Holographic discs...around the corner?

[donaldheil]

This was published today by the BBC:


Optical disc offers 500GB storage


A disc that can store 500 gigabytes (GB) of data, equivalent to 100 DVDs, has been unveiled by General Electric.

The micro-holographic disc, which is the same size as existing DVD discs, is aimed at the archive industry.

But the company believes it can eventually be used in the consumer market place and home players.

Blu-ray discs, which are used to store high definition movies and games, can currently hold between 25GB and 50GB.

Micro-holographic discs can store more data than DVDs or Blu-ray because they store information on the disc in three dimensions, rather than just pits on the surface of the disc


The challenge for this area of technology has been to increase the reflectivity of the holograms that are stored on the discs so that players can be used to both read and write to the discs.

Brian Lawrence, who leads GE's Holographic Storage said on the GE Research blog: "Very recently, the team at GE has made dramatic improvements in the materials enabling significant increases in the amount of light that can be reflected by the holograms."

The higher reflectivity that can be achieved, the more capacity for the disc. While the technology is still in the laboratory stage, GE believes it will take off because players can be built which are backwards compatible with existing DVD and Blu-ray technologies.

In a statement the firm said: "The hardware and formats are so similar to current optical storage technology that the micro-holographic players will enable consumers to play back their CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs."

''GE's breakthrough is a huge step toward bringing our next generation holographic storage technology to the everyday consumer,'' said Mr Lawrence in a statement.

He added: "The day when you can store your entire high definition movie collection on one disc and support high resolution formats like 3D television is closer than you think.''

Micro-holographic technology has been one of the leading areas of research for storage experts for decades. Discs are seen as a reliable and effective form of storage and are both consumer and retail friendly.

However, General Electric will need to work with hardware manufacturers if it is to bring the technology to the consumer market.

The relatively modest adoption of Blu-ray discs sales globally might be an issue with some companies who believe digital distribution and cloud computing is the long-term answer to content delivery and storage.

"This is truly a breakthrough in the development of the materials that are so critical to ultimately bringing holographic storage to the everyday consumer," said Mr Lawrence.

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8021012.stm

Well, just so you get informed. "The technology is still in the laboratory stage" they say. So it may be same old news yet. But they're still talking about it...

[jadedeath]

Until I see, players, burners, in-computer disk drives, etc. etc. etc. even remotely cost efficient all this holographic nonsense talk is just vaporware.

Logan

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

Until I see, players, burners, in-computer disk drives, etc. etc. etc. even remotely cost efficient all this holographic nonsense talk is just vaporware.

Logan

Everything is vaproware early in it's existence. Blu-ray was once vapor ware too.

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

Everything is vaproware early in it's existence. Blu-ray was once vapor ware too.

Yes, but that was at least 5 years ago. {I first heard about it and the possible format war about 7ish years ago}

So it depends on your definition of 'right around the corner'

Logan

[Grumpz]

Just one potential change in media that made my blu-ray longjevity thread valid.................

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

Yes, but that was at least 5 years ago. {I first heard about it and the possible format war about 7ish years ago}

So it depends on your definition of 'right around the corner'

Logan

Duke Nukem has been right around the corner for over a decade now

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by mikejet

Duke Nukem has been right around the corner for over a decade now

So has "Starcraft: Ghost" so I'm not holding my breath.

Logan

[PH3AR]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

So has "Starcraft: Ghost" so I'm not holding my breath.

Logan

that game was supposed to come out years ago and still waiting...

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by PH3AR

that game was supposed to come out years ago and still waiting...

They put it on hold to develop WoW {or some other franchise} and by the time they could spare the man hours to go back to it, the graphics were stupidly out of date.

Logan

[Anthony P]

Everything is vaproware early in it's existence. Blu-ray was once vapor ware too.

the BIG difference is that this is just companies looking for $$. In 2005 inphase was supposed to release 200GB product, in 2006 it was Maxell with 300GB, now this one is not talking about releasing product (especialy for movies) any time soon (with a date) but come on some things are more vapourware then others. Ever since I have been a member here some guy reads these "rosy" articles trying to raise venture capital and all of a sudden we are all supposed to forget we have brains and conclude BD is on its death bed.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have this be real and we can get our movies on 500GB disks (with 500mbps) used to its full potential. But in the end some sobriety is not a bad thing.

[OrlandoEastwood]

It's like; "Damn it, I just switched to Blu-Ray four months ago and all this BS comes out about bigger sized discs."

[SellmeyourDVD]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

It's like; "Damn it, I just switched to Blu-Ray four months ago and all this BS comes out about bigger sized discs."

This has been talked about and known for a while. These discs will eventually be able to hold 3.9 terabytes of info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

[Grumpz]

Haha, already another format war!

"Competing technologies
HVD is not the only technology in high-capacity, optical storage media. InPhase Technologies is developing a rival holographic format called Tapestry Media, which they claim will eventually store 1.6 TB with a data transfer rate of 120 MB/s, and several companies are developing TB-level discs based on 3D optical data storage technology. Such large optical storage capacities compete favorably with the Blu-ray Disc format. However, holographic drives are projected to initially cost around US$15,000, and a single disc around US$120–180, although prices are expected to fall steadily.[4] The market for this format is not initially the common consumer, but enterprises with very large storage needs"

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

Everything is vaproware early in it's existence. Blu-ray was once vapor ware too.

Holgraphic discs were about to be released since 2006.

Something in development (OLED, laser TV) where you see actual product is a lot different from things like HVD and SED which (were/have been) talked about being imminent and yet have never been commercially released.

Gary

[Anthony P]

Haha, already another format war!

what format war, read the article, even though people tend to bring it as an example of the next BD killer. Getting movies on it is the one thing that is never said by anyone working on it. It cannot be replicated, only burned, this means it is useless for movie distribution (unless you log in on-line pick the 10-15 movies you want, submit it and then go to the store a few days later and pick up your collection on one disk- then again how many buy tyheir movies in those numbers regularly)

[Grumpz]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

what format war, read the article, even though people tend to bring it as an example of the next BD killer. Getting movies on it is the one thing that is never said by anyone working on it. It cannot be replicated, only burned, this means it is useless for movie distribution (unless you log in on-line pick the 10-15 movies you want, submit it and then go to the store a few days later and pick up your collection on one disk- then again how many buy tyheir movies in those numbers regularly)

Nonono, read the blurb underneath the quote.

There's 2 holographic disks getting ready to fight it out!

[Anthony P]

Nonono, read the blurb underneath the quote.

There's 2 holographic disks getting ready to fight it out!

there are 0. Since 2005 there have been companies saying they are ready to launch (or working on it). Search for Inphase, they promised 200GB disks and burners in 2005 , Maxell 300GB disks in 2006, now there is talk of 500GB disks. Even if one day someone launches HVD, it won't be for movie distribution and that is the issue, it is for archiving HDDs and the issue is that they are too small for that and way too expensive (large companies will have TBs of storage and most likely tapes are fast enough, and for home the 10k+ for the burner and 100$+ disk does not make sense when you can buy an HDD for much cheaper.

This bis just different companies trying to get TBs to work so that it can be useful for archiving and backups.

Also for CD/DVD/HD DVD/BD the info is in two dimensions (X-Y plane/layers) so they are replicated in flat layers. HVD is in three dimensions, and no one is even near finding a way to replicate it. Studios don't want expensive disks that take minutes, if not hours, to burn the content on them. Show me where the guy from GE says that they will launch this soon for movies? it is no where because they know neither of the parts (soon or movies) is for real.

[Marcusarilius]

I'm confused. Are the disks Holograms?

[[1080-p]]

http://colossalstorage.net/colossal5.htm

holographic storage
http://www.hidefster.com/HDTV_blog/?cat=74

[[1080-p]]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

It's like; "Damn it, I just switched to Blu-Ray four months ago and all this BS comes out about bigger sized discs."

like this one http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...ucts-developed

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/...the-market.ars