TDK touts 100GB recordable Blu-ray Disc

[akrako1]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/19/tdk_four-layer_bd/

TDK touts 100GB recordable Blu-ray Disc
By Tony Smith
Published Thursday 19th May 2005 12:33 GMT

There's an Onion article we rather liked a while back that neatly lampooned the shaver business, in which Gilette, frustrated by Wilkinson Sword's move to three-blade razors, promptly shouts: "F**k 'em - we're going to five blades."

A similar war - real this time - appears to be breaking out between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) proponents. Desperate to get HD DVD's capacity up to something closer to its rival's, Toshiba last week unveiled a three-layer disc that can hold 45GB.

Now - with more than a little 'f**k you!' implied if not stated - TDK has announced a four-layer BD.

The beast holds up to 100GB of data. More to the point, it's recordable, and according to TDK, can support a write-speed double that of today's 50GB BD-Rs - or 6x (216Mbps), in other words.

The disc uses TDK's Durabis coating, announced last January, which finally allows BDs to be used without a protective cartridge, though they remain rather less resilient to scratches than DVDs.

Getting discs up to 100GB and beyond - 200GB appears to be the limit - was always part of the Blu-ray plan. TDK has talked about making 100GB BDs in the past. Alas, today's announcement, made in Japanese-language newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, gives no indication as to when these discs might actually appear on the market. ®

[raffie]

I have only one thing to say: bring em on!

[EvilWizardGlick]

How much is this going to cost? Per disk? Burner?
100 gigs is barely anything.
Of course 10 of those will hold the files on that terrabyte hard drive.

[stiltman]

I can see it now,

DVD Remake Pro v8.9.5.8.100

Change list
Added support for 100gb DVDs
Added support for up to 13 DVDs to one 100gb Dvd WITH ALL MENUS INTACT

[shelbyGT]

I still have a single layer 4X burner, no HDTV and just 5.1 surround sound. That's still more "advanced" then the majority of people out there.

It's gonna be a long time before this stuff becomes mainstream in the consumer sector.

[hudsonf]

I agree with EvilWizardGlick, how much will it cost? It may be cheaper to buy 100GB Hard Drives.

[leebo]

I for one wont be buying these discs until the price gets down to below $2 per disc.

Until then I'll keep using DVDShrink.

[ROF]

Like all new technology, cost is going to be prohibitive. Given time the cost will drop and once it hits a certain point, the prices just start to tumble.

These discs may cost anywhere from $30-$50 American a piece initially, however adoption will be slow at that cost, so as the Rich begin to buy and the prices begin to drop more and more begin to buy and the price will drop further.

[akrako1]

Averaging US$.30 for a Single-Layer DVD-R, we're spending approx $6.38 per 100GB. leebo, Why would you only spend below $2 a 100GB disc?

To me, it would be worth a PREMIUM to be able to put all the LOTR Extended edition on 1 disc with no compression, or an entire season or two of a show. To me that's worth more then the basic cost/GB.

[ROF]

I also have the $2 cut off. Yes, I might purchase discs at up to $10 a piece for new tech, but I won't be buying in bulk or even buying them often enough to consider myself a mainstream user until the price reaches below $2.

[stiltman]

Yeah, but how much will one coaster cost you?

[EvilWizardGlick]

I'll wait for the 100 disk cakeboxes for under $50 usd.
$2 bucks a disk already proves someone drank the koolaid. $10 per disk means people are utterly insane.
Technology is supposed to make life LESS expensive as time goes on.

[leebo]

leebo, Why would you only spend below $2 a 100GB disc?

I was KIDDING! I was having fun with people who make comments like that.

My feelings on a 100 gig disc are the same as for DVD DL; it would be much more useful if it were a re-writable format. Right now DL is too expensive to use much for backing up movies (imho), but if there were RW versions, I'd be using them to back up my computers.

[bbrevolt]

Why the excitement about bigger sizes of the discs?
Show me a better method of compression or recording that requires smaller space and I will be happy.

[Nilfennasion]

If the disc itself is more frail than your average DVD, then it is stuffed without a protective casing.

[Bjs]

I should have asked him how much it would have costed last year ... cause I wanted too know what the drives would cost for the pc to use them

I know the two guy's behind this invention ...

Oh I forgot to mention :

the test unit was not 100 gigabytes it stored , it was 200 terabytes that the test unit was capable of storing and the disc was only the size of those mini cds .

Now you know why I want one ...

Yes , they intended it to load from a cartridge for its protection .

[shelbyGT]

Really, with this much data on one disc, I don't want anyone able to touch the underside. It'd be nice if they came in a case that you just stuck right in to the player... no way you can touch it, no scrapes (imho, only)

[stiltman]

How would you label them?
Sharpie or CD label

[shelbyGT]

Magic Voodoo Paint©, of course!