It sounds amazing but Pioneer has developed a 16 layers Blu-ray Disc, which will be able to store up to 400GB. No, I did not add a zero by mistake! That is a lot of storage space for a disc, specially comparing with the 700MB CDs of a few years back. Even more amazing was the time frame between the dual layer 50GB, currently available and the new upcoming 400GB. Pioneer will release more details during the Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage 2008, which is being held on the 13 July in Hawaii.

Apparently, the new Blu-ray would technically work in existing Blu-ray players because both use the same technology (not sure if I believe this part…). Unfortunately multi-layer discs have had problems in the past with cross-talk between layers but Pioneer says it was able to leverage its experience in optical disc production to dramatically reduce the data “bleeding”. Pioneer also spun the disc as a green product, noting that discs with larger capacities mean fewer resources are consumed to deliver the same data.

Popularity: 12% [?]

These are the first 6x recordable BD media and Panasonic got a head start! The LM-BR25MD and LM-BR50MD will be released in Japan in July,  at this time we do not have a estimated release date for Euroupe or US. The new discs will be available in two versions, 25GB (single sided/single layer) at a price of $15 and  $37 for the 50GB (single sided/dual layer) version. They will provide a data transfer speed of 216Mbps.

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You can find the full press release bellow:

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PANASONIC INTRODUCES WORLD’S FIRST 6X WRITE-ONCE BLU-RAY DISC MEDIA*

Secaucus, NJ (June 18, 2008) – Panasonic today announced that it has developed the world’s first Write-Once Blu-ray Discs (BD-R) with 6X writing speed*. The new discs will be available in both 25GB** and 50GB capacities.

Panasonic, which introduced the world’s first dual-layer 1X BD-RE Blu-ray Disc in 2004***, 2X BD-R/RE Discs in 2006, and 4X BD-R Disc in 2007, is now launching the first 6X BD-R to meet consumer demand to read and write large amounts of data at higher speeds. The new 6X discs have a maximum data transfer speed of an amazingly fast 216Mbps. This transfer speed, along with the discs’ high capacity, allows consumers to use these discs for a variety of applications such as storing high-definition video or backing up PC data.

The new discs feature a wide power margin at any writing speed from 1X to 6X. This enables high-quality recording, even if the drive’s laser power fluctuates, resulting in greater overall drive compatibility.

Panasonic’s adoption of newly-developed disc technology produces extremely level and well-balanced discs with highly precise signal grooves. This improves servo characteristics and enables the laser beam to focus to the right position even when the disc is rotating with 6X high speed, thus providing optimum reading and writing performance.

Specifications

6X BD-R

Format Name: Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format Ver. 1.3
Model Number: LM-BR25MDE, LM-BR50MDE
Data Capacity: 25GB, 50GB
Layer Constitution: Single Sided/Single Layer, Single Sided/Dual Layer
Recording Format: Phase Change Recordable
Laser Wavelength: 405nm ?Blue-violet Laser?
Objective Lens Numerical Aperture (NA): 0.85
Disc Diameter/Thickness: 120mm x 1.2mm
Track Pitch: 0.32 ?m
Minimum Mark Length: 0.149?m
Data Transfer Speed: 216Mbps(Max.)
Hard Coating

*As of June 18, 2008

**The capacity of Blu-ray discs is expressed in units of 1GB=1 billion bytes, but the capacity is slightly below that after formatting, so that the actual amount area that can be used will be less.

***Introduced in Japanese market only

See more details on the chart bellow:

Popularity: 13% [?]

LG has stepped up the game and brought 3 new Blu-ray Burners that can write up to 6x speeds. This throws them ahead of the game since many manufacturers (LaCie, Plextor, LiteOn) are still releasing 4x burners. The new LG Blu-ray burners are: BE06, GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L. All three of them can read HD-DVD media at 3x, have SecurDisc capabilities, which provide data protection and content access control on all current optical formats, and LightScribe technology, a very cool feature that allows users to create direct-to-disc labels right from their drive.

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The BE06 is an external drive that can be connected to your computer by USB 2.0. The BE06 has a MRSP of $379.95. It is compatible with all BD, DVD and CD formats, reads 6x BD-R/2x BD-RE and records DVD+RW/-RW at 16x. Get the detailed specs of the new BE06 drive here!

Both the GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L are internal drives and will be priced at $199.95 and $279.95, respectively. The GBW-H20L handles 6 × BR-R writing and 2× BD-RE writing, along with 16× DVD burning and 40× CD burning. The GBC-H20L does all the above but does not to write to Blu-ray media.

“LG drives offer everyday users and professionals some of the fastest recording speeds in the industry,” said Marc Sorkin, senior marketing manager, for LG Electronics IT and Home Entertainment products. “With cutting-edge technologies such as SecurDisc and LightScribe, which make data transfer easier and safer, these drives meet consumers’ increasing demand for a compact storage option both in the office and at home.”

You can read the full press release here!

Popularity: 21% [?]

Plextor announced their new Blu-ray drive, the PX-B910SA. Differently from previous models such as the PX-B920SA and the PX-B300SA, the PX-B910SA no longer supports HD-DVD, a decision based on the death of the format earlier this year. Besides the HD-DVD capabilities, the new drive is pretty much the same as the PX-B920SA, being able to write BD Disks at 4x.

Plextor is a Japanese company that specializes on optical drives and introduced its first CD-ROM optical disk drive under the TEXEL brand name in 1989.

The PX-B910SA currently only scheduled to be released in Japan but it will probably arrive in Europe and the US later this year. Plextor has a suggested retail price of ¥45,000 (about US$430), much less than its predecessors.

Bellow you can find some specs of the PX-B910SA:

Software included

• WinDVD8
• DVD MovieFactory 5.5
• VideoStudio 11

Write

• BD-R SL, DL:4x
• BD-RE Sl, DL: 2x
• DVD+R/-R: 16x
• DVD+R/-R DL: 8x
• DVD-RW: 6x
• DVD+RW: 8x
• DVD-RAM :5x
• CD-R: 40x
• CD-RW:24x

Read

• BD-R SL, DL:4x
• BD-RE Sl, DL: 2x
• BD-ROM: 4x
• DVD+R/-R: 16x
• DVD+R/-R DL: 8x
• DVD-RW: 8x
• DVD+RW: 8x
• DVD-RAM :5x
• CD-R: 40x
• CD-RW:32x
• CD-ROM: 40x
• DVD-ROM SL: 16x
• DVD-ROM DL: 12x

Popularity: 10% [?]

LaCie has released its LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive a few days ago. The new drive operates at 4x Blu-ray burning speed, double the speed of it predecessor. A Blu-ray writer that burns at 4x is no news to any one since there are many others currently on the market! So what’s the deal with this drive? What makes it stand out? Well, its design…

LaCie has some pretty cool designs, they are simple but give a modern feel. The new LaCie d2 specifically has been designed by Neil Poulton. He is a Scottish-born product designer who specializes in the design of simple, mass-produced objects and has won numerous international design awards. Poulton is best known for lighting and for technology designs. This is not the first time LaCie uses famous designers to make their products look nicer! They have used Sam Hecht, Ora-Ito, Karim Rashid, GmbH and the LEGO guy (actually also Ora-Ito) to beautify their external drives.

“In early 2007, LaCie was the first vendor to ship worldwide an external solution for professional Hi-Def video recording for both Mac and Windows. Since that time, Blu-ray technology has proven to be the dominant source for video recording and playback,” said Patrick Salin, LaCie Business Development Manager. “Burning up to 50GB of data can take a reasonable amount of time, so doubling burn speeds not only increases work performance, but provides a cost-effective, long-term archival process for storing data to sturdy scratch-resistant media.”

The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive is retailing for $649.99. Putting the design aside, this is quite a high price for a Blu-ray writer considering you can find many drives for much less! But I guess for some people the design and the aluminum alloy case are worth the big bucks…

Here are some pictures so you can appreciate the design:

Click here to see the Owner’s Manual!

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Click here to see the full Press Release!

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Specs

• Capacity: up to 50GB per disc
• Interface: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and FireWire
• Writing Speeds
  • BD-R* (single or dual layer) 4x; BD-RE**(single or dual layer) 2x
  • DVD±R 16x; DVD±RW 6x; DVD±R DL 4x
  • CD-R 40x; CD-RW 32x
• Reading Speeds
  • BD-ROM***4x; AACS (content protected) BD-ROM 2x; BD-R 4x; BD-RE 2x
  • DVD±R 16x; DVD±RW 8x; DVD±R DL 8x
  • CD-R 40x; CD-ROM 40x; CD-RW 32x
• Cache Size: 8MB
• Dimensions (WxHxD)
  • 6.8 x 1.76 x 9.89 in.
  • 72.8 x 44.8 x 251.1 mm
  • Weight : 3.09 lbs. / 1400 g
• System Requirements
  • Mastering/Burning:Windows XP with the latest service pack; Windows Vista™ / Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher; Pentium 4 3GHz processor / Power PC G4 or higher, Mac Intel processor; minimum 512MB RAM HD
  • Video Playback:NVIDIA® GeForce 6600GT, ATI X1600 GPU with latest driver; minimum 1280×1024 monitor resolution.
  • To play a protected BD movie in HD through a digital DVI or HDMI interface: HDCP GPU + HDCP ready display.
• Bundled Software
  • Toast 8 Titanium;
  • Easy Media Creator 9;
  • PowerDVD BD (for HD playback with Windows)
• Warranty: 2 Year Limited Warranty

Notes:

*Blu-ray disc Recordable - write-once
**Blu-ray disc Rewritable
***Blu-ray disc Read Only Memory This product is not to be used for illegal recording. LaCie cannot be held responsible for the unlawful use of this device. 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible media capacity varies depending upon operating environment.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Hitachi has released a pretty cool new toy! The DZ-WR90 is a Blu-ray burner that can save all your HD movies on the go…directly from your HD camcorder via a eSATA port. No need for the old buddy PC! Not sure how many people will actualy carry this around but… There is always a looney for everything.

The drive also works with DVD-R discs, and can support double-sided media although you’ll have to flip them yourself. Hitachi is claiming a Blu-ray disc will fit around 3 hours of full 1920 × 1080 footage and burn in 1.5hrs; alternatively, you can fit on up to six hours in 1440 × 1080 resolution. The downside from this gadget seems to be that you won’t be able to edit or fool around much with the videos, it will stay pretty much as recorded on the camcorder.

The DZ-WR90 will be released in Japan in mid-July but no pricing has been disclosed yet.

And it seems that learning how to read Japanese is the way to go…Look at picture to see the video flow, going from the image on your HDTV to the BD media.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Expected to be released later this summer, the new Multi-codec Video Encoder BAE-VX1000 is a professional solution designed to handle real-time encoding of MPEG-2 or H.264/AVC primary and secondary video streams suitable for the Blu-ray Disc (BD) format. This tool is making Blu-Ray duplication faster and easier. It will decrease the total encoding time by 30% over the current BAE-VA700 solution and all of us know that time is money. The improved speed is attributed to enhancements such as parallel capturing and pre-processing, the elimination of LDEC checking, and increased encoding algorithm efficiency.

“With Blu-ray technology now being recognized as the HD optical disc format for the consumer electronics industry, more studios are increasing production of BD titles,” said Chris Marchitelli, marketing manager in Sony Electronics’ content creation division. “This encoding solution provides a range of features to speed the BD-ROM workflow, offering high-quality and ease of operation for BD-ROM authoring professionals.” Marchitelli said. “Through distributed processing, it can control a large number of PCs for real-time performance, making it possible to build a scalable system and shorten your overall encoding time with no compromise in picture quality. It is designed to maintain a high picture quality BD workflow.”

A multi-codec design enables compatibility with most common Blu-ray authoring applications, such as Sony Creative Software’s Blu-Print and Sonic Solutions’ Scenarist. The option of using AVC or MPEG-2 technology gives production pros more flexibility. And MPEG-2 encoding for traditional DVD authoring is also available. The new BAE-VX1000 will support a simple single PC configuration that can accomplish AVC encoding in real-time. but also can be expanded to a networked distributed processing configuration, in order to achieve the higher performance required by some production facilities.

The BAE-VX1000 offers multiple settings. An “Express” mode supports AVC real-time encoding with one PC, when encoding speed is the top priority. When using additional networked processors, “Fast” and “Quality” modes are also available to meet higher performance and quality priorities. The BAE-VX1000 also offers a built in real-time AVC elementary stream decoder that improves the efficiency of quality checking procedures. New features also include: template parameters, batch processing, support for one PC standalone encoder and compatibility with Windows Server 2003, XP, and Vista (64-bit operating system required in each case).

Sony released very little information apart from the physical specifications (such as dimensions, weight, power consumption, etc.) available on its website. It is also unclear in what way this device interfaces with a PC, such as if it is a PCI card, PCI Express card, external device, etc. No pricing is available either…

Popularity: 16% [?]

We came across these 2 interesting videos demonstrating the coating technology used on TDK Blu-ray media. It is called DURABIS2 but initially referred to as Super Hard Coating. This is basically an innovative technology which reinforces and protects the recording surface of BD media products. This coating is what makes Blu-rays more resistant against smudges, scratches, and dust. Check the videos below:

Popularity: 7% [?]

By the end of May, PLDS (Philips and Lite-On Digital Solutions) will have the new DH-4B1S 4x Blu-ray writer out on the European market. This new BD writer is the successor of the LH-2B1S, one of the first Blu-ray drives on the market. The new DH-4B1S offers twice the speed at a more consistent rate than the previous model from the company.

The internal Lite-On DHX-4B1S burns data to Blu-ray discs at 4x speeds using the inbuilt “Constant Linear Velocity” (CLV) technology which allows data to be transferred at a consistent 4X rate throughout the burning process. PLDS says this is a speedy alternative to some other drives on the market that may claim 6X burning but use “Constant Angular Velocity” (CAV) - a strategy that starts data transfer at a slower rate and gradually builds to its top speed only at the end of the session, so in reality the average speed is much lower than 6X.

“If you use only 75-80% of the disc capacity, a 4X CLV writing strategy will be a quicker solution then a 6X CAV strategy”, says marketing manager Jelmer Veldman. “We see a growing market acceptance for Blu-ray as the format of choice for High Definition content playback and for high volume archiving. With this 4X BD writer Lite-On delivers a faster solution for burning data to Blu-ray Discs.”

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PBD-RE media can be written at 2X and the DH-4B1S reads BD-ROM discs at 4X. Furthermore, the drive can burn DVD±R at 12 and DVD±R DL at 8X.The maximum speed for writing DVD+RW is 8X, DVD-RW at 6X, CD-R (reading and writing) at 40X and CD-RW at 24X. However, this drive doesn’t support dual layer BD-R/RE discs.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

Even without many profile 2.0 Blu-ray players currently on the market Sonic Solutions and Sony are looking into the future and working on enhancing the BD-Live creation capabilities. It is clear that internet connectivity and entertainment are the way to go, so to be better prepared Sonic is developing a more efficient way to build interactivity on Blu-rays. This capability will enhance Sonic’s Scenarist® BD authoring platform making it easier for developers to create Blu-ray discs with BD-Live content.

“The BD-Live feature set is an exciting new capability for BD that combines the best of on-disc and online content to provide consumers with a dynamic and always-current entertainment experience,” said Rolf Hartley, senior vice president and general manager of Sonic’s Professional Products Group. “Sony’s extensive knowledge of the BD specification combined with Sonic’s experience in providing solutions for online interactive content via its InterActual® products will help significantly boost BD-Live title production.”

These streamlined capabilities will ultimately impact YOU! How? Both companies believe that by making BD-Live content easier to create, costs will be reduced and make BD-Live more available. Once costs drop, more and more studios will want to include web-connected content in their movies. Then, next thing we will see is BD-Live on every future release! The consequence of all this? It will speed up consumer adoption of next-generation titles and players! That will be just great!

Popularity: 11% [?]