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Blu-ray disc hits 100GB

Leslie Katz Former Culture Editor
Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of tech and culture, plus all manner of awe-inspiring science, from space to AI and archaeology. When she's not smithing words, she's probably playing online word games, tending to her garden or referring to herself in the third person.
Credentials
  • Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
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Leslie Katz
TDK has developed a prototype Blu-ray disc that can store twice as much data as current iterations of the next-generation DVD format--and record it twice as fast.

PC World reports that the 100GB disc, unveiled at a TDK exhibition in Tokyo this week, can record data at 72 megabits per second, double the 36 mbps rate of current Blu-ray discs. To achieve the higher capacity, TDK added two additional recording layers to the disc to take it up to four layers.

TDK's announcement comes on the heels of last week's news that Toshiba has created a three-layer read-only HD DVD that can hold 45GB of data. HD DVD is a competing format to Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD's maximum capacity of 30GB had been viewed unfavorably against Blu-ray Disc's maximum 50GB capacity on a dual-layer disc.

With the ever-evolving format battle heating up so fast, we're just waiting for a 12-layer disc that can double as an MP3 player and a movie screen.