Blu-ray Discs Slated to Increase In Capacity

A new 128 GB blu-ray disc know as BDXL is in the works. By this summer, the new format should be confirmed. If so, blu-ray disc may increase up to 128 GB! At the moment, the maximum is 50 GB on DL discs. That's a phenomenal increase over current discs.

This added capacity could mean a boon for blu-ray, but the only hold back would be that the new format would require all new hardware to work. The current players would not be capable of reading the newer multi-layered disc.

Nevertheless, these higher capacity discs would be excellent for storage and archival purposes. In addition, there will be another version known as IH-BD which will include combo read/write layers which are said to be attractive to the gaming industry--one layer for content, and the other for scores.

source: PCW

 

I posted this story 2 months or so ago and it got moved to off-topic for some reason.

 

I would get so mad if Sony made PS3 v2 with BDXL support and make all new games to only work on the PS3 v2!
But still great news.

 

LOL, at least it didn't get deleted. Anyway, far from me to try and second guess the mods, but I was thinking of the hardware; and it definitely constitutes as an upgrade. Don't you think?

 

yes it should IMO... but this would be great news especially with 3D needing way more space...

 

It's good to see that someone recognizes innovation. Frankly, I'm surprised at the lack of interest when the industry makes these types of technological leaps. With a disc that holds that amount of capacity, the applications would be virtually limitless.

 

In terms of it's usefulness for Blu-Ray films themselves, the fact that it does not work on existing hardware is not a trivial matter. The BDA would not seek to require people to switch to a new Blu-Ray player when they're struggling to get the players in people's homes in the first place.

But if new hardware is required for 3D Blu-Ray anyway (I actually don't know), that might be the time to push this hardware.

 

I can't really see much point in it tbh, games don't take up anywhere near that much space unless they win worst-optimised-game-of-the-year award, film doesn't take up that much sace either.

I guess if we have the techniilogy then we may as well try to find a use for it but I can't see it being necessary really, it seems like they're trying to replace the hard drive market with optical storage. That's the only real use I can see for it but it's not very practical for it as they're nowhere near as fast.

 

Don't forget that the new format also allows for a r/w partition on the new higher-density blue-ray data disks.

So you will be able to have a mixed read-only and r/w optical disk. Think of game disks that let you save gameplay on the disk itself. And stuff like that.

 

Your thinking 20th century. Think uncompressed content.

Thing supplement it, my friend.

Hmm, not practical? Try sending a HD through the mail.

I definitely agree here. Just when you make an investment in one technology, they want you to make another. On the other hand, this is a lot more than an incremental increase in storage capacity. It's nearly triple. With that kind of jump, you should expect to make some sacrifices.

 

so this technology is only good for 3d movies and sending data in the mail, well im legally blind in my right eye and you need good vision to see 3d movies so unfortunately i cant see 3d movies i have like no depth perception and i dont mail data in the mail soooo pointless announcement for me.

 

I take it that was a joke?

 

What a joke? You need to use both eyes to see 3d images right? I am not completely blind in my right eye but my vision is so bad that i am considered legally blind I forget the actual numbers after glasses im 20/20 in my left eye and like 2900 something in my right eye.

Dont you need 2 eyes for 3d stuff?

 

It was your limited view of a high capacity disc that I was referring to. With that much storage space 3-D is just the beginning.

 

I doubt any gamers will care for blueray anyways, almost all PC games are still on DVD, and I think most of us get our games from online distribution anyways. Physical distribution media is nothing interesting in the internet age.

 

I'm no gamer, but considering the continually tightening noose providers now place on the amount of content you can download without cost these days (and it's still going up), that may no longer be the cost effective alternative it used to be. Besides, physical distribution has other advantages and may yet turn out to be the more viable option after all.

In addition to that, with improved capacity will come improved features and options. And no doubt Sony will be pushing the adaption of BDXL highly. So don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Or something like that!!

 

Harddisks are getting so cheap nowadays it would be meaningless to use bluray even for archiving purpose as well, unless the price on bluray disk and writers drop drastically. Even then, there's the problem of trouble of writing to disk rather than just drag and drop using USB/eSata.

 

They're not that cheap. Besides there are advanced disc players in virtually every home these days. So people are accustomed to purchasing and using them. That sort of instant marketing and proliferation make your comparison non applicable.

Even though it may require new hardware, the masses are still significantly more like to purchase and use a single player much more readily as they are to buy the computer systems necessary for eSATA use. Not to mention that discs cover a much greater span for a lot less cost than they do. Just think in terms of transport and delivery.

Your aunt Maybelle may not have the computer savvy to hook up her eSATA, but she can certainly drop a disc into it's drive an push play.

 

I agree here.. Anyways , Blue ray players are quite cheap now.. u can get one for $200 and they have many uses.. but hey best blue ray player is PS3,, anyone can use it

 

In fact, the highly rated Panasonic blu-ray player was recently reduced to $160! That's an astonishing drop considering the price when they were introduced just a couple of years ago

 

it's still way to expensive. 35$ for a blu ray movie? you have to be kidding... get Bluray down to say 15$ a movie and the players down to 50$ and I'm sold.

 

I wouldn't hold my breath for a $50 blu-ray player. That's not at all realistic. A sub two hundred dollar player is more than a fair and reasonable price.

As for the cost of a blu-ray movies, that depends on the content. As you know, there are currently DVD titles price well beyond that.

 

Well, the first PC DVD player I bought was the Creative one which was the first DVD player on the market for PC, still have it, bought it for 200+, and now, even for DVD writer it's at most 20 dollars. $50 blu-ray player is not unrealistic at all, not to mention blu-ray doesn't even get all the attention DVD was getting simply because a large part of the digital ditribution is shifted to the internet.