These disks are too big

[adsilcott]

Have you ever tried to put a portable disk player in your pocket?
What about new portable technologies? http://www.oqo.com/
Now matter how small they can make the components, these disks will always be the one missing feature simply because of their physical size.

I think any next generation optical disk format should take this into account. Otherwise the eventual demand for high data storage in a format compatible with portable devices will have to lead to yet another standard.

Of course smaller disks can be made, but as long as the -standard- size is too big, you will never be able to, for example, play a store bought video disk on a pocket size device. If a Blu-ray dual-layer disk can store -more- than four hours of HDTV, then how much smaller could a disk that stores two hours of HDTV be? It doesn't have to be that much smaller to be a lot more convenient. I would estimate that a 95mm or 3 3/4 “ disk would have plenty of storage capacity. And with additional layers, the disk space extends so far beyond our current needs, that it makes more sense to use the innovation to make the medium more convenient rather than adding excessive storage capacity.

Many people go through the hassle of ripping music CDs just to get their music in a more portable medium. With a new standard comes an opportunity to fix problems with previous formats. The whole idea of optical disks is to be able to convey data in a physical form. I find it disappointing that such forward looking formats are not considering the future requirements of that physical form.