Sanyo's laser could bring 12x Blu-ray burners and 100GB discs
While Sony and others compete with Blu-ray burners of a paltry 8x, Sanyo's looking ahead with a new laser that could enable write speeds of up to 12x. More impressively, the 450 milliwatt diode (twice that of current burners) could read and write through four 25GB layers. If you're not so good at math (it's okay, we had to break out the calculator) that means discs of up to 100GB burned in 10 minutes or less! But don't go running down to your local Blu-ray emporium looking for double-digit speed drives just yet; new standards will be needed for discs that big and drives that fast, which could mean a year or two before production begins. If speculation of Blu-ray's impending demise is to be believed, that may be cutting things a bit close.
Filed under: Blu-ray
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The Aggie CEO @ Oct 6th 2008 10:45AM
even if BD DOESNT make it, as a Storage format its still a pretty good choice.......especially if it gets to what Sanyo is trying to do in the next year or so.......
until then I'll be good with my 4x BD Drive........
DrXym @ Oct 6th 2008 10:59AM
The video format is already fixed at 2 layers. It will never, ever support more. The only use I see for more layers is in data storage.
squiggleslash @ Oct 6th 2008 11:17AM
The movie format has a number of issues that are preventing mass market adoption. It's not impossible to see a "Blu-ray 2" in the near future, and adding more layers would be a sane improvement, especially if it aids backwards compatibility (eg put the main feature in Profile 1.0 compatible form on layer 1, put the BD2 features on layers 2+, similar to the three-layer HD DVD Combo format.)
You could even have hybrid pressed/writable disks, with some layers fixed, and others being ready to contain data read from the Internet and cached on burnable layers.
There are lots of ways this technology could be used without breaking Blu-ray any more than it's already broken. Actually, there are many ways this technology could be used to fix Blu-ray. It just takes some imagination.
DrXym @ Oct 6th 2008 12:02PM
There is absolutely nothing wrong at all with the movie format which is preventing mass adoption. The format isn't "broken" and it certainly wouldn't be "fixed" by downloading content and burning in on extra layers. All that would buy you is an absurdly over the top and baroque solution for an issue which doesn't even exist.
Maybe when 1440p 3D televisions become the norm there might be call for > 2 layer disks or a new standard but the notion is so far off its not even a valid cause for concern.
squiggleslash @ Oct 6th 2008 12:13PM
I'm not saying it would be fixed by the writable-layers trick, I'm saying that if they're going to overhaul Blu-ray anyway, then there's scope for adding new features such as the writable-layers thing.
The major block to mass consumer adoption at the moment is that it's a poor fit. It's not compelling in the same way as, say, DVD was over VHS. So yes, there are things wrong with Blu-ray that are preventing mass consumer adoption, if there weren't... well, mass consumer adoption might be happening. Let's stop pretending it's about player prices, anyone who can afford a $1,000 HDTV can afford a $300 media player. It isn't because it's competing with HD DVD, 'cos that's not happening any more. It's not because of a lack of content, there's been plenty of major releases for the last few months and frankly it's getting hard to find any movie released in the last three or four years that isn't on Blu-ray.
It's just not compelling. It's so uncompelling that for around three months earlier this year, Blu-ray sales started to drop as a percentage of DVD sales, suggesting people who tried out BD after the HD DVD rout found it just wasn't worth it for them.
There are things wrong with it. As I keep saying, if Blu-ray supporters want their format to succeed, they have to stop burying their heads in the sand and criticize its flaws so the flaws get fixed.
Either Blu-ray 2 will happen, or it'll simply never take off as a mass market format.
DrXym @ Oct 6th 2008 4:48PM
Now you're just being absurd. There is plenty compelling about Blu Ray, not least that it allows you to watch HD content on your HD television - you know the kind that virtually every new TV sold is. It is also very obvious there will be a massive push on the format this holiday season as evidenced by the large number of new releases and players.
Even if does become a niche (a very large niche) It sure as hell doesn't mean that some bizarro multi layer disk would have increased sales any further.
squiggleslash @ Oct 8th 2008 9:16AM
> There is plenty compelling about Blu Ray, not least that it allows you to watch HD content on your HD television
Yeah, like Laserdisc allowed you to watch NTSC content on your NTSC TV. That was compelling too, right?
Yes, there's going to be a push for it over this holiday season. No, I don't think people are going to buy it. You need perhaps to step out of your HD cocoon and look at the real world. People are after "good enough". Blu-ray offers nothing over DVD other than enhanced video quality, and requires people make a major infrastructure investment for it to be as useful as DVD.
Honestly, higher quality video is not compelling. That's why BD isn't taking off, and why it's somewhat improbable it will be anything other than a niche format for the foreseeable future.
> Even if does become a niche (a very large niche) It sure as hell doesn't mean that some bizarro multi layer disk would have increased sales any further.
Dude, if you're not going to read my comments, why the f--- do you bother posting?
squiggleslash @ Oct 6th 2008 11:11AM
I know the comment was facetious (though you know where I stand on that issue...), but the great thing is that BD can die as a movie distribution format without dying as a computer storage format. It certainly has potential there in the short term. DAT never made it as a consumer audio format, but it lived on for many years as both a data storage format and a system for audio engineers.
In the longer term, be aware that SD card prices are plummeting. 128G for less than $10 doesn't seem impossible in the next two or three years, the capacity/dollar seems to double every three or four months at the moment. BD can fight that by not stopping at four layers, and by drastically cutting media prices ($15 for a BD-RE? What the hell?)
jitty @ Oct 7th 2008 7:04PM
I think your exaggerating the progression of flash media. I doubt a 32GB SD will be $10 in 2 years. It will take at least 6 years for 128GB SD to be nearly that affordable. By which time a 100GB blu-ray will cost as much as a common 4.5GB DVD today. We heard about SSD's more than a year ago and they're still not very affordable. (At least the good ones) Especially at capacities as relatively small as 256GB+
squiggleslash @ Oct 8th 2008 8:40AM
I'm just extrapolating trends. 16Gb is right now less than half the price that 8Gb was under a year ago. That is, I can easily get 16Gb of SD for about $32, whereas the 8Gb SD I looked for last December cost about $80. 8Gb is generally available for under $20 right now. Do some searches on Amazon for 8Gb SDHC and 16Gb SDHC if you don't believe me.
Do you really think that two years is unrealistic for 32Gb to drop to below $10 given that trend? They've only just come out so prices are unreasonably high, but they're going to plummet to no more than 2x16Gb within a few months. I think it's reasonable to suggest they'll be around $40 within nine months, if not cheaper.