Tag: Blu-Ray

Millenniata’s M-Disc Write Once DVD and Blu-Ray Optical Discs

In 2009, Millenniata began commercializing its M-Disc–a write-once version of DVD and Blu-Ray media that is designed to last for 1,000 years if stored properly. According to Millenniata’s website,

How is the M-Disc DVD different from normal recordable DVD Discs?

Other Recordable DVDs, including the most expensive “Gold” archival DVDs, burn data into an organic dye layer. Organic dyes start to degrade and fade as soon as they are written, leading to a condition sometimes called “data rot”. This problem is so severe that the National Archives warns that the reliable shelf life of a standard recordable DVD is somewhere between 2 and 5 years. The M-DISC™ contains no organic dyes. Instead, the M-DISC™’s data layer is composed of rock-like materials known to last for centuries. The M-DISC READY™ Drive etches the M-DISC™’s rock-like layer creating a permanent physical data record that is immune to data rot. The stability and longevity of the M-Disc DVD has been proven in rigorous tests conducted according to the ISO/IEC 10995 test standard for determining data lifetime of optical media.

That is partially marketing hype.

First, the claimed 2 to 5 year shelf life for regular recordable DVDs is absurd. Last year I successfully copied about 5,000 recordable DVDs that I had created spanning the early 2000s through about 2012. The only DVDs that I found were unreadable were ones that had been stored improperly.

Second, by “rock-like materials” it just means a layer of an inorganic carbon.

The nice thing about this, though, is that along with not having the potential shelf life issues of organic dyes, the M-Disc’s inorganic layer is apparently much more resistant to oxidation.

What really excited me when reading about these discs recently, however, is that they are now widely available in 100gb versions being sold by Verbatim. A 5-pack of the 100gb discs currently goes for about $68-$81 on Amazon, so these are not cheap. The non-M-Disc version of 100gb BD-Rs goes for about $60 for a 10 pack.

Video Games Sales > DVD/Blu-Ray Sales for 2008

GameSpot notes that for 2008 total sales of video game software was greater than the combined sales of DVD and Blu-Ray movies. Worldwide, game software sales totaled $32 billion, while DVD/Blu-Ray sales totaled $29 billion. These figures do exclude revenue generated from DVD/Blu-ray rentals.

Still, that’s a fairly impressive trend, and one that is only going to become more pronounced in the years ahead. According to GameSpot, NPD — who compiles these sales statistics — estimates that in 2009, video game sales will make up 57 percent of all home enteratinment sales.

Why Is Blu-ray Writable Still So Expensive?

I really like to back up data to optical media, and as the volume of data I back up continues to increase, I would love to back up to 25gb Blu-ray discs rather than 4.2gb DVD discs. But Blu-ray media is still far more expensive than DVD media and the obvious question is “why?”

The Blu-ray Dimensions blog offers an answer which is basically — relax, DVD writable media was even more expensive at a similar point in its history.

The technology uses a different type of laser (that’s how optical discs are read). With all that it does not compare to when a DVD recorder drive was $13,000.  Yes those days (years) really did exist.  This is not where we break out into a story about walking to school in bare feet in the snow but it really is a matter of perspective.  Recordable Blu-ray is not as inexpensive as recordable DVD because DVD is a mature market.  Demand has leveled off  and despite the crazy forecasts from some manufacturing sectors, the same ones who dump product on the market because they are always wrong, prices have drifted down.

One problem with this analysis, however, is that Blu-ray does not seem to be approaching anywhere near the adoption cycle that DVD experienced. Sales of Blu-ray software and hardware have significantly trailed sales of DVD movies at similar points in the respective technologies’ histories. According to Wikipedia,

According to Adams Media Research, high-definition software sales were slower in the first two years than DVD software sales. 16.3 million DVD software units were sold in the first two years (1997-1998) compared to 8.3 million high-definition software units (2006-2007). One reason given for this difference was the smaller marketplace (26.5 million HDTVs in 2007 compared to 100 million SDTVs in 1998).

That slow adoption could make it much tougher for Blu-ray writable media prices to come down to DVD levels on a per-gigabyte basis.

HD & Blu-Ray Media Making It to Market

In mid-August, Sony began shipping 50gb dual-layer Blu-Ray discs, while Memorex began shipping HD DVD-R discs. The Blu-Ray media retailed for about $48/disc and the HD DVD-R went for about $20.

At close to $1/gb, neither are much of a bargain when you can buy DVD+/-R media for about $.07/gb. Then again, if you need to back up 200gb of World of Warcraft screenshots like somebody I know does, then only needing 2-4 discs instead of swapping about 50 of them might be worth the price premium.

I’d like to think the HD DVD-R and Blu-Ray media prices might eventually come down, but since I think both technologies are very likely going to tank, I don’t have much confidence in that happening anytime soon.

Sources:

Memorex Begins Selling HD DVD Discs. Nate Mook, BetaNews, August 15, 2006.

Sony Shipping 50GB Blu-Ray Discs. Nate Mook, BetaNews, August 15, 2006.

Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Are (Finally) Coming

IDG’s Martyn Williams has the latest on planned rollouts of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs.

Both are likely to make summer launches, though the Quixotic quest to DRM movies could hold that off. According to Williams,

Sony will start selling 25GB BD-RE and BD-R discs in April for $20 and $25 respectively and 50GB capacity versions of the same discs later in the year for $48 and $60 respectively.

So at least Blu-Ray discs will launch at about four times the cost per gigabyte of DVD+-R. Since the only direction these prices can go is down, that’s pretty good.

The only likely problem is that the standards disagreement between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD could lower production of media, so prices don’t fall.

In a typical week I might archive 150-200gb of data, so having an alternative to store that on 4-8 Blu-Ray/HD-DVD discs would be a nice change from the 40-50 DVD+Rs I currently go through each week.

Source:

HD-DVD, Blu-ray Disc Drives Coming Soon. Martyn Williams, IDG, March 17, 2006

Blank Blu-Ray Discs Available Sometime in April

Sony is apparently going to actually start shipping single-layered Blu-ray discs later this month, which means they’ll hit retail around April. At least in Europe.

At least in Germany, the initial price is going to be about $30 apiece for the write-once version and $36 for the rewritable version of the 25gb optical disc. That’s $1.20/gigabyte of storage, or about 12 times higher than the per-gigabyte cost for DVD-R and DVD+R blanks these days. They’ll have to hit the $2-$2.50/apiece pricepoint to be worthwhile except for those people concerned more about physical storage space for optical media.

Currently I’ve got probably 3,000-4,000 DVD-R/DVD+Rs and would love to be able to cut that number by 75 percent. Or wait for the dual-layered discs supposedly arriving in late 2006.