Blu-ray Capacity Increase Via Firmware

LordofEntropy writes "Blu-ray.com reports that Sony and Panasonic have announced a new optical disc evaluation technology that increases capacity from 25GB to 33.4GB. The tech uses existing Blu-ray diodes and is accomplished via firmware upgrade. The article says it is not known if and when the upgrade will be adopted into the Blu-ray spec. However, given that Sony and Panasonic are behind it, 'it will likely happen later this year.'"

The diodes can stay, but the processor's gotta go!

[LostCluster]

There's a little more than just a firmware upgrade involved here. This is a computationally-intensive process, which means the PS3 might be able to handle this, but the $100 player you got at Wal-Mart most certainly won't. Moore's Law means that this will become practical in the future, but this tech is definitely ahead of it's time.

Per layer

[elrous0]

It should be noted that this is an increase of 25GB to 33.4GB per layer. Double layer blu-rays are already capable of storing 50 GB.

Also announced new encryption that needs it

[noidentity]

new optical disc evaluation technology that increases capacity from 25GB to 33.4GB

Unfortunately, they also announced that this 33% space increase will be used by their new DECE encryption [slashdot.org], "delivering greater flexibility, value, and security to consumers, without any extra cost, just a free firmware upgrade".

Re:Ps3 is the only reasonable player out

[Anonymous Coward]

The diode is purple.
Next step would be UV...

Re:The diodes can stay, but the processor's gotta

[quantumplacet]

This:
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&source=hp&q=logitech+ps3+adapter&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=18080916205225775435&ei=vARFS4-7M5PT8AaiqoGEBQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CB0Q8wIwAg#ps-sellers [google.com]

will let you use pretty much any harmony with it.

Re:Pushing the spec...

[faragon]

Already done, see the Sega Dreamcast discs: GD-ROM [wikipedia.org].

Re:The diodes can stay, but the processor's gotta

[Anonymous Coward]

Thankfully that banning isn't world wide last I checked.

- A Non American

Re:The diodes can stay, but the processor's gotta

[amRadioHed]

Exactly. DVDs are a stable format that do exactly what they need to.

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[account_deleted]

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