Could the future be in 3" media?

[tron3]

The 4-¾" disc format has been with us a long time. Long before CD & DVD, this is the typical size of the media found in 5-¼" floppy discs, and the platter size in all modern hard drives. No doubt about it, this small flat disc has met ever growing demands of technology and the consumer.

Look inside every disc tray in your home. CD players, PC CD-ROM, DVD players, HD DVD and blu-ray players and you see the same thing... that 3" recession made for reading (ta da!) 3" mini disc.

Sure, the capacity suffers, but let's presume a single layer 3" BD holds 15gb. Therefore, a mini-BD DL holds 30GB. Yes, I know these are HD DVD capacities. BD has been trumped up to higher levels, which means we could see mini-BD40. Of course, these are all estimations unless we have real numbers to draw from.

Further more, even if we do not see a BD100 (4 layers), maybe we could see a BD75 (3 layers). 3 layers in mini-BD could easily give us 50 to 60 GB. Which is PLENTY for the current movie offerings we now see.

Ok, you are asking, why change AGAIN? Technically, we don't change again. Either disc is still compatible with our blu-ray players. Barring the question of firmware being able to update our exisiting players to play these small wonders - let's press on.

Ok, why 3" disc? What makes it better? Portability. Blu-ray has the potential of providing home theater quality movies in a smaller format. Smaller discs usually means less production cost. But here is the killer app that makes it worth while. Portable blu-ray players! Take the smallest CD/DVD player you have ever seen. Can you slip it in your pocket? No. Can you hold it in one hand? Not easily.

Some people say the future is in optical. With a terrabyte or more of space, that could be a threat to blu-ray within 10 years. With that kind of storage capacity a 3" disc might hold 250 GB. Isn't THAT enough to hold movies, lossless audio, and HD extra's?

Call me crazy, call me a visionary. But I see 3" being the future of home theater media. Even with the prolific expansion of high speed downloading, there will always be a market for hard media - always.