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Pioneer develops 400GB Blu-ray compatible disc
16-layer disc maintains compatibility with Blu-ray and provides masses of storage space
Although a standard Blu-Ray disc might have enough storage space for an H.264 HD movie, Pioneer reckons that the 50GB you get on a dual-layer disc isn’t going to be enough to fulfil the storage needs of the future. The solution, according to Pioneer, is a new 16-layer optical disc that’s still completely Blu-ray compatible.
The company has just successfully developed a prototype of the disc, which features 16 25GB layers, making for a colossal total of 400GB on a single disc. Making discs with more than two layers has been problematic in the past because of interference and crosstalk between the layers, but Pioneer claims to have overcome this problem using a disc structure that’s specifically aimed at reducing crosstalk from adjacent layers. This, says Pioneer, results ‘in a 16-layer optical disc that can playback high-quality signals from every layer, and to prove its point the company has released eye patterns from three layers across the disc (see the pictures below).
As well as this, Pioneer says that the disc features a ‘wide-range spherical aberration compensator and light-receiving element,’ which is still able to pick up weak signals, even at a high signal-to-noise ratio. Although the disc isn’t officially a Blu-ray disc, Pioneer claims that it will still be compatible with existing Blu-ray drives. The company says that the numerical aperture of the lens needed to read the disc is the same as that needed on a Blu-ray player, so ‘it is possible to maintain compatibility between the new 16-layer optical disc and the BD [Blu-ray] discs.’
However, the disc developed so far is only read-only, and no mention has been made of writeable 16-layer discs yet. Even so, if the disc was properly developed, we don’t see why this couldn’t be possible in the future. What’s more, 400GB would allow huge movie files with hardly any compression needed. Standard Blu-ray discs contain 25GB, with 50GB on a dual-layer disc.
Could you use a 400GB disc to backup your data without resorting to stacks of discs? Let us know your thoughts.
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Pretty eye-pattern signal from differing layers. Wonderful images, they really show something don't they. I don't quite know what, but aren't they pretty?
Comment by luttman23 at 3:58pm 8th July 2008
... this magnitude of innovation and forward-thinking was present in the CPU and GPU sectors... nVidia could learn a lesson or two for Pioneer. Having said that, wow.
Comment by Ravenhex at 11:04am 8th July 2008
have a look at this page Holographic Versatile Disc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc its about a optical disk that will be able to hold 3.9TB of data and able to be read at 1 Gbit/s, granted they are a bit behind, but if they pull this one out of the hat, think about having a 3.9TB optical disk in your PC
Comment by zaphod54 at 10:39am 8th July 2008
Oh the seek times. Imagine how long they'd be on a disc that size.
Comment by Rkiver at 9:16am 8th July 2008
Hard drives will have to advance too to keep up enough space: Multiple terabyte solid state drives?
Comment by _Jonneh at 10:41pm 7th July 2008
it's great they've got a disc this size now. but even if the price was cheap as chips n' currysauce it just wouldn't be good to use this for backup. HDD's have a huge read-write lifespan which I've yet to see from an anything-RW
Comment by EdArch at 10:04pm 7th July 2008
Wasn't there talk of ultra high definition replacing HD a while ago? What size disc would be required to fit on one of those film?
Comment by l3v1ck at 9:53pm 7th July 2008
just think about when the government leaves one of these on the train!!... o OHHHhhh!!! :S
Comment by NikoBellic at 8:00pm 7th July 2008
Maybe now next gen consoles can have Ai AND graphics!
Comment by Nemiro at 6:04pm 7th July 2008
I'm currently using an external usb HDD for my WHS backup at the moment. These really would need to come right down in price and speed up some to make cost effective. Current RW 50GB are running at around £50 for 2. You can pick up a good 500GB external HDD for that. Of course, if the thing is plugged into your server permanently then a fire would loose everything, disc media can be taken away.
Comment by crazyceo at 4:10pm 7th July 2008
let's get back to the important issue here. Wouldn't it be really great to have "Girls of the Playboy Mansion" full series on just one BR? I don't seem to be drumming up any enthusiasm for this at all!
Comment by crazyceo at 4:09pm 7th July 2008
I personally wanted BR to win the Wars (against HD-DVD) because its larger capacity making it much more future proof!! - I am now feeling proud of myself, because I didn't just rush out and buy a BR Drive straight away, Because I gather that the BR Drives will require MUCH more speed to use these at their full potential, and if a BR Drive manufacturer can make a drive fast enough, then I will start looking into backing up everything (and not just my mods!).
Comment by NikoBellic at 3:15pm 7th July 2008
going by the price 8gb disc when they came out these babies are gonna be damm expensive.. either way a great step forward, would love too do a full back on a single disc..and it would still be ok too do a second copy or the back, backing up your music collection onto one of these would be ace.. you would only ever need one cd/dvd in the car..
Comment by dmc_dc at 3:17pm 7th July 2008
... but probably expensive! And the write speed would have to increase in order to make it suitable for backing up 400GB of data. External hard drives are becoming less expensive by the day. So possibly not suitable for that,even with the amazing portability! Plus, what if your brand spanking new 400GB disc got scratched? - I'd certainly be an unhappy bunny!
Comment by Bonzo450 at 1:53pm 7th July 2008
if these discs do become writeable, just image the time needed to burn one off. :(
Comment by ecviper at 11:50am 7th July 2008
you take 400gb you take a average person add a pinch of time a pinch of wear and tear what do you get a absolutely huge amount on a disc which is scratched to ***MODERATED*** = break down and cry??
Comment by waylander at 1:18pm 7th July 2008
This would be excellent for backing up my home server and would be cost effective for business too. Backup drives and tapes are still very expensive. A BD-RW drive is around £120+vat plus media. If they could produce these babies at a reasonable price then it really would open up the market on professional backup. Would be good for a whole series of TV shows as well. Series 4 of Lost officially on one BD. I'm praying for the release of BD version "Girls of the Playboy Mansion!" Hummina! Hummina! Hummina!
Comment by crazyceo at 12:25pm 7th July 2008
400gb wtf could they do some work on the hard disks before this XD most hard drives are not even that big
Comment by megapig at 12:17pm 7th July 2008
400 gb would make disc backups finally a viable option :) Sounds like it could be an expensive technology though
Comment by jonisaksson at 12:14pm 7th July 2008
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