BD-RW = new hard drive.

Blinklink11

I don't know if this is true or not, but I was under the impression that the more layers a disc had, the more susceptible to data loss it was from scratches and the like.

If this is true, would accidentally dropping the disc mean you lose GBs worth of data?

regnez

I'd say that's a lot of porn, but I'm sure I go through more than that in a week.

soggy_cheerio

Dam, lets just use this instead of HDD's.

halopower67

Whoa! Almost half the capacity of TESA-ROM (which was available some 5-8 years ago.) I'm, like, totally impressed.

sharpfang

@halopower67: Optical media is way to slow. You don't want to experience the pain of a random seek on a sixteen layer disc spinning at 50rpms.

Joseph

@regnez: Yeah that is what I thought. Aren't the Blu-Ray disks pretty fragile and thin as it is right now.

pinball21

Shhhh! No one tell Kojima about this!

trogam

Is it Pioneer or Panasonic? Have they merged or is it a mistake (see title of article and fisrt sentence of article)

johneaster

maybe they can fit enlgish subs on the japanese version of mgs4 now! *accidentally touches the disc* oh wait, nevermind. just scratched those out again.

xoforoct

mind bottling

LVMHCorporate

@sharpfang: You're still using TESA-ROM?!

itchytooth

I can't help but think this will be used as an avenue to >1080p formats.

scarbrtj

thats awsome, now when kojima makes mgs 7 he can make almost 100hrs of cut scenes and 4hrs of gameplay!!!! and just think of all the bluray movies you can put on one of those bad boys woot woot!!!!

EVILSTUART

Hmmm....No idiots relating this to Crysis...No PS3 fanboys more idiots) proclaiming Blu-Ray the greatest thing since the moon landing...

Guess it ain't that newsworthy....

fastharry

This will never hit the market. So what's the point?

DarkNight_DS

Why does it say Pioneer in the title, yet the article reads Panasnic? Is this a play on words, because if it is, I don't like it!

Dudemeister on the Run

First, let me just say it's shit like this that reminds us all why Blu-Ray won the format war.

Secondly, Blu-Ray discs are almost impossible to scratch.

+ Watch video

Lastly, Blu-Ray discs are no more flimsy than a normal DVD. In fact they seem more resilient.

It helps if you actually own a Blu-Ray player and a bunch of disc so you know what the hell you are talking about instead of regurgitating half witted internet banter and rumor from other people.

metalhaze

I hope it does hit the market!

considering now, to do a proper backup takes another damn Hardrive to do (personally I've got 1.8 terrabytes of storage online here!) backing up is a serious pain in the ass with ethier buying more harddrives or a stack of 4.7gb DVD's....

please... gimme 400GB disks..!

KhaiJB

Where is everyone getting this "Blu-ray is easy to scratch" notion? It's been stated since the beginning that the layers of the blu-ray discs are much more durable and scratch resistant.

imTheKing

400gb... I wonder how long it'd take to burn 400gb to a disc...

shinchan

*not convinced.

Ugh, too many errors on my part. Back to bed....

Sora57

@Sora57: A closer review shows the "damaged" side is the data side. Sorry. But I'm convinced the discs are not damaged. Sometimes you have to sit through half the movie before you get to the bad sectors, depending how far from center the damage is. Anyway, just wanted to correct my earlier post.

Sora57

@metalhaze: Interesting video. It looks like all the damage done to the discs was done to the top side, not the data side. Except for the last one (with the butcher knife), which is the disc that would not play.

Sora57

But how does it work as a coaster? Does it stay crunchy in milk? How well will it fly? Is it ergonomically styled? Does it come in designer colors?

VideoVampire

@MacBandit:
... upgrade the Ol CD Jukeboxes for Blu-Ray n RAID'em up!

ANoel

@shinchan: "Hey Honey, do you need the computer for anything?"
"Yea, why?"
"I'm burning one of those 400GB disks."
"Oh, I guess I'll just buy another computer so I can get on this week..."

Would be cool to have a 400GB disk, but it takes long enough to burn/load data off the DVDs I've burnt...

The Amazing Ant

@shinchan:

With 16 layers they need to implement simultaneous burning and put multiple lasers each capable of burning different layers simultaneously.

MacBandit

Can you imagine how many ebooks you could fit on that badboy? And how it would be represented in actual books in total weight in volume? Good God man!

sakko

@trogam: LOL :D

DaSmith

56.6kb/s was also mind boggling vs. 14.4kb/s...

I love how people never see the big, enormous picture in the now....

SmBizMan

Nice! Now I can put even more of Jenna on a single disc. Perhaps all of her "movies" with most of them HD...

DaSmith

More layers does not necessarily mean it's easier to scratch. However, anything that interferes with the laser during reading now impacts a larger portion of data. For example, a smudge on a CD versus a DVD versus a Blu-ray disk is very different. Say the smudge causes 2% of the data to become unreadable. On a CD, that's almost nothing and can *usually* be recovered. On a DVD, it's a much larger amount of data that is affected. On a 400 GB disk, although it may be more resilient, the small smudge would be like loosing 8 GB of data.

A 16-layer disk doesn't make random seek times noticeably worse. However, reading beyond the first layer in dual-layer disks puts a lot of strain on the laser. based on the technology used, I would say the same is probably true for Blu-ray readers as well. They may have made it more resilient, but that improvement is loss due to the use of additional layers.

geowrian

Panasonic? or Pioneer?

UofITom

so did panasonic or pioneer do this?

caniscream

@Dudemeister on the Run: It seems to be Pioneer, so the 'Panasonic' mention is probably just a mistake.

(That might be expected - Pioneer are one of the, er, pioneers of Blu-ray technology.)

@DarkNight_DS: You are correct, it won't hit the market because these so-called 'blu-ray' discs won't be compatible with any existing players. However there is obviously a 'point' in researching into higher optical disc storage capability with regard to future formats (and as noted, Pioneer have been involved in development of most of the current ones).

@regnez: More layers don't necessarily make it more likely to get scratched (unless they are nearer to the surface as a consequence). However multi-layered discs can suffer from other problems e.g. if there is a structural problem (weak glue, etc) and the layers start to split apart; I guess this could make them more vulnerable to bending. Also, manufacturing discs with lots of layers has historically been prohibitively expensive.

@Joseph: Having a 16-layer disc doesn't make random seek time any worse (not that it would be acceptable at present rates).

So basically is this cool (and a lot more like reality than many of the 'vapourware' technologies)? yes. does it actually mean we'll have 400GB blu-ray discs? no. will the next generation of optical discs be that size? probably. (But not necessarily with 16 layers, who knows.)

quen

Panasonic is a "pioneer". Not the Pioneer company.

This will be great for backups, especially if the recorders and the blank discs are cheaper than current tape technologies.

Pinky2

Now this is what i'm talking =D

shanzi

Makes me happy with how much crap they are going to bloat windows with now! ;)

ThatsMrOffDutyNinja

By the time this comes out, 500GB HDDs are likely to be around $60 or less, so this disc will need to be even cheaper.

Canoehead

damn thats alot of hd porn.....man gotta love it!!!!

aznplayer213

Well, that's pretty cool. Though it'll probably cost double what a 400 gig HDD does, per disc.

Griffehpoo

@johneaster: it's both Matsushita, if I remember my Japanese correctly;-)

on another note: There are still holographic disks which did that trick a few years back, and in two or three years microSD will have reached capacities of 64 or 128 gigs, with SD reaching 256 or 512, so, what would you rather have, a little card with higher r/w speeds that fits in your pocket and has a little memory slot in your smartphone, or a drive that bloats up your computer like swallowing a pig bloats an anaconda?

yogibimbi

Until someone fixes the spelling error in the name BLU-RAY, I refuse to buy one, I mean come one... you cant even spell bloo... How good can your format be if you cant even spell bloo.

(Yes i know how to spell blue... with the help of a dictionary)

HawkSkater0

You'll need two of these discs to install Windows 7....zing!

UofITom

yeah physical media is out the window 'rolls eyes'

lilaliendog

It seems to say that the lens and specs are the same as bluray. Does this mean that a firmware update can let you read these discs?

JayD16

...and this takes what? 1.2 days to burn?

JEmlay

@UofITom:
its like humor, only not funny.
i get it.

mikeg916

Ok...
I may be alone here, but instead of increasing disc sizes, I think we should start looking for others medias.

Really. CD,DVD,Blu-ray or whatever, they are all unreliable.

But they'll will probably remain a standard for a long time... much like floppy discs.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

this makes having disk backups realistic again!

exobite