Audio Video News

Pioneer has announced a 400-gigabyte Blu-ray disc. Needless to say, this technical breakthrough will be limited to the lab for some time.

A normal Blu-ray disc--the mass-produced product you can actually buy or rent--holds 25GB per layer or a total of 50GB on a two-layer disc. Pioneer has achieved 400GB capacity by increasing the number of layers to 16. Apparently each layer still holds 25GB, since 25GB times 16 layers equals 400GB.

The prototype raises the question of how the extra space would be used. Would the studios market what are now boxed sets on a single disc? Or would Ultra HDTV actually become a serious product at some time in the distant future, overturning all assumptions about the currently envisioned future of the existing HDTV standard? That of course begs more questions about UHDTV hardware and transmission standards. So the 400GB disc is probably ahead of its time.

Incidentally, the Pioneer logo in the pic is the old one. Fit of nostalgia.