14 DAY TRIAL // Blu-ray might not have displaced the DVD from the mainstream market but the latest efforts of the Blu-ray Disk Association may have just brought this media one step closer to achieving an even more widespread adoption. In short, BDA has finished its research into means of boosting capacity of Blu-ray disks and is now ready to provide said licensing information and license applications to manufacturers. Based on them, companies will be able to start making disks with capacities of 100GB and 128GB.
Labeled as BDXL, the new format was developed for a very well defined range of market segments, such as broadcasting and medical and document imaging enterprises. Because of the nature of the format, new hardware will be required to play or record such disks. Nevertheless, since the new media specifications are just extensions of existing Blu-ray technologies, said new hardware will be fully capable of reading and recording existing 25GB and 50GB disks.
"The BDA worked diligently to create an extension of the Blu-ray Disc format that leverages the physical structure of the design of the disc to create even more storage capacity,” said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair. “By using the existing Blu-ray technologies, we have created a long-term and stable solution for archiving large amounts of sensitive data, video and graphic images. We expect further growth of the Blu-ray Disc market as the introduction of 100GB/128GB discs will expand the application of Blu-ray Disc technologies.”
The official announcement doesn't exactly state how long it will take for BDXL disks and optical drives to come to market, but it shouldn't be too long. As soon as they do, the new products will be able to start showing their worth on the aforementioned segments, as well as certain consumer applications such as capture/playback of HD content broadcast.