While the ongoing collapse of Blu-ray disc sales is causing famous actor and producer Matt Damon to worry about the future of cinema (read the article: Matt Damon is worried about the end of DVD and Blu-ray), a new optical disc technology could well revive physical copies. Its advantage: the ability to offer over 1TB of storage per disc for a cost lower than any other storage. A real asset for the development of future 8K Blu-ray movies.
1TB optical discs
The future of Blu-ray could be decided in the States, where young start-up Folio Photonics has just announced a major innovation in the world of data storage: optical discs that can store up to 1TB. This is a real revolution compared to the modest 100GB capacity of current 4K Blu-ray discs. The advantages are considerable, with the possibility of storing an entire series on a single disc. Full HD, 4K and 3D versions of a movie could all be stored on one disc. This space saving would make it possible to reduce the compression of soundtracks and could finally allow viewers to enjoy Dolby Atmos or DTS:X in several languages with compatible movies. Better still, the 1TB discs could help 8K to become more widespread, as its development is currently limited by the low storage capacity of Blu-ray and the limited Internet bandwidth in many areas.
Reduced production cost
Although the technology used by Folio Photonics is currently only designed for mass storage and archiving on hard drives, it can easily be adapted for Blu-ray. However, it is still necessary for manufacturers to design Blu-ray players that are compatible with this technology. The production cost put forward by the start-up could speed things up, with a price tag that would be significantly lower than current SSDs, hard drives and archiving systems of the same capacity. Folio Photonics says each drive is expected to cost less than $5 per TB to produce, compared to an average of $25 to develop a typical 1TB hard drive. To do this, the brand uses new materials and innovative technologies, including patented polymer extrusion. Where storage discs today offer up to three optical layers per side, the upcoming Folio Photonics discs promise up to 16 layers. A number that the company plans to increase to further expand the storage capacity of a physical disc.
Possible commercialization in 2024
By 2024, the U.S. company plans to make this new technology available to businesses. The brand is expected to initially assemble 10 units to create 10TB hard drives. If Folio Photonics’ technology takes off, it could become the next standard and will hopefully finally democratize Ultra High Definition with future 8K UHD Blu-rays.
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will this make the picture quality of our growing collection of yet-to-be-viewed 4K UHD blu rays less detailed/ desirable much the way they made HD BLU rays less desirable? OR have we already reached a limit in picture quality that can be squeezed out of converting existing recordings like older film media like say Technicolour and even present-day digital media? And have the digitizers save even higher resolution copies for future-friendly digital formats like this And the same for sound tracks. i am holding out for microled screens developments to make them affordable mainstream because they are brighter for high ambient light viewing environments and more stable than OLED.
I AM EXCITED about this new DESCRIBED storage technology granting more affordable compact/LOW WEIGHT, STABLE storage space on my home PC for the burgeoning digital files from the most recent wonderful resolution of the newest camera SENSORS RELEASES.
REPLYING TO ….. https://blog.son-video.com/en/2022/09/is-8k-blu-ray-now-possible-thanks-to-1tb-discs/
I for sure will embrace it wholeheartedly & purchase all movies released in 8k especially in steelbooks.
I am an audiophiliac & listening to lossless audio is something that I keep in my collection. I would most certainly welcome DTS:X, more ATMOS channels all the way upto 7.1.6 Auro-3D audio. All this can be possible in the future on a 1TB media.
I am reading this piece with great interest and enthusiasm! Should I wait for this new technology or blow my savings on the very expensive Kaleidescape system, which is 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos or DTS-S audio?
Verdade que somos poucos os que ainda preferem a mídia física mas não estamos extintos só acho que os desenvolvedores poderiam trabalhar pra diferenciar visualmente essa nova mídia das anteriores (cd, dvd, blu-ray e ultra hd) como criar discos de 8cm por exemplo Uma das queixas das pessoas com as mídias físicas é que elas ocupam bastante espaço, reduzir o tamanho delas um pouco poderia ajudar a despertar esse interesse novamente não resolveria todos os problemas mais seria um atrativo claro juntando isso à preços acessíveis é claro tanto da mídia quanto do player.
This would be awesome for data storage if it has long-term archival qualities. However, I suspect physical media is largely dead in terms of entertainment. Very few customers are discerning in terms of image quality. I suspect the great majority of people will still prefer digital streaming.
“I suspect physical media is largely dead in terms of entertainment.” You suspect wrong. There are people (like me for example) who will always preffer physical media to streaming. “Very few customers are discerning in terms of image quality.” Well this greatly depends on what screen are those customers viewing the media. On a 50 inches screen it won’t be noticeable. However on a 80-90 inches screen even a person with less than perfect eyesight will still notice the difference. And since the current trend towards bigger and bigger screens won’t stop anytime soon, bigger screens will require ever incresing resolutions. And physical media is just better than streming and it will always be better than streaming.
Not only that, but the world is not universal in high speed broadband coverage to get the speeds necessary for true 8k streaming. We’ve seen enough poor 4k streaming let alone 8k.