Sony, Panasonic Propose Blu-ray Capacity Increase

Sony and Panasonic have announced that they have developed a new optical disc evaluation technology that will allow the layer capacity of Blu-ray media to increase from 25GB to 33.4GB using existing Blu-ray laser diodes. This would presumably allow existing Blu-ray hardware - including Blu-ray Disc players and burners - to play the proposed discs with a simple firmware upgrade. Currently, disc evaluation is accomplished by analyzing disc jitter, but at higher capacity, that technique becomes unreliable. Sony and Panasonic resolved this by developing i-MLSE (Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation) evaluation index, which can perform the same function as jitter but at higher capacities. Computing MLSE is typically a very processor intensive process, but new advances in hardware development make this not only possible but also in real time (similar to jitter). No word on when or if the Blu-ray Disc Association will evaluate the proposed layer capacity increase for inclusion in the Blu-ray spec, but with Sony and Panasonic two of the largest Blu-ray members, it will likely happen sometime later this year.
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deado  » 3 days ago
I think this will be a must for 3-D movies and stuff like LOtR ROTK EE, to maintain the quality.

dobyblue  » 3 days ago
Nice one Sony and Panasonic! Weren't they thinking of bumping the maximum data rate as well?

MADNOD  » 3 days ago
so the increase was planned only for the 25GB and not the 50 GB?

dncpunke  » 3 days ago
I believe the increase is per layer not just for a single layer disc

siyotecreopove  » 3 days ago
madnod: each layer

SellmeyourDVD  » 3 days ago
33.4 * 2 = 66.8

saginawjuggalo  » 3 days ago
I caught this great news yesterday on another site. Hopefully everything works out and the BDA gives it a green light!

Sidewinder  » 3 days ago
More space is always welcome. LOL one single layer BD would overtrump a dual layer HD-DVD.

vveksuvarna  » 3 days ago
bring on those 120gb blurys, which got rejected before this.

audioquest  » 3 days ago
Ha Ha Ha Sidewinder: Let's continue to bash a dead format. The format war is over, time to move on dude.

Bobby Henderson  » 3 days ago
Actually, this development would make it possible for movie studios to put a lot more movies on single layer discs rather than BD50 discs. There's a lot of BD50 discs out there with the feature barely passing the 30GB mark.

DefTechPioElite  » 3 days ago
I'm assuming this is for 3-D like some else said, and that's cool BUT; if the cost of discs goes up purely for this/3-D, I will be unhappy because I am one of the few who can't see 3-D. Again, as long as they keep a non 3-D option available I'll be happy. On a non 3-D note, hopefully they will use some of this extra space for higher bit audio/video, especially audio or higher sampled audio!

Sidewinder  » 3 days ago
@audioquest Why not? Seriously though, that's just what I thought at first: 33GB>30GB and it will soon be the 2nd BD victory birthday

Jimmy Smith  » 3 days ago

Unless the movie is over 4.5 hours (2D) or 3 hours (3D) then BD-50s can fit the movie without compromising quality. Every current 3D movie is short enough to easily fit on a current BD-50 and every theatrically released movie in 2D can as well. Im highly sceptical of these discs. Blu-Ray players were designed with 25 gig discs per layer in mind not 33. It seems highly improbable something as simple as a firmware upgrade can ever change that. It reminds me of HD-DVD claiming they have 51 gigabyte triple layer discs coming out. Nothing ever came of those I think I think the same will happen here. I hope to be proven wrong however. It would be nice to increase Blu-Rays play times to 6 hours (2D) or 4 hours (3D).

mustang-gt-2002  » 3 days ago	Show comment Hide comment
what about us with Blu-ray players profile 1.1 that cant be upgraded? no Ethernet jack for firmware upgrades :-(

fdm  » 3 days ago
If every blu-ray player ever made can play these, then bring 'em on. (Color me skeptical, what are the odds of every blu-ray player ever made getting a firmware upgrade, or failing that, being able to play these bigger discs as is?)

Rike255  » 3 days ago
If the PS3 can (or will) support it, then I'm all for this! Would suck if some players got left out because they're non-upgradeable or the company doesn't release any FW/

bluflu  » 3 days ago
@ mustang-gt-2002, All Blu-ray players can be firmware updated. You just have to burn a disc to update Profile 1.1 players. The was also true for past DVD players too.

richteer  » 3 days ago
@Bobby Henderson: I hope not. If anything, the increased capacity should hopefully encourage studios to use less compression, resulting in larger files and (even) better quality.

thegline  » 3 days ago
Slightly off-topic, but I couldn't help but remember this. When I read the word "jitter", I remembered this little horror story, courtesy of a long-time maven of audio engineering: http://www.rogernichols.com/EQ/EQ_2000_02.html Either hilarious or horrifying, depending on how you look at it.

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