Pioneer shows off 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, affirms compatibility with current players

[xtop]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/p...rms-compatibi/

When Pioneer first introduced its unicorn-like 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, we weren't sure if the thing would make it beyond the drawing board, let alone be compatible with existing BD decks. Over at the IT Month Fair in Taipei, Pioneer showed up to showcase the capacious disc, and better still, a DigiTimes report asserts that these are indeed compatible with Blu-ray readers already on the market. Currently, the 400GB disc is slated to hit mass production sometime between now and 2010, while rewritable versions won't hit until 2010 to 2012. Not like it really matters though -- a 1TB disc is on track for 2013, and you know you'll be waiting for the latest and greatest.

[cathexist]

...holy crap

[Leopold BUTTERS]

nice..LOTR all on one disc all extended lol, they could do LOTR and the 2 hobbit movies. And tv shows all on one disc for the entire season. This is cool.

[ADRiiAN`]

Aw you beat me too it.
But damn 400GB!
That's a lot of HD!

[quexos]

So is this for video too or just for data storage as I've heard many say ?
If it's just data storage I am not interested. If it can play video, why don't they bring quad-layer discs to market first now and those 16 layered discs by 2010 ?

[tron3]

There is something to be said about not putting all your eggs in one basket. That many layer changes are sure to create play back issues. Better get cracking on the firmware, people.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by quexos

So is this for video too or just for data storage as I've heard many say ?
If it's just data storage I am not interested. If it can play video, why don't they bring quad-layer discs to market first now and those 16 layered discs by 2010 ?

well i remember hearing they'd never us anything more than 50gb for movies..so who knows if that still holds true or not

[xtop]

Originally Posted by Leopold BUTTERS

nice..LOTR all on one disc all extended lol, they could do LOTR and the 2 hobbit movies. And tv shows all on one disc for the entire season. This is cool.

400gb isnt even enough for uncompressed tho!

[Leopold BUTTERS]

Originally Posted by xtop

400gb isnt even enough for uncompressed tho!

uncompressed video? I am confused.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by Leopold BUTTERS

uncompressed video? I am confused.

yeah..all those video codecs out there are compressing the video!

[Blu Titan]

Funny story about this. I received an e-mail from a co-worker titled "Blu-ray already obsolete?", and after opening it the information and link to the 400GB
Pioneer disc was enclosed. Apparently, he believed that this was a new movie format to replace Blu-ray. I obviously explained the whole issue, and then I was blown away when he said, "yeah, but this information is about an optical disc and Blu-ray is not optical...is it?"

[chriharr]

Originally Posted by Leopold BUTTERS

uncompressed video? I am confused.

well it's a digital format so naturally there is compression somewhere.

DVD encodes from 1996 till this day have been transcoded from a 1080p source capture of the original film print, modern films are now captured from film in 4 & 8 k resolutions and encoded into 1080p resolution for Blu-ray, the sky is the limit for resolution, as for audio, well blu-ray gets the same or better treatment as the cinema, it can't get much better for sound, but picture will always improve as time goes on.

Originally Posted by tron3

There is something to be said about not putting all your eggs in one basket. That many layer changes are sure to create play back issues. Better get cracking on the firmware, people.

I could imagine even medium scratches on a BD could render some content redundant.

the less layers the better, the bigger something gets, the more technical faults can occur.

it can be said about anything not just Electrical Appliances

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by xtop

400gb isnt even enough for uncompressed tho!

Warner is too cheap to use a 400GB Blu-Ray anyhow. With how cheap Warner seems at times, I could see them spreading each of the LOTR movies over 6 BR-25 discs.

[AlexKx]

This is a true and concerning fact...what if you have one of these discs scratched or ruined in some way? THEN what, huh? Of course I do understand that Blu-Ray discs are supposedly far more stronger with its so called coated protection where you could supposedly take a screw driver to it and it would not scratch. But never say never. Some people also pointed out and I remember this that back in the 1980's it was thought that c.d.s were not scratchable at least to some degree. I suppose there was SOME truth to that in comparison to vinyl records. Hence why I do NOT play my vinyl records AT ALL! Lol!

With that said I can't STAND hearing people ask what the point of this is when there are endless movie serieses (I swear I've never learned how to spell or say that word) and t.v. shows as well as all the bonus features that go on for hours and hours and hours. I for one would like to know how and why I have been so mislead by people here the last couple of years saying that this was NOT what Blu-Ray was for when in fact since the year 2000 I have known that it was (aside from high definition).

[Midnightsailor]

Originally Posted by caliminius

Warner is too cheap to use a 400GB Blu-Ray anyhow. With how cheap Warner seems at times, I could see them spreading each of the LOTR movies over 6 BR-25 discs.

I imagine LOTR on Blu-ray will be perfect.

[chriharr]

Originally Posted by caliminius

Warner is too cheap to use a 400GB Blu-Ray anyhow. With how cheap Warner seems at times, I could see them spreading each of the LOTR movies over 6 BR-25 discs.

this is just biased nonsense Warner does not do this with every release and does not need to make every blu-ray dual layered, different movies rely on different encoding bit rates, it depends on a number of things, it's all optimized for a quality release at the end of the day.

20th Century Fox has released just as many movies on BD-25 discs as Warner and no one knit picks with them.

Originally Posted by joelslaw

I tried to start a new thread with this (it's a tad off topic) but because I'm a new member I couldn't, so I hope you don't mind if I post it in this thread:

That article got me thinking about how much less compression you could use, and in fact, would you even need it?

Well according to this calculator, yes. Uncompressed 1080p25 would get to big to fast. You couldn't fit a whole movie.

However, I then started wondering if there are lossless video codecs. Turns out there are. One I looked into, "MSU Lossless Video Codec", claims a compression ratio of anywhere from 3 to 9 on some video (look at the codec comparison in that link).

Obviously you couldn't use that codec on a BD because it is not in the spec, but could a lossless version of H264, or VC-1 be made, that would be compatible with BD?

If so, you could have a BD with lossless video and audio!!! Goodbye compression artifacts!

What do you guys think? You think we'll ever see anything like this?

I don't think this would ever happen for a consumer product, you see having an uncompressed video file would result in a movie being a few Terabytes etc. that kind of storage is too expensive and unnecessary for a consumer product, if it was introduced the cinema would collapse as the home entertainment business can out do it in quality and experience.

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by xtop

Not like it really matters though -- a 1TB disc is on track for 2013, and you know you'll be waiting for the latest and greatest.

I'm speechless.

So would this allow for movies to be encoded to support x.y. color? (10 bit)

[Blackraven]

Crazy shit

I'd never even imagine that we'd break 200 GB (using existing 25-GB per layer technology). Pretty sick indeed.

That said though, if they EVER release the LOTR Trilogy Extended Editions ON ONE DISC, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Of course, if they released it as individual discs, then I'd buy it of course.............yet if they put everything on one disc, then I'd buy that as well.

*Assuming that they use 50 GB individual discs x 3 movies = 150 GB. Then if they want to use 50 GB discs for the bonus features/extras/etc. x 3 films = 150 GB.

It would still fit hahaha :lol: :P

/*Also assuming that they use 1080p with the H.264/MPEG-4 codec along with HD compressed and uncompressed audio (Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD-MA, LPCM).....and whatever stuff they can put and think of atm. :P

[supersix4]

hmm I bet digital download people are waiting to hear how dd's will match this lmao




awsome news!

[Marquoz]

Originally Posted by supersix4

hmm I bet digital download people are waiting to hear how dd's will match this lmao




awsome news!

They will give them access to download entire archive at once buttons.