Blu-ray Disc Association Unveils High-Capacity Formats
Blu-ray discs may become more than just the prerecorded vehicle for high-definition movies. On Saturday, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) announced new media formats to enable write-once options on 100GB and 128GB Blu-ray discs, and rewritable capability on 100GB discs.
The two formats are called BDXL, for high-capacity recordable and rewritable discs; and IH-BD, for Intra-Hybrid Blu-ray discs. Details about the specs are expected to be released within the next few months.
BDXL, which utilizes three to four recordable layers to achieve storage up to 128GB, is intended primarily for use in industries that have heavy archive storage requirements, such as broadcasting, medical imaging and document imaging. A consumer version of BDXL is also expected to be released.
BDA official Victor Matsuda said that "professional industries" want to "transition away from magnetic media for their archiving needs." He added that using Blu-ray to meet this need leverages "a proven and widely accepted optical technology."
The IH-BD format uses a single BD-ROM layer and a single BD-RE layer, which allows some portion of the disc to be viewed but not overwritten, while data can be written elsewhere on the same disc.
Both layers in the IH-BD format offer 25GB of capacity, and the BDA said it envisioned the format being used in consumer applications where published content and user-generated data are both wanted. This could lead toward new kinds of special features for games and movies, with data added by the user.
The new formats will require newly designed hardware, although it is expected that the new players will be downwardly compatible with existing Blu-ray discs. BDA did not release information about the timetable for release of the new hardware. These formats, along with 3D-capable players, point to the emerging next generation of Blu-ray hardware.
Currently, a single-layer...
Posted: 2010-04-05 14:08:27Author:...
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