It all started in Roswell, New Mexico when the alien craft crashed and then we reverse egineered all the stuff (fibre optics, stealth design, chips, lasers) and the Appollo space program which gave us those small transister radios. Also the Nerds.

JJK

> Okay, so if it is capable of holding up to 80 times the capacity of a Blu-ray disc, then why invest in Blu-ray?

Perhaps because it’s as real as Stanley Kubrick’s prediction of what 2001 would look like! Right now it’s just a bunch of patents and an alliance to try and figure out if it can be made practical.

Blue-ray will be here next year. Holographic recording will be here right after Scotty fixes the transporter malfunction. Which one are you waiting for? ;-)

Me... I’m waiting for the Holographic Video Camera with "cold fusion" batteries. Why watch things in 2D when the real world is 3D? Of course, you’ll want a Hemispherical Display System to watch it! (now that's kewl!)

Of course, you could always skip to the next big thing after that which will be Paper Disk Storage. According to the article, this stuff actually grows on trees!

~jr

Holographic recording will be here right after Scotty fixes the transporter malfunction. Which one are you waiting for? ;-)

I think you misunderstand the use of the term "holographic" within the context of a holographic versatile disc. It will not, nor does it claim, to provide a holographic image. It's simply using holographic lasers and holographic medium, both which exist now, to store and play data, hence the high capacity.

Some articles have stated that it might be commercially available in 2006, with consumer models available in 2007.

[EDIT]

Looks like Maxell is already gearing up! Read about it here.

So I guess that means Scotty has fixed tha transporter manfunction!

I admit I was being playful there. I understand what it is. They are using the entire thickness of the disk medium to store data rather than just the surface. I didn’t realize Maxell had something working. Everything I’ve read said it was just theory and patents at this point. I still think the end of 2006 is being optimistic. They always run into problems along the way. The real question is: can they keep the cost down to allow it to be used by consumer appliances. That Maxell site said the discs were inexpensive but they didn’t say how much the burner costs. ;-)

~jr

Especially if the burner has to play BluRay, HD-DVD, HD-WMV, CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R Dual Layer, DVD-R Dual Layer, DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, SACD, MP-3, MP-4, DIVX, & Mini Disc.

JJK

I'm reminded of Polaroid, who worked really hard to develop instant movie film---right about the same time the home video market was taking off. Instant movie film was DOA.

Sometimes I envy my painter friends. They can buy brushes, tubes of paint, canvas----and fifty years from now, the stuff is still good. Nobody fifty years from now is going to insist on a painting on high-def canvas, using high-def paint. Or maybe they will, and I'm just fooling myself.

But I'm not fooling myself about the short life of video / computer gear, that wears out / becomes obsolete in five years. Or less.

---John Bitter Old Man

Here's another news item regarding Maxwell's HVDs.

They ARE coming, and sooner than anyone thought! So where does this leave Blu-ray and HD-DVD?

[EDIT]

And here's an article about growing concerns regarding the cost of production for Blu-ray discs. Why are they just now beginning to worry about this?

The disc manufacturing executive critical of Blu-ray said his company's production test lines showed that Blu-ray production was far less efficient than HD DVD. Component costs, for example, are higher because they use different materials than DVDs,

Now, what that does tell us?