New Blu-ray Laser From Sharp Could Pave the way for 100GB BD-R Disks
Posted 09/13/09 at 02:22:52 PM by Justin Kerr
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Recordable Blu-ray media has been expensive, and slow to catch on, but would a bump to 100GB capacities change your mind? New developments made by Sharp could do just that by introducing a blue-violet laser which is able to read triple-layer or even quad-layer Blu-ray disks. Current BD-R single layer disks hold a mere 25GB.
The light put out by the beam is much stronger than traditional readers at 500mW, and it is made possible thanks to an aluminum oxynitride layer that is located squarely between the laser’s crystal and dielectric film which is meant to protect the laser.
In addition to capacity increases, this could also allow for writing speeds of up to 8x across all four layers, making it a much more interesting archiving option for digital packrats. Prices and availability still haven’t been announced yet, but the company describes the technology as “production ready”. At the very least it would be nice to see a new affordable disk option come along to replace those aging 4.7GB DVD’s, which frankly, just don’t cut it size wise anymore.
Are you itching for new recordable disks, or is flash the future of the sneaker net?
Porn habits aside... The
Submitted by Digihotaru on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 1:48am
Porn habits aside...
The reason optical media fails to excite anymore is because it just doesn't seem as big as it once did. Back when CDs first hit the street, they were three to four times the size of an average HDD. It was exciting to imagine how much you could archive onto just one disc. Flash forward to present day tech, and it's more like "how many discs per HDD?" Even 100GB/disc seems like a headache - both in the disc-swapping sense, and the "how am I gonna catalog these" sense.
I'm a small time photographer, and already my image collection is over 130GB. I intend to grow my business quite a bit in the next few years, and all I can say is thank god HDD capacities are growing as fast as they are. The only practical solution for me is to use external drives to back up my internal drive. I stopped waiting for an optical tech that could handle my needs a long time ago.
I also sympathize with the user who complained about having more discs laying around his house. I almost never burn anything anymore (I'm not just talking about photos at this point) and I don't even like buying games that I can't get from Steam. Just too much physical dust-collecting shit to have lying around.
Submitted by JuanSolid on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 4:08pm
You can get a 4 drive bay that connects via Esata for roughly $170. 4 1.5tb drives in a raid configuration would cost about $520 = $700 (lets say $10 shipping for an margin of error).
This is 3TB of data that will be safe if one drive fails.
You will need the new burner, let's laugh and say it will only be $200 for the drive and $10 for each quad layered disc. thats $300 for 30 disc's to equal what I stated above. However if you wanted to have a double of that data you would need another 30 disc's. This would than cost you $800 total + the space needed to store them all convienenmtly so you could access what you wanted fast (just tell me you can label it all on the disc cover LMAO)
In this hypothetical situation I think most people would agree that it's easier to search through a properly made and reconfigurable file directory, rather than keep swapping disc's over and over to find that one file you backed up on your one quad blu ray out of 30.
Finally you can not add or delete old information off a blu ray, and don't even get me started on RW which degrades over time faster than a wet piece of bread.
Disc media has been dead for a very long time, and due to cost, is only a good option for movie and game companies creating media for sale. Even than streaming services are eventually going to kill this.
3 TB?
Submitted by CleverBullet on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 5:35pm
That's assuming you have 3 TB to fully back up.
Submitted by JuanSolid on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 1:23am
I wanted to use a larger number to show that cost effectiveness is not really there under disc media anymore.
When hard drives cost more and were smaller, disc media was the best solution. However now that people are storing more files than ever due to sheer conveniance it's becoming a problem as people tend to keep saving everything.
A common question I get, and maximumPC editors get all the time, is 'what is the most effective way to back up xx amount of data'. I think the most recent one was a question about 2TB of data and since that would be over 400dvd's, which are cost effective at $0.15 each, or 80 blu ray's, which are not cost effective at $5 each, a simple 2tb drive would be easier.
however since 2TB drives are around $280, it's better to buy 2 1.5TB drives at $130 each. The only reason I personally talked about a raid and doubled the cost was to show how inefficient it would be to adopt the new format and combat people who may say that a HD can fail and is not a good back up solution.
Of course an HD can fail, but people seem to believe disc media is infallable, even though they can be scratched and will degrade over time and warp if not properly stored.
Submitted by snapple00 on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 3:04pm
I can't help but wonder why technology is always one step behind my porn habits.
When CD burners were popular? 700 megs wasn't enough for me.
DVD burners? I can get through 4.7 gigs before work.
Blue ray? 25 gigs? How do I hold watching parties with this capacity?
2 TB drives? Don't make me laugh.
WHAT DO I DO!
Submitted by JuanSolid on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 3:52pm
I don't know, and do not want to know, what the hell you are doing, but your doing it wrong.
I'd recomend looking into high quality compressed formats. Your probably not compressing anything if your making "backup's" and that will give you a problem.
The other point is most internet providers are capping thier limits to 250gb a month. let's just say you use all of that, a 1.5tb drive for $130 would last you 6 months..... that is if you did nothing but download porn of the internet. Even sending a emailwould break your cap,a nd this message you posted as well would too.
So either do not keep "backing" up your "dvd's" or stop exaggerating your "habits".
Your average properly compressed 1 hour high quality file will be somewhere in the 400-500mb range. Your saying a 2TB drive, that would hold over 4,000 hours of video is not enough.
SOOOOO if you could create/download at the rate it took to play all that media, it would still take you over 5.55 months to view it if you never slept and did nothing else besides watch your porn.
You sir are definately doing something wrong if that is still not enough for you. Because there is no way in hell you would ever be able to use up an entire 2tb in less than 5.5 months without doing something seriously wrong.
Submitted by snapple00 on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 7:10pm
See, like you said the average 1 hour video will be around 400 - 500 megs.
I kick mine up a nickel with ultra high quality. For 1 hour, its about 10 gigs. If I can't see the titty residue on a bra, currently in flight to some dudes shlong, I trash it.
So take my average 16 hour video and that is 160 gigs per file.
Mo money mo problems.
Submitted by JuanSolid on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 1:09am
Your supposed to leave those files on the blu ray and take care of your disc's.....
16 hours? I can't believe your filming and editing this stuff, because if you were you would know how to back the stuff up and there would be no complaint. Or your backing up a regular blu ray wrong and the files on that disc are 16 hours, which than means it's low quality, and your just making a larger file for no reason. And I can't believe your downloading something like that at such a large file.
Submitted by quantumnerd on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 4:08pm
He's doing it wrong!
about time!
Submitted by gruvsf on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 12:13pm
Bring it on! Anything to bring down the prices and mass adoption is good for the consumers. Amazing what freakin' laser beams can do these days!
Submitted by quantumnerd on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 4:06pm
With EVEN MORE freakin' lazer!
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