Is a 1TB Optical Disc the Next to Come After Blu-ray?

Blu-ray optical discs were one of the great milestones in portable disc technology. They could hold 25 GB on a single layer disc and 50 GB, more than older versions of hard drives, on a dual-layer disc. Now that Blu-ray has been out for a year and the digital age is coming quickly, people are beginning to wonder what will the next disc format be, if any is to take the place of current ones already? Japanese company TDK introduced a new kind of optical disc about a week ago that literally would be like having 41 Blu-ray discs on one single disc. The disc itself can hold a terabyte of data on a crazy 16 layers of recording structure.

The crazy part about it is that this is a size of storage that most normal hard drives would have trouble competing with. Most 3.5” hard drives mainly get to about 1.5 TB of storage and a laptop’s 2.5” hard drive will typically reach the highest of 750 GB or in some rare cases only 1 TB. This would not only bring a whole new angle on watching over 40 movies on a single disc, but it will make taking massive amounts of information a very safe, easy, and transferable way of the future. 

Now being this is merely an exhibit at a Japanese tech show, we obviously cannot expect to see this on any form of market to replace Blu-ray anytime soon. Not only would it be grossly overpriced for a 20 dollar movie, but there would also be a compatibility issue involved in the conversion. These discs can be read at the same speed as Blu-ray discs on the market today, but they are a dead stop for backwards compatibility due to their 2.5x thicker aspects. Also, not many people may be interested in going out and spending the money on a disc that would likely have nearly 500 GB of empty space. What on Earth would Hollywood do with all of that space on a single disc? Give each of the actors room for every tweet they ever made? Because I have a feeling that would only be the beginning. 

So I do have to admit, when the price comes down, the players come out, and people find out what to do with all of that space, I will probably be one of the people in line for these wonderful new inventions of extremely movable media. That and I would just love to see them find a way to use 900 GB for interviews, cool features, and bonus content.

Blu-ray: Just a Novelty?

High definition; By now, almost everyone knows what it is. Over the years… the number of HD channels greatly increased and the price of HDTV's are much lower than they once were, making high definition content more widely available to the majority of people. And, if you have ever compared an HD quality picture to a standard definition picture… you know just how vastly improved the HD picture is. Personally, I could never go back to a standard def. picture. But, as I was watching TV last night, my brain started to wander and I asked myself: "Why hasn't Blu Ray taken off?" As I thought about that I came up with a few possible answers.

The first thing that came to my mind was the fact that Blu Ray was in a long, drawn out format war with HD-DVD. I think it possible that the average consumer has lost interest in the whole concept of HD movie discs.  But if I had to guess… I'd say it had more to do with the price of the Blu Ray discs and peripherals. 

At this point, Blu Ray discs are $60 and the Blu Ray players average $200. When you pair that with the idea of having to buy or re-buy DVD's to take advantage of the player… I think it is very possible that the investment in Blu Ray is just too high for the mainstream. To be fair, though, Blu Ray itself is a relatively new technology and all new technology has a price premium. It is possible that the price may drop given some time.

I think it is possible that one, or both of these things may be playing a factor in the slow adoption of Blu Ray. But I believe there may be a bigger reason why Blu Ray has not taken off. The reason? Streaming media.

You may be thinking to yourself, "What does streaming media have to do with Blu Ray?" Well, in my opinion, streaming video is quickly becoming a new, acceptable way to consume movies. With devices such as the Apple TV and many other set top boxes, it is easier than ever to get HD quality content on your TV instantly. While the initial investment in one of these boxes may be equal to, and maybe even slightly higher than most Blu Ray players, the cost of the media is often significantly lower. 

All of these factors lead me to the question: Is Blu Ray over before it ever really got started?

What do you think?