Pioneer's 400GB Blu-ray disc

Pioneer’s scientists have reportedly upped the Blue-ray ante with a 400GB optical disc.

The capacity is stretched by manufacturing discs that are 16 layers deep, to be played with a player advanced enough optically to pick up the light scattered by all 16 layers. Conveniently, the player is also compatible with standard Blu-ray, but for now it’s limited to playback only, designed to demonstrate the new disc advancements. The prototype is read-only for the moment but R&D’s on it so let’s give them some time to work it out.

It goes without saying, then, that the future holds the ability to burn a 400GB Blu-ray disc. You know, if people even burn discs anymore in the age of flash media. The new discs require a special "wide-range spherical aberration compensator and light-receiving element" to detect the weaker laser signal, so don't plan on sticking one of these data-bloated monstrosities into your existing PS3. That said, the next generation of game consoles could support this new disc system, which is fully backward-compatible with existing Blu-ray discs. Of course, by the next generation, game systems might not be using optical discs at all, so who knows what the future will hold.

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