Pioneer Increases Disc Size to 500GB

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About a month ago, Pioneer announced that they had developed a 400GB Blu-ray Disc. Not satisfied that they had exhausted all avenues, they continued developed and found a way to add four additional layers, bringing the total disc capacity to 500GB. As with the 400GB version, the disc is compatible with current Blu-ray drives found in computers, players, and recorders.

Brendan Sheridan, Pioneer Multimedia Division Product Manager, commented, "While Blu-ray discs (BD), offering both 25GB and 50GB, are sufficient for users' current demands, we envision the need for a technology that can support far greater capacities as HD streaming in particular becomes commonplace and users build larger files of digital content. The multi-layered method is compatible with Blu-ray devices providing a long term future for the technology and is more easily produced when compared to competing technologies such as holographic storage."

Currently the disc only exists as an experiment, but Pioneer is working with the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) to make the method a standard of the format. It is expected - if approved - it will take between two and four years for the discs to hit the open market.

How much could something like this cost, and could this be a great replacement for multiple disc releases like TV shows such as Law & Order: SVU that would probably be about 4-5 discs?