Tag archive: disc

A team from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia said that by harnessing nanoparticles and a "polarization" dimension to existing technology, storage can be massively boosted without changing the size of a current disc. The researchers, who have signed a deal with Samsung Electronics, said the technique had allowed them to store 1.6 terabytes of data on a disc with the potential to one day store up to 10 terabytes.… Read More

Japanese electronics giant Pioneer has announced it has successfully created a 16-layer Blu-ray disc with a 400 GB capacity. Each layer holds 25 GB, the same as a standard Blu-ray disc; however, where current commercially available Blu-ray tech tops out with a second layer and a 50 GB capacity, Pioneer kept piling on the layers until it reached a 400 GB capacity. Even better, these discs can be read using the same objective lens in current… Read More

The battle of evangelism between the Blu-ray and HD DVD high-definition disc camps saw another broadside today, as the Blu-ray Disc Association claims to have sold its one millionth Blu-ray movie in Europe, and cites "industry sales data" showing Blu-ray discs account for some 73 percent of all high-definition movie discs sold in Europe to date. The Blu-ray Disc Association also announced that Blu-ray recorders account for 97… Read More

Pioneer Electronics has announced it will offer its BDC-2202 Blu-ray computer drive to U.S. consumers next month for a suggested price of $299. The drive can read BD-ROM, BD-R, and BD-RE media at up to 5× speeds, and handle double-layer BD-ROM and BD-R/-RE media at 2× speed. The drive does not offer Blu-ray burning capabilities, but for the purposes of movie playback or accessing data stored on BD media, the drive—and… Read More

Data recently compiled by Nielsen VideoScan and distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment suggests the mid-March release of Casino Royale on Blu-ray Disc marked the best single format opening thus far on any next generation disc title to date. This includes releases on HD-DVD. The latest James Bond film, released March 13 on to Blu-ray Disc, sold over 28,000 units, which was enough to have it debut in fifth places amongst… Read More

The first triple-layer HD DVD/DVD Twin disc is slated to hit the North American market on June 26…and its not a blockbuster title from a major Hollywood studio. Bandai Visual has announced that its popular anime title Freedom will hit North American and Japanese retailers on June 26 (PDF) making it the first HD DVD/DVD Twin disc to reach consumers. Although a few titles have been released with HD DVD data on one side and standard DVD… Read More

Last week we talked about the potential ending for Blu-Ray DVD players which was largely the result of execution problems with the PlayStation 3. Since then NPD has indicated, in terms of sales, the PS3 will fall well short of the numbers we used in our analysis and will not only be behind Microsoft (which had a year lead) but behind Nintendo as well. Nintendo, which had dominated this segment before Sony, had done so poorly with the… Read More

Pioneer Electronics said today they'd begun shipping the industry's first Blu-ray Disc computer drive. The new BDR-101A will come bundled with Sonic Solutions' Roxio Blu-ray Disc software and blank media from TDK. The BDR-101A, said Pioneer, is geared towards professional users and technology early adopters looking for large amounts of storage. This drive, using Blu-ray Disc specific media, can burn up to 25GB of… Read More

HP today straddled the fence in the next generation optical disc wars as they announced their support for the HD-DVD format being backed by the Toshiba camp in addition to already stated support for Sony's Blu-ray Disc. This latest twist comes as different players in the computer and media industries continue to shift around and/or announce single support allegiances. HP, trying to gap the widening field between the two… Read More

Maxell, a maker of digital and analog media products for data storage, and InPhase Technologies today announced they were bringing holographic media to market as a new storage medium. The first products based on this technology are scheduled for release in September 2006. Holographic media, the two companies said, has storage capacities achieving 1.6 TeraBytes per optical disk and data rates as high as 120 MBPs. Holographic recording… Read More

Toshiba today continued its push forward against Sony’s Blu-ray to be the king of next generation optical discs as it announced a 30GB dual-layer HD DVD-R disc. The company plans to improve on the specifications of the disc before bringing a HD DVD recorder to market next spring.   The dual-layer HD DVD-R disc is based on the same disc structure as current DVD discs, HD DVD-ROM discs (read-only), and HD DVD-RW discs (rewritable):… Read More

The backers of the Blu-ray Disc format got a new ally today as the Universal Music Group, which has one of the most extensive lists of record labels and catalogs of music in the industry, signed on as a contributing member to the optical disc's trade group. The joining by the Universal Music Group to the Blu-ray Disc Association continues to bolster the over 140 members. Other major contributors signed on to back the new optical disc… Read More

In the early days, war between the two futuristic disc formats would be decided not by sales, but instead by polls. And the winner of one of these early skirmishes would be Blu-ray Disc, trumping HD-DVD as the favorite amongst a random sampling of potential viewers. The poll, conducted by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, concluded consumers

The HD DVD Promotion Group today announced that momentum is building for the launch of HD DVD. Several key manufacturers in the disc replication and equipment industry simultaneously confirmed the manufacturability of HD DVD discs at high volumes and provided tangible data to prove feasible and realistic production. They are poised to mass produce HD DVD discs, which will deliver a wide variety of options for high definition content… Read More

HD DVD, the next-generation DVD, previously has offered several types of discs: HD/DVD-9, a 15GB version (single-layer, single sided), a 30GB disc (double-layer, single-sided), and a hybrid (double-layer, single-sided) HD DVD 15GB on one layer, with 4.7GB standard definition on the other. These disc formats have been standardized by the DVD Forum. In addition to these discs, Toshiba is announcing a triple-layer, high capacity 45GB… Read More