that.
  
  I just don't see it having enough appeal for anyone to bother much with it, from a manufacturing or studio POV.
  Niche in the extreme at best I think.
  
  It's also (assuming it does happen) going to come to a (western & high tech asian, at least) world where fibre 1080p, 2k & 4k services are planned - & actually being rolled out now in places.
  
  Netflix might not float your boat but I have a fibre connection supplying HD TV and it is very good.
  That is just going to become more & more common.
  

  31.7.2013 10:07 #5

• Qliphah

  Within the next 2 years I agree, but looking forward we will need every increasing disc space for 4k movies and eventually the games that will inexplicably grow larger every year (15Gb for bioshock infinite!)
  

  31.7.2013 11:20 #6

• Interestx

  A British newspaper reported this about the news -
  
  Quote:However, Sony has said that the new medium will be aimed at the professional market, catering to companies and organizations “with the objective of expanding their archive business for long-term digital data storage.” I wouldn't get too excited that it'll be coming our way any time soon.
  

  31.7.2013 13:37 #7

• bhetrick

  Originally posted by Interestx: The idea that it will be useful in areas without good net is dubious to me, because it assumes that those areas will have a worthwhile number 4k TVs demanding it.
  I just don't see that.
  It doesn't seem like the need would be focused for those in "rural" areas.
  
  In one hand we already have 4k sets rolling off the assemble line, and in the other hand we have isps clamping down their bandwidth limits more and more.
  
  It seems quite clear that blue ray media just is not going to cut it pretty soon.
  
  

  31.7.2013 15:40 #8

• Interestx

  Read what the Sony guy said, this isn't going to be a consumer product, its for professional archiving.
  
  Fibre is growing fast, here in the UK it is often sold as 'genuinely unlimited' too.
  Fibre HD TV will spread rapidly with it - it's the way 4k can be 'broadcast' as the bandwidth required make normal broadcasting unlikely in the extreme.
  
  With a fibre network those caps stop meaning much to anyone....save in the short term as (some) service providers milk the last out of the notion.
  
  I wouldn't hold much hope of the CE producers or the studios wanting to get into another optical disc.
  
  Like the Sony quote shows they are not talking about a new CE product.
  

  31.7.2013 21:16 #9

• Bozobub

  The comments here strongly remind me of a time, years ago, when I was describing an IBM PC XT with 640 KB + 2 MB RAM and a 40 MB hard drive to someone; yes, I mean KB and MB. He asked me, "Why would you ever want that much space?"
  
  You're going to need the storage, people. Count on it. This tech is actually a bit slow coming, and is barely in time for the next data 'splosion.

  31.7.2013 22:44 #10

• oneguy

  Sony is so retarded. No one gives a fuck about discs anymore. They should just sell flash drives. Dvd players, Blu ray players and even smart tv's have usb ports to plug n play media. You can already buy a 32gb flash drive for the price of a new blu ray movie and prices on flash drives are still going down. I used to back up media on discs but now hard drives are so cheap I can have more movies stored on a tb hard drive and it be cheaper than it would be to burn all that data on discs that I would end up buying binders for.

  1.8.2013 16:22 #11

• voyager

  "Oh no"! mechanical devices again? Where's the holographic card?
  I read that is the true future,no mechanical parts.

  2.8.2013 19:58 #12