TDK hard at work on 8-layer 200GB Blu-ray Disc

[Demon Cleaner]

This is what I recently read:


Since Sony, et al. hammered out the Blu-ray Disc spec, there's been speculation, theorization, and discussion of an 8-layer 200GB disc. Sony even supposedly had some working 200GB BRD demos way back in 2004. Well, now those mammoth coasters are in the works over at TDK, who apparently hope to commercialize the first presumably quad-layered dual-sided discs (or possibly octo-layered single-sided discs -- yeah, right). They're not giving it up as to when these discs could come out or how much they'll cost, but right now we're more worried about just getting our hands on some players, you know?

[Harrison]

I remember when first reading about 200GB BR discs some time ago and thinking how great they would be, but equally thinking how fragile they could also be. I think you would seriously need a caddie/casing based system for 8 layer discs or you could easily lose some of the data. Something like the DVD-RAM cartridges would be a good solution. Although you can even buy those discs now minus the cartridges (you could actually break open the carts anyway).

But imagine the possibilities. Backing up a complete MAME set, with CHDs to a single disk! I WANT ONE!!!

But seriously, the word EXPENSIVE is the first thing that pops into my head.

[Stephen Coates]

Cool idea to have a 200GB disk. Would it just be like a CD/DVD? If so, there is no way I would trust one with my data. Might do if it worked in a different way to CDs though.

[Harrison]

Yes, it will work just like standard CD/DVD technology. which as you say is not the most reliable storage. Although what is reliable storage? At the moment it is a Harddrive.

[J T]

Something with that much capacity would be ace, DVDs are often too small now when it comes to backing up collections.

Wonder if/how long it would take something like that (and a writer) to filter down to the consumer lever at a reasonable price.

[Submeg]

Something with that much capacity would be ace, DVDs are often too small now when it comes to backing up collections.

Wonder if/how long it would take something like that (and a writer) to filter down to the consumer lever at a reasonable price.

Lol, given the way prices always fall two days after I buy something, wait a year, go buy one and then watch the prices tumble :rolleyes:

[J T]

Excellent, you should go buy one soon so we can get them cheaper.

Take one for the team, as it were.

[Submeg]

Excellent, you should go buy one soon so we can get them cheaper.

Take one for the team, as it were.

No thanks, I remember the last time someone "took one for the team" :huh: ouch.

[Harrison]

Umm... OK. :unsure:

Regarding DVD sizes, in the past few months I've noticed PC game sizes are starting to increase. More games are now appearing on the larger dual layer DVD9 8.5GB discs, rather than the 4.7GB DVD5 discs which was the most common format until now. And the biggest at the moment seems to be BlackSite Area 51 which comes on two DVD9s! And requires 14GB of HD space to install! Now that is big!

[Submeg]

14 GB? Geez,thats almost a quarter of my harddrive :blink:

[Harrison]

I just checked my installed games and on average most need 5-6GB of HD space to be fully installed. But a few are using 7-8GB, so games have already got quite big on average, but Blacksite is definitely the biggest I've seen to date.

Still, it isn't as bad as years ago. I remember when CD games had only been out a few years and my new PC had a huge (at the time) 12GB HD. I though I had tons of HD space until I started to install games on it. CD games required around 300MB at that time so it didn't take that many to eat into a 12GB drive. And most games at the time even had a minimum install option that would just install the bare essential files and leave other files such as music and movies on the disc. This meant you didn't use up as much HD space, but had to keep the disc in the drive while playing the game, which was annoying.

[Sharingan]

Anyone remember a certain member of CA saying how a single DVD would be more than enough for anything?

[Buleste]

I remeber when i thought 120MB of hard drive was large let alone 200GB of disk space.

[Harrison]

I remember upgrading from 8-bit systems with audio tapes, to 16-bit systems with floppy disks. They seemed huge with their 720-880K sizes and it amazed me that you could see and access all the files at once, instead of waiting for a tape to get to the right spot.

[Demon Cleaner]

Anyone remember a certain member of CA saying how a single DVD would be more than enough for anything?Anyone remember what Bill Gates said? 64k, yes Bill, you're right mate.