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BDA Announces New Format Enhancements

It looks like the PS3 is not as future-proof as we all thought: The Blu-ray Disc Association has announced two new formats to expand the disc size from the current max of 50GB to 100GB and 128GB respectively.

These new BDXL discs will render your current playback device useless if they become mainstream for video playback or video games. The press release below speaks about their use for backup purposes, but we all know that Hollywood and video game publishers will be looking at BDXL as the next generation of the platform, and start looking at what they can do with it. And that means BDXL movies and games.

Blu-ray was an unfinished spec when it was released, and it has continued to change, making the first and second generation players useless for some of the latest Blu-ray releases — those with BD-LIVE, for instance.

The BDA is starting to come off as a reloader, a con artist who continues to hit the same target over and over until they’ve bled them dry. The fact that consumers must continue to replace their hardware to play the latest discs or access certain features is a scam.

What will happen with the current-gen 3D Blu-ray players? Will they need to be replaced as well once these discs hit the market? Chances are good that they will.

Blu-ray Disc Association Announces Additional Format Enhancements

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) today announced two new media specifications that use Blu-ray Disc technology to provide targeted functionality for commercial and consumer applications. The specifications for BDXL™ (High Capacity Recordable and Rewritable discs) and IH-BD (Intra-Hybrid discs) are expected in the next few months.

“Leveraging Blu-ray Disc to meet this need provides professional enterprises with a compact, stable and long term solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images using a proven and widely accepted optical technology.”

The BDXL specification, which is targeted primarily at commercial segments such as broadcasting, medical and document imaging enterprises with significant archiving needs, will provide customers with write-once options on 100GB and 128GB capacity discs and rewritable capability on 100GB discs. The discs reach these capacities by incorporating three to four recordable layers. A consumer version of BDXL is also expected, particularly in those regions where BD recorders have achieved broad consumer acceptance.

“Professional industries have expressed a desire to find optical disc solutions that enable them to transition away from magnetic media for their archiving needs,” said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair. “Leveraging Blu-ray Disc to meet this need provides professional enterprises with a compact, stable and long term solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images using a proven and widely accepted optical technology.”

The Intra-Hybrid Blu-ray Disc (IH-BD) incorporates a single BD-ROM layer and a single BD-RE layer so as to enable the user to view, but not overwrite, critical published data while providing the flexibility to include relevant personal data on the same physical disc. This allows for consumer specific applications where combining published content with related user data on a convenient, single volume is desirable. Both the ROM and the RE layers on IH-BD discs provide 25GB of capacity.

Because both BDXL and IH-BD are specially designed formats with specific market segments in mind, newly-designed hardware is required to play back or record BDXL or IH-BD media. However, because the new media specifications are extensions of current Blu-ray Disc technology, future BDXL and IH-BD devices can be designed to support existing 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Discs.

About Blu-ray DiscTM

Blu-ray DiscTM is the next-generation optical disc format for high definition audio-video and high-capacity data software applications. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc holds up to 25 gigabytes of data and a double-layer Blu-ray Disc holds up to 50 gigabytes of data.

About the Blu-ray Disc Association

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is responsible for promoting and developing business opportunities for Blu-ray Disc – the next-generation optical disc format for storing high-definition movies, games, photos and other digital content. The BDA has more than 170 members. Its Board of Directors consists of individuals affiliated with the following member companies: Apple Inc., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Hitachi, Ltd., Intel Corporation, LG Electronics Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Pioneer Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, TDK Corporation, Technicolor, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures and Television, and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

The Blu-ray DiscTM name and Blu-ray DiscTM logo are registered trademarks of the Blu-ray Disc Association.

BDXL™ is a trademark of the Blu-ray Disc Association.

 

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