Pioneer's 400 GB Blu-Ray Disc Coming

According to Pioneer, Blu-ray technology will be in for a huge upgrade. The firm claims that it has developed a new disc manufacturing technology that will allow up to 400 GB of data to be packed onto a single disc. Sounds too good to be true?

Here’s the real kicker: Pioneer claims that the new 400 GB Blu-ray discs will be fully compatible with existing Blu-ray readers. This means you can go out and buy a 400 GB who knows what, and pop it into your existing drive without a hitch.

The new discs are 16-layer discs, compared with today’s dual-layer discs, and utilize a smaller pitch and beam wavelength. Despite this, Pioneer still claims compatibility—although existing players and records may require firmwares to adjust the pickup.

Pioneer also claims that when these new discs start rolling out, 400 GB Blu-ray burners will accompany them as well. Just imagine what kind of things you can jam onto a disc of that capacity!

  • cah027
    Man I could finally clean up my external drive!!!! Plus Just think of putting say 90 standard def dvds on one of these!
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  • mtyermom
    Whatever happened to the holographic disc technology we kept hearing about?
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  • cushgod
    Thats AWESOME !!! WAY to go Pioneer
    Reply
  • daft
    well, the hvd is still being tested, as for 90 movies, thats way to small,, you could get upward to 800 if you use the h264 format.
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  • hannibal
    Well anything that can store whole TV-series in one disk is a good thing. I don't even know how many meters I have dvd's in my book shelf. A couple of these would take it all...

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  • hannibal
    mtyermomWhatever happened to the holographic disc technology we kept hearing about?
    I think that it is still coming. I am not sure how close of the upper limit of BR this is, but the holographic disc can take severals Terabytes of content, so it will offer even bigger storage. But if this really work with older BluRay eguipment it does have an advantage!
    Reply
  • Hitokage
    Yeah.. just wait til you accidentally scratch the disk or drop it and it shatters. 400GB goes bye bye.
    Reply
  • thackstonns
    HitokageYeah.. just wait til you accidentally scratch the disk or drop it and it shatters. 400GB goes bye bye.yeah and its still phisically spinning media so writing 400Gig will take what 2, 3 weeks. I cant wait to fire one of these up on my 1x burner.
    Reply
  • Imagine having a write error or a burning a coaster...
    Reply
  • hellscook
    I hope this catches on better and costs less than simple blank dual layer DVD discs did. Those still cost an arm and a leg despite being how old?
    Reply