Next Generation Technology Closer than One Thinks?

[J_UNTITLED]

From IMDb.com...

General Electric's GE Global Research unit announced that it has developed the next generation in laser disc technology that will allow storage of 500 gigabytes of information on a single disc -- or the equivalent of 20 high-definition Blu-ray discs or 100 DVDs. The disc, which GE describes as micro-holographic, makes use of the entire thickness of the disc rather than merely the surface. "The day when you can store your entire high-definition movie collection on one disc and support high-resolution formats like 3-D television is closer than you think," said Brian Lawrence, head of the company's holographic storage program. GE said that it is working on a way to store more than twice the amount of data on the micro-holographic discs. In addition, it said that players for the discs will be backwards compatible -- that is, also able to play standard CD, DVD, and Blu-ray discs.

[DVDave]

And The Digital Bits responded. This is only good for IT data storage archiving, not the consumer home video market. It's a non-issue.

http://thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

[Terjyn]

"The day when you can store your entire high-definition movie collection on one disc

I didn't know that my entire high-definition movie collection would be limited to 10 BD50s! Guess I'll have to get rid of a bunch of Blu-Rays.

[tvine2000]

even if it stores that much data,does anybody think the studio's are going to put like 5 or 6 movies on one disc?
guess what its not going to happen,stop dreamimg.the home video market is about making money!

[davcole]

That storage would be great for downloadable films you could load to your computer and burn to a disc. Imagine having multiple films on one disc. That's the only way I could see it taking away from BD.

[blu1183]

remember how expensive blank blu ray discs were when they first came out...good luck tryin to get these discs to catch on to the consumers.

[dvcmember]

I recently attempted a complete backup of my PC. Nero's Back-it-up software estimated that it would take about 11 blu-ray discs; so much for a complete backup. I think GE's technology has a place for IT Users that don't want to use external hard drives for backups.

[kefrank]

search is your friend. this is at least the third thread on this subject. i suspect this will get moved to Off Topic with the rest of them.

[Anthony P]

third? at least twice that

[tron3]

Originally Posted by tvine2000

even if it stores that much data,does anybody think the studio's are going to put like 5 or 6 movies on one disc?
guess what its not going to happen,stop dreamimg.the home video market is about making money!

I have to agree because marketing understands people want a perceived value. Buying an entire season of a TV show on one disc may be conveinent, but do you see people paying 60 bucks for a TV season on one disc?

If anything, that kind of medium is grossly over qualified to do the job of blu-ray with existing resolutions. Seems fine for content greater than 1080p. In my opinion, 3-1/4" disc is plenty of storage space to do the job of blu-ray and more.

[marzetta7]

I'm one who also would love the convenience of an entire tv season on one Blu-ray disc. But, I certainly don't see the need to change technology...

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1616

This was back in August of '08. So, Blu-ray is quite capable of upping the storage capacity to 500 GB as well (and in some cases make it backward compatible with existing Blu-ray players). Whether it will see the light of day is another story.

[thegame]

If blu ray can't takeover dvds, how is this new so call technology going to takeover blu ray and dvds. I'll be honest it took me two years to jump on the blu ray wagon because it was a big upgrade from dvds. A new technology will have to be that same difference in picture quality and frankly i don't see anything that can possibly do that.

[w1llk]

I think you're all missing the potential here. A disc with that mush space allows compression free storage of 2k-4k resolution video (2k is slightly larger than 1080P HD, and 4k is Academy Standard 3626x2664 1.37:1 9.7 MP per frame). These discs could essentially hold IMAX movies and project pixel perfect detail on TV's beyond 60". This stuff makes 1080P look like NTSC 480P.

[LifeOfAPirate13]

Originally Posted by w1llk

I think you're all missing the potential here. A disc with that mush space allows compression free storage of 2k-4k resolution video (2k is slightly larger than 1080P HD, and 4k is Academy Standard 3626x2664 1.37:1 9.7 MP per frame). These discs could essentially hold IMAX movies and project pixel perfect detail on TV's beyond 60". This stuff makes 1080P look like NTSC 480P.

We won't know that until we see the final result. But the space is there for sure. But like others have been saying do you really think the movie companies want to consolidate more movies or series onto one disc? I highly doubt they would want to. They just want the green thats in your pocket!

[tron3]

Who said this Optical disc would ever really see the light of day as a consumer item? Sony's Beta remained a PROsumer item for years after VHS won the format war.

Not all great technologies have a market, and not all markets have great technology. -Tron3

[Anthony P]

I think you're all missing the potential here. A disc with that mush space allows compression free storage of 2k-4k resolution video (2k is slightly larger than 1080P HD, and 4k is Academy Standard 3626x2664 1.37:1 9.7 MP per frame). These discs could essentially hold IMAX movies and project pixel perfect detail on TV's beyond 60". This stuff makes 1080P look like NTSC 480P.

capacity is one thing (and at 500GB it is good enough for less then 1h of 1080p), but much more importantly you need the BW to be there and you need a way to make it manufacturable

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by w1llk

I think you're all missing the potential here. A disc with that mush space allows compression free storage of 2k-4k resolution video (2k is slightly larger than 1080P HD, and 4k is Academy Standard 3626x2664 1.37:1 9.7 MP per frame). These discs could essentially hold IMAX movies and project pixel perfect detail on TV's beyond 60". This stuff makes 1080P look like NTSC 480P.

To follow on what Anthony P said, 500 gig is not nearly enough for universal compression free 2k/4k.

500 Gig at 2K(1828x1332) would only hold 153 minutes of uncompressed video, and that's with no audio/overhead. It could hold most movies, but with no room for extras at all, and would fail to hold longer movies (No hope for LOTR without disc swapping).

4K is not even close, 500 gig is only 38 minutes of uncompressed 4K video.

On top of all of that it takes a lot more than a 60"+ screen to see 2K, you also would have to be sufficiently far away. For 99% of homes you get no advantage out of anything over 1080p. I'd much rather see a lossless video 1080p disc come out than a lossy 2K one, and I really hope the next standard goes the lossless 1080p route.

And of course this all ignores the bandwidth issue.

[Anthony P]

500 Gig at 2K(1828x1332) would only hold 153 minutes of uncompressed video, and that's with no audio/overhead.

no, I think you made two mistakes (looking at your 153) you are using GiB instead of GB and you forgot there are three colours (i.e. 8 bit/colour=24 bits/pixel). For 8 bit colour a 500GB disk would have 47.5 minutes before audio and other overhead and for 1080p 55 minutes

[Terjyn]

Yeah, I did forget to account for 3 bytes per pixels.

However, they never tell you if the numbers on these discs are 1000 per K or 1024 per K. It generally depends on who's designing them and for what, but you are right that usually they are trying to look bigger than they are so would go with 1000 per K.

Still, that makes the point even better. Giving the benefit of the doubt and a "bigger" 500 gig they still only get 51 minutes of video. No way.