Pioneer's 400GB Blu-ray disc will work in current players [Update]

by Andrew Yoon on Dec 2nd 2008 5:00PM

When unveiled earlier this year, there was some debate about whether or not Pioneer's new 400GB Blu-ray disc would work on currently players. DIGITIMES is reporting that the new 16-layer discs will work on current Blu-ray players, which includes the PS3. These super high density discs won't be available until 2010, just in time for Hideo Kojima's next game.

Update: Looks like we have some contradictory information: Speaking to Edge, Pioneer said the opposite was true. "Current BD players and drives would not be able to read these discs," the company said, adding that the technology is "at this time not being proposed as a candidate for addition to the existing Blu-ray Disc format."
[Via Engadget]

Source

Tags: 400gb, blu-ray, pioneer

Reader Comments (67)

Sure it can work. But how well. I doubt it will be more of a nuisance than a benefit.

I meant "It will be more of a nuisance".

starting off yes, but once it takes off look out!!

I cannot wait for full TV series to be on one disc...

Does SHE come with the disc?

Dibs! Sorry, you took too long to call it.

Oh you *giggle*

Over kill if ya ask me!

I have yet to fill up my 500 gb HDD, why would I need that?

I guess maybe if things were Super Dooper High Def. Like 3000x2000 or something.

I don't see a practical use for home consumers, maybe I'm blind, but I doubt we need this until like 2020 or something

I bet you still watch movies on VHS. *rolls eyes*

According to the roadmap the next gen TV spec indeed will have 4k-by-2k resolution. There will be demand for this once 60-inch panels starts mass production and price starts to go down. And that's gonna happen sooner than 2020, more like 2010~2012.

I've filled 4 Terabytes of space and thats WITHOUT copying my ENTIRE DVD collection to my server.......

damn porn........

Haha. lol

Well I've already filled 2 Tera Bytes of HDD space on my main computer, this doesn't include all the files I had to transfer to disk to make more space. Graphic Design is a monster

LOL @ The Aggie CEO

and

HarryPS3, I don't own a VHS

Well at least by then this might be affordable.

I've filled over 200Gb with just my music collection, and considering movies are around 1-2Gb each, and episodes in HD of various tv shows ranging from 0.8-2Gb... 400Gb is certainly not overkill.

With over 70% of my 2Tb RAID HD in use, these disks would be a bloody godsend. Hah!

Granted, it's overkill for most things in this point in time. But it would be nice to maybe have full TV show seasons in HD on one disc.

That would really be the only useful thing for now until Super Hi-Vision, but there is no harm in continuing to advance the technology so they are ready when the time comes.

Nothing like badmouthing more storage to get people to break out their HD-penis.

"But my hard drive is so much bigger than your hard drive."

I think this is a very good thing for blu-ray because now, to be capable of higher resolutions, they can still use the same technology. A 400GB disc will be more than enough space for a 2160p movie. All they would have to do is modify the specs.

I want whole seasons of shows on one disc. That should be possible, right?

@matthew: Yep! Good idea, me too!

I think the people complaining that it’s way too much space don’t consider that as long as there are box sets, whose only real reason for existence are that a DVD (or Blu-ray) does not offer enough storage space, there is clearly a need to have more space on a disc.

It makes me wonder how much compression was done on a game like MGS4. If we could have a game with everything uncompressed which= better, than I am all for it.
On a side note, if people were actually able to take advantage of the entire 500 gigs than I can only imagine how crazy the game would be.

Uncompressed information isn't always good. The problem with it is that it not only takes up more space on the disc but it will probably take up a lot more space on the RAM to. Forcing the system to deal with very large amounts of Data. I think uncompression is unnecessary at this point. Lossless compression is the way to go imo :D

it would be perfect for final fantasy and similar rpgs. a 400+ hr adventure with amazing textures and character models! *gamegasm*

Do you know how awful a 400+ hour RPG would be? Already they are running out of ideas, imagine trying to extend a 100 hour game to four times as long? If they can keep the story interesting for that long, then props to them.

Well the real benefit to that is that games would never have to be 2 Blu-Ray long.

Movie compilations and entire seasons can fit on a single disk.

Imagine a "Family Guy" game (decently done) Special Edition for 100 dollars that includes like 4 or more seasons in HD on a single disk.

Don't forget Resident Evil 5 is getting a special Hollywood Production. StrangleHold had the movie in HD.

Would you really pass up a chance to play a decently made game that covers a t.v. series or a movie series and has an entire series?

What about a special "Final Fantasy" where they take the best of each Final Fantasy remake, all the other titles, etc... all the way up to Versus and XIII, cram them all on a single disk and sell it for some 100 dollars or so?

The possibilities are endless... If we ever see a 2 disk blu-ray game it means 1 of 3 things...

1. Higher capacities are too slow a read rate
2. The company doesn't know what the heck they are doing
3. ZOMGZ GAME OF THE YEAR GAME OF THE YEAR GAME OF THE YEAR!!!!

:P

WOW!!! Future proof indeed!

I dont know, if they really want blu-ray to catch on they are going to need to keep everything playable on current players. Blu-ray is having a hard enough time as it is, still has a tiny market share.

400GBs is alot... Have fun Kojima and make it good ;)

Well the good news is obviously that developers will have
unlimited space to work on but they wont try to fill it up for the only reason it will take for ever to develop a game
that will use all that space and not to mention how most developers just try to rush trying to pop out games into the market as fast as possible so they can have higher market shares. I doubt if any developer will use all that on a game but it will be good for movies maybe they can put all of the years Blue ray movies in one disk like " all movies of 2008 on BR in one DVD" ha ha ha

Is anyone thinking about Hideo Kojima re-releasing MGS 4 on THIS?!?!?! How freaking awesome would that be - nothing compressed, graphics improved - just like he wanted but couldn't do due to limited space of 50gb. Think about it...Hideo Kojima wasn't satisfied completely with the release of MGS 4 - if MGS 4 gets rereleased with extra content and better graphics who here doesn't think it would sell like crazy??

Also what about FF Versus XIII. NOW what does Square Enix have to say??? If they plan to release anything multiplatform - remember you're going to have to bring about oh let's say 16 disks on the other console LOL - that is if they push PS3 to the potential.

And that's just it - if you want to push PS3 to its potential you have to develop your game exclusively for it and be serious about it. That's what made Hideo Kojima and his team successful, that's what made Media Molecule amazing, that's what made Insomniac great, and soon it will make others successful.

"just like he wanted but couldn't do due to limited space of 50gb" lol limited space, line of the day for me lol

I think if MGS4 was re-released with "better graphics" and "extra content" it would sell like shit because anybody who really wanted MGS4 already owns a copy of it. I admit I *did* want it when it was released and I bought it, but I qualify as a member of the opposing spectrum (the same as those who don't like MGS4 for whatever reasons), as in, I didn't keep my copy of MGS4 because it wasn't as memorable as the first, the online play was ridiculous, and I wouldn't buy it again even if it becomes "enhanced" (lol). On topic, the 500gb blu ray is a cool idea, in theory, however a 500 gb ps3 game would be an asinine idea as all of you who are computer buffs know that the seek times of a filled ~500gb optical media would be too slow to tolerate.

wow talk about ADD, huh.. your excitement overloaded your logic circuits!!!

They could use it effectively, take a game that has some long load times, and take the data and write it to the 400gb bluray over and over as many times as you can, and that could potentially make the load time shorter because there is more than one instance to find for each piece of information.

"With this we shall create the ultimate video game with more options than real life! All other shovelware shall tremble!......Now let's get to work, come on guys we have to get on this if we want to meet our 2020 Christmas deadline!"

Finally, I can upgrade my floppy drive when this hits.

tapes are the way to go

Tapes: FUTUREPROOF!!!

Tapes? Pffft. BETAMAX!

damn shes cute :D

she looks like Brittany from alvin and the chipmunks >__< and her head looks to square to me :P but if i see her in the street i will probably hit that

holy crap!

Just in time for the xbox720 or wiiiiiiii...or when is the new cicle of does consoles?

I think a 400gb bluray disc for movies will be like... a waist of space. And for gaming well...even MGS4 filled the normal bd with tons of cutscenes and like 5 or less hours of gameplay also every game is going multiplataform.

Hey guys, how many xbox discs is 500 gigs worth, lol.

you mean 400 gigs? not quite 500 yet XD.
anyway, my trusty calculator says that one of these 400 gb disks is worth 50.314 of the dual layer 360 dvds. lol

DO IT KOJIMA!! :@:@

she looks too familiar, i think i've dated her distant cousin.
anyways, 400gb disc? really? that seems a little excessive right now. i thought tech was supposed to be getting smaller and more streamlined and not bulkier and a severe wear and tear on the cpu's. accessing a 400gb disc would take a long while imagine.

this disk is not designed for ps3 game, and it can never be for the games.

these 400gb+ bluray disks are for the audio/video/pc market. e.g. personal hd-video recorders, they will take up huge amounts of data.

but this is quite intresting i think, this blu ray format seems to expandable yet mantaining compatibility...normally when a format comes out, the limit is set (vhs, cd, dvd9)...

maybe they will release saw 7 with a bonus of saw 1,2,3,4,5,6 included as extras on the blu ray disk?

MGS 5, 6, 7 by 2018 all on the 400 GB disc!!! just watch and wait ( but if u go by the release date of MGS 4 it could get pushed back lol )

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Pioneer's 400GB Blu-ray disc will work in current players [Update]

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