Tardhole says:

1.21 gigawatts?

Glenn E. says:

They can’t get anymore video detail on the screen. All they can do is to try using up that 67GB, with longer program minutes. So maybe an epic like Lord of the Rings (all 3 movies) would fit on one disc. Or an entire season of some Tv series. But even when DVD makers could do this with the current media. They tend not to. Marketing multiple discs, in one volume, allows them to set a higher price point for it. Whereas offering only a single disc, limits what they think the public will pay for it.

It’s a bit of a joke, really. Because I’ve seen two disc movies (usually Disney’s) that could easily have had the so-called “extras” on the same disc as the movie. But the two disc volume gets that extra distinction from the previously sold, one disc offering. And the price goes up.

Then there are some volumes, that I wished they had used more discs. Instead of using both sides of the disc to hold everything. Like one movie DVD I own, that has the full screen version on one side, and the letterbox version on the other side. So there’s no silk screened label on the disc.

In spite of the 67GB capacity. I’m sure it’ll be business as usual, for the DVD makers. Who will be much slower at changing what they do, than what the new technology allows them to do. Just as the Record Industry still markets ten song albums, on a CD. Rather than offering more “singles” discs. With only a couple of hit tracks from an artist. Who needs to hear all those other “B” tracks, that are often poorer songs? And why not make some CDs, with two albums’ songs, on them. Like the Beatles’ tunes from 1962 -`66. No, they still choose to use two separate discs, because they know it let’s them price it higher. Even though the combined total of both was only 632MB (wavs). Which would easily fit on a standard 700MB CD.

Glenn E. says:

I think the higher capacity Blu Ray discs will surely come with a higher price tag, for the discs and for a new player to handle them. Because I doubt that they could just squeeze the extra 17GBs onto a Blu Ray disc, without having to teach the player to look for it. The ability to scan beyond the previous disc capacity, would have to have been built into the old firmware. Or somehow defined by a data track, that could be ramped up that high. If either is true, then Ok, no sweat. Keep using the same player. But when was this every the case? Older VHS players couldn’t play any SLP (EP) recorded tapes, if they didn’t have that speed built-in. And older DVD player-recorders couldn’t play various forms of discs, made by competing brands of burners. So unless Sony was both very forward looking, and generous, with their Blu Ray standard. I’ll just bet the 67GB discs will require a new player.

That said, I think it’s a lost cause to keep the disc market alive. Because I believe that Flash memory will eventually replace all discs. Which is great because that eliminates scratches and smudges on the media, screwing up playback. And flash cards or sticks will take up less room. Imagine a whole movie on something the size of a stick of gum. It could be done right now. If they reduce the cost of manufacture enough. But I’m certain that the fossils running the industry are resistant to giving up selling discs. It’s what the trust and understand. Movies on Flash cards probably scares them silly.

Postman says:

#12,

And once again, 3d is a popular format for theaters, because it reduces the risk of screener piracy. It closes the analog leaked copies of the movie.

It will lose that quality once it is on disk… because the pirates can just copy the disk.

Also, you don’t need two full streams to do 3d, you would only need a little extra iframe data to compress it right into a single stream at full resolution. I doubt it would add much more than 5% to the current “full” 1080p files which are only 8-10GB depending on the movie.

These spinning disk technologies are coming to an end(at the consumer level). I am normally a skeptic on this type of thing, but we will really see hard drives phased out in favor of ssds over the coming year.