Blu-ray Goes High Capacity

The Blu-ray Disc Association has released a high-capacity format that more than doubles the amount of storage from the previous generation of discs.

Called BDXL, the specification enables up to 128 GB of storage on write-once Blu-ray discs and 100 GB on rewritable discs.

The latest format is aimed initially at creative professionals and the broadcasting and medical industries, which are in need of more capacity for archiving large amounts of data, video, and graphic images. The association said discs should be available in the market in the next few months.

"Professional industries have expressed a desire to find optical disc solutions that enable them to transition away from magnetic media for their archiving needs," Victor Matsuda, global promotions committee chair of the Blu-ray Disc Association, said in a statement released over the weekend.

A consumer version of BDXL will be available later, particularly in areas where sales of Blu-ray recorders are high, the association said.

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