500GB Optical Disc

[arthurleung]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8021012.stm

I wonder if there is any point in this. Discs can get scratched and become unreadable.
Might as well get a harddrive. Or wait for things like SD card to come down in price.

[Funkstar]

<this is me not holding me breath for this to reach reality>

I would imagine one of these would need to be kept in a cartridge like a DVD-RAM. Nothing wrong with that. If the lifetime of these is acceptable they may find a use in archival places. But in general I aggree, by the time these hit the market, they will propably be redundant.

[Steve]

Optical discs rot, pretty damn quickly too.

They're rubbish for archiving, unless you never touch them, in which case they're probably not archiving very much.

[Funkstar]

Thats down to the organic dies used in current technology though isn't it? You do get archival grade DVDs that use different chemicals.... or at least you used to.

I would have thought it all depends on how these things are made. If it's using roughly the same materials as current disks, then yes, I agree.

[Hicks12]

Meh, HVD is better- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

[arthurleung]

Thats down to the organic dies used in current technology though isn't it? You do get archival grade DVDs that use different chemicals.... or at least you used to.

I would have thought it all depends on how these things are made. If it's using roughly the same materials as current disks, then yes, I agree.

Would have got a tape drive if the latest one aren't that expensive.

Which takes it to another point, why NOT use tape for video
You know people used to use VHS. (Not loseless though)

Seek time isn't a issue when you wait for a minute or two to get the movie to start anyway. And if the tape got messed up, cut out the bad part and it still works (try that on optical discs)

[MPJ88]

I agree, a bit pointless. Unless some uber new video format comes out!

[wildgoose1uk]

I agree - for backing up tape is best 9for now anyway)

[shaithis]

I agree, a bit pointless. Unless some uber new video format comes out!

TBH, you could use less compression on MPEG4/AVC and VC-1 video if you had bigger discs but we have only just really got BluRay out there which the masses are still not ready for yet........it's going to be a long time before any new disk formats would be accepted.