PS3's Blu-Ray drive as a selling point undermined by holographic media technology

[Demo_Boy]

PS3 has been billing their 30 GB Blu-Ray drive as a major selling feature to drive the console into mainstream homes. But what if a "disruptive innovation" in storage media ships before the PS3 even comes out?

Blu-ray/HD DVD could become irrelevant as HVD nears. (http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=11193&section=feature&email=)

According to InPhase, its Tapestry holographic system can store more than 26 hours of broadcast-quality high-definition video on a single 300GB disk, recorded at a 160 megabit per second (Mb/s) data rate.

...for the consumer market the companies also are working on developing disks that would be less than half the physical size of DVDs but could hold around 30GB.

[The Iron Weasel]

This sounds cool....really cool....

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

I thought HVD didnt work out.

[motorhappy]

Sounds cool, but hasn't holographic storage always been just a few years down the road?

[Last of the Red Hot Mamas]

The first company that did major work on this front went bust a few years back so some other folks had to step in, which probably cost a lot of time. It's a tricky technology so it's not surprising it's taken this long -- ZDNet (http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020415,39237204,00.htm) has a fairly detailed article that gives you a decent idea of just how complicated this stuff is.

And for perspective, here's some costs (http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14643&hed=Holographic+Challenge+for+DVDs&sector=Industries&subsector=EntertainmentAndMedia): the first commercially-available HVD units will start at $15,000 and the media will cost $120 per disc. Does HVD have applications in the professional arena? Sure, no question. Does it pose an imminent threat to Blu-ray and HD DVD as a consumer format? Um, no. Yes, costs will come down, but this is still a very new technology and they won't come down anywhere near as fast as the new "one-dimensional" storage formats (which are revisions of a technology that's been around since the late sixties and has already been mass-produced in huge quantities).

Also note that there's at least two other companies working on holographic storage, so we're probably looking at another format war here -- except with much more at stake, since the winner's tech will likely serve as the basis of future holographic formats and they stand to collect massive royalties as a result. By way of analogy, Pioneer received royalties from the compact disc format even though they had no direct involvement with its development, simply because they held the original patents on optical storage technology. It's gonna be ugly.

In any event I don't see much reason to believe this is going to undermine the PS3's Blu-ray drive as a selling point, seeing how the attraction of the Blu-ray format is HD movie support and I find it phenomenally unlikely the studios are going to jump ship to yet another format before the previous one's even had a chance to get off the ground.

[MrMeatshake]

I don't see much reason to believe this is going to undermine the PS3's Blu-ray drive as a selling point.

me neither. sounds to me a bit like: 'oo! new technology! sony are d00m3d! lolrotflmaowtf!?' i can't see the logic in this conclusion.

[Roc Ingersol]

I like tech news. (particularly about blazing fast storage)

I don't get the anti-Sony commentary either.

[Balthasar]

I like tech news. (particularly about blazing fast storage)

I don't get the anti-Sony commentary either.

It's par for the course around here. Anyway, some of the other comments above are correct. Whatever the fate of Blu-Ray, HVD is in no way going to be competing with it in the home market, in the same way DATs never competed with cassettes in the home market.

[51|RandoM]

HVD, even if they do work out the kinks, isn't going to be commercial-grade product for at least 5 years. I'm being generous with the 5 year estimate, giving them the benefit of the doubt that development will continue on the product.

As far as impact on blu-ray? Virtually nil within the lifespan of the ps3, and probably virtually nil within the lifespan of blu-ray, for that matter.

Comparing HVD to Blu-Ray is like comparing an EMC clariion array to a single SATA drive. They're in different ballparks, people, both in price and performance. Guess which one somebody can afford to put into a console? heh.

[rjcc]

You've got to be a complete idiot to think that. HVD drives cost $30,000 and the discs are $100.

it's not for home use for a long long time.

[Balthasar]

You've got to be a complete idiot to think that. HVD drives cost $30,000 and the discs are $100.

Well, I think most of the pom-pom waving that goes on around here is pretty idiotic too. In fact, that's the real reason this thread got started up. Someone wanted to slag off on Sony.