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

[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

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by xtop

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

They replicate movie discs (manufacture the disc and stamp the content onto it). This is a recordable, which would mean a studio would have to duplicate to use it.

I would have never expected any major commercial duplication (some small run DVDs are duplicated), but then Sony went ahead and announced those CD(-R)s which are burned with a blue-violet laser to reduce jitter (coughing ... BS ... coughing) so who knows.

Gary

[AlexKx]

THIS is what I understood was what Blu-Ray was suppose to be able to do and was one of the MAJOR points of this format!!!!! THIS is what and why I have been waiting and paying attention to this new format since the year 2000 THREE years after d.v.d.s came out. Back when it was called "Multi-Versatile Disc" and being developed by independant people from half a dozen different places on Earth.

I was told my numerous people...if not everyone here for that last couple of years of how stupid I was and out of touch and such a fool for thinking that one of if not THE reason Blu-Ray discs were to be the next format was because of the incredible storage space in terms of how many hours could be put on one disc. I had always understood that one of the MAIN reasons of switching to this format was that they would be able to increase the storage size over time...and in the NEAR future AND keeping this same format so that it would not even have to get a new player! I pray to God that this happens as well as the music industry adapting this new format the sooner the better.

[Anthony P]

this is cool, on the other hand if it ever shows up (or anything beyond 50GB) I have no idea. On the other hand capacity is not the only metric and unless they increase the bitrate it is relatively useless for movies in my opinion. After all who wants 8-10 movies on one disk (not that I would complain if it happened but how many 10 movie sets are there)?

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by AlexKx

I pray to God that this happens as well as the music industry adapting this new format the sooner the better.

Try praying to the BDA instead.

[kefrank]

Originally Posted by AlexKx

THIS is what I understood was what Blu-Ray was suppose to be able to do and was one of the MAJOR points of this format!!!!! THIS is what and why I have been waiting and paying attention to this new format since the year 2000 THREE years after d.v.d.s came out. Back when it was called "Multi-Versatile Disc" and being developed by independant people from half a dozen different places on Earth.

I was told my numerous people...if not everyone here for that last couple of years of how stupid I was and out of touch and such a fool for thinking that one of if not THE reason Blu-Ray discs were to be the next format was because of the incredible storage space in terms of how many hours could be put on one disc. I had always understood that one of the MAIN reasons of switching to this format was that they would be able to increase the storage size over time...and in the NEAR future AND keeping this same format so that it would not even have to get a new player! I pray to God that this happens as well as the music industry adapting this new format the sooner the better.

I'm afraid your understanding was still flawed. These discs will never be pressed with studio content. Here's what Pioneer has stated, per McBain's links:

"This is a technology exhibit only, and is not being proposed as a candidate for addition to the Blu-ray Disc format at this time. Current BD players and drives would not be able to play/read these discs. Current Blu-ray optical pickup designs could be utilized in new players/drives designed to read these discs. At present, this is a read-only technology. Recordable versions could eventually be possible."

[amillians]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

This is a recordable, which would mean a studio would have to duplicate to use it.

Pioneer's 16/20 layer discs are indeed ROMs.

As some have noted, the replication challenges presented by this new disc format are formidable (e.g., different materials, stacked heterogeneous spacer layers between data layers, etc.) and will almost certainly limit its application to ISOM/ODS events.

As an aside, Pioneer never said these discs were (backwards) compatible with BD-ROM. Pioneer said maintaining compatibility is possible, based on the shared lens specs. The interwebs got a bit carried away with the story, neglecting to note that the readout demo utilized a hardware/firmware modified current gen deck.

EDIT: PR link added for veracity: http://pioneer.jp/press-e/2008/0707-1.html

[Anthony P]

Flash memory is never going to get to the low price levels in cost per GB as optical discs. It's always going to be cheaper to replicate discs on a massive scale than sell movies stored on flash based media.

yup, much much more, but this is what happens guy looks at large USB stick that costs less then an expensive BD movie and says "wow one day it will be solid state" and misses that it will never be cheaper then 1$ (which it would need to be interesting) and since the data would need to be DL later the time to fill up that data to the drive would cost a lot, while disk replication creates the data and disk at the same time. That is why duplication (DVD-R) is much more expensive and only for small numbers.

[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?"

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

Funny story about this.

Your co-worker better not be a scientist or an engineer.

The BDA could use these 400/500GB discs and increase the read bandwidth so that it can be used with BD3D for true 1080p video.


fuad

[ixlegitballinxl]

good news, I wonder what source they will choose to showcase this?

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Your co-worker better not be a scientist or an engineer.

The BDA could use these 400/500GB discs and increase the read bandwidth so that it can be used with BD3D for true 1080p video.


fuad

We work in accounting...

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by BluRayExplosion

Anyway, I was thinking the other day that BD might get overtaken by solid state chips pretty soon (price of flash memory is PLUMMETING), but with these new developments it might be an interesting fight. Capacity vs. speed.

Flash memory is never going to get to the low price levels in cost per GB as optical discs. It's always going to be cheaper to replicate discs on a massive scale than sell movies stored on flash based media.