James Delahunty
18 May 2007 19:34
Hitachi hopes to boost Blu-ray in the market in 2009 by offering a 200GB Blu-ray optical disc. The capacity, which is 4 times what today's largest available Blu-ray discs offer, is achieved by packing eight layers onto a single side of the platter. Blu-ray already has an advantage over its rival, HD DVD, in terms of capacity, offering 25GB per layer compared to HD DVD's 15GB per layer.
A triple layer HD DVD disc has been produced, packing 17GB into each layer for a total of 51GB storage capacity. While it would push HD DVD's capacity over that of the currently available Blu-ray media, the development from Hitachi shows that it might not be too hard at all for Blu-ray to go over the top again,... far over.
A triple layer HD DVD disc also would surely have compatibility problems with today's available hardware anyway (as surely an eight layer Blu-ray disc would also) and that's not even to mention the cost of producing either format's discs with more than 2 layers anytime soon.
Source:
Inquirer