300+ DVDs on single disc?

Most of us have DVD collections, and some of us have also started watching Blu-Ray movies now that the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war is finally over. However, just because Blu-Ray has become the accepted media of the moment doesn’t mean it’s here to stay – scientists has discovered a method which could allow discs that can store up to 1.4 terabytes of data – that’s hundreds of times more than DVDs and many times bigger than a current Blu-Ray disc.

Obviously, there’s a lot of ’science’ involved. However the actual basics are quite simple. Scientists have basically added another ‘dimension’ to the usual 2D disc. Using holographic technology scientists can add data to additional layers of f light which allow for larger capacity without a physically large disc.

The technology could lead to discs as large as 10 terabytes – absolutely massive compared to the technology we can see today. Will these larger capacity discs mean another change in the standard movie format? We hope not, considering that blu-ray is still very much in its infancy and a little too expensive for many of us to consider right now. Having to rebuy our movie collection every few years doesn’t really sound very appealing.

Still, this technology would be incredibly useful for storage, providing the actual drives themselves don’t cost thousands of dollars. The scientists have already said that the actual material costs for the disc would be around about 5 cents (3p) per disc and could go even lower with more intelligent production methods.

Being able to store all the data on my computer with a single disc that costs less than a dollar does sound incredibly appealing, so hopefully we’ll see this technology being developed soon!

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