Go here; - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

If they can get the prices down, then i' d say both Toshiba and Sony would have something to worry about!

More info is available at the HVD Alliance website, located here; - http://www.hvd-alliance.org/

It looks very promising. Capacity of 3.9 terabytes... Wow!
But the question is, do we need that much information on a single disc?
If the technology is more expensive than HD-DVD or Blu-Ray it will probably not be a success.

Blu-Ray & HDDVD screwed by HVD?!

I sure hope so. HD-DVD and especially Blu-Ray really want to screw the customers with Nazi-esque DRM schemes.

This doesn' t sound too promising though:
" However, the reader currently costs approximately US$15,000, and a single disc currently costs approximately US$120. The market for this format is currently not the common consumer, but is instead for those with very large storage needs."

Nice,sure 300gb+ disc can carry all you need,but this is becoming a joke...we need max 9-12 gb at the moment... for this gen..

ORIGINAL: Joe Redifer

Blu-Ray & HDDVD screwed by HVD?!

I sure hope so. HD-DVD and especially Blu-Ray really want to screw the customers with Nazi-esque DRM schemes.

I know, the Sony BMG DRM scandal caused outrage. I can' t believe how underhand they were/are.

I think that with HVD still being developed the price will come down significantly once they enter the developments final stages and start preparing for mass production. While it may not initially be marketed towards the public en mass, if the technology works properly then it' ll only be a matter of time until it is.

With Blu-Ray pushing it' s higher capacity as a major selling point over HD-DVD and as a reason for it' s higher price, HVD, as long as the costs are driven down could be a major player.

They expect to launch drives and 500Gb discs around Spring this year. It' s certainly interesting, i wonder what Sony think...

the DVD was such a great format , and now everyone has to scratch their heads thinking " Am I a Blue -Ray or HD-DVD guy?" .

The best scenario is that one of those (HD AND BR) are worse than the other and we' ll know it soon after release.That' s when the weak one dies.

The most possible scenario - You can' t tell which one is better in overall - both have their strenghts and weaknesses.

This whole war just sux.

I heard that china has come up with cheaper solution for next-gen DVD but who knows ...

HVD is like next-next generation. It still has HUGE hurdles to conquer before it can even play a movie. The likely scenario is the HVD will not come in disk from, but cartrige like early DVD-RAM and be used as an enteprise redudancy system.

Eventually HVD will replace HDD.

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne

HVD is like next-next generation. It still has HUGE hurdles to conquer before it can even play a movie. The likely scenario is the HVD will not come in disk from, but cartrige like early DVD-RAM and be used as an enteprise redudancy system.

No, although the writable versions of the media are currently in a kinda of quasi cartridge form, the rom versions are just disks.

ORIGINAL: ginjirou

It looks very promising. Capacity of 3.9 terabytes... Wow!
But the question is, do we need that much information on a single disc?

It' s not a question of " whether we need it" , but " when will we need it" .

I remember my first computer. Thinking back to that 5 and a quarter inch floppy drive! Man, when 3 and half inch disks came out, everyone was like " WHOA!" Hell, that damn computer didn' t even have a hard drive! They sold one, but it was expensive (like $150 or something) and could hold 20mb! Man, I used to dream about having that hard drive.

Then came my last computer. 60 gig hard drive! I thought I' d never fill that thing up! Now it' s seems like my 250 gig hard drive isn' t enough!

Just think about this; I read an article about a year ago about a tv that was developed in Japan that has 10 TIMES the resolution of 1080p!!

However, the reader currently costs approximately US$15,000, and a single disc currently costs approximately US$120.

When plasma tvs first came out they were $20,000 for a 42 inch model! I know, because I was in electronics sales at the time. They were special order, of course! And no, I never sold one.

Like i said, when the mass production begins, costs will be driven down.

but at that time the DIGITAL ONLINE DISRIBUTION like iTunes will remove the need for it.

What we need is a faster version of internet with transfers like 100MB/s (MB not Mb!!)
or higher.

That would be so cool :)

They have a 1GB connection available in China.

I' d rather store my shit at home, thank you very much. I know what you' re saying, of course. It seems we ARE heading in that direction. I just don' t like it. Remember when you could buy something and actually own it? Yeah, me neither!

Yeah I like the idea of owning a movie in reality :)

But since we buy games on CD/DVD it doeasn' t seem to be so cool anymore - back in the days when you bought a heavy cartridge for N64 , NES and so on - it felt like Value for Money - and now it' s kind of strange to pay 50$ for something that really costs 1 $ (but with no game recorded on it:) ).

I love all the uniqe storage solutions that I can' t see in any PC store.
DC - GD-ROM (the European game boxes are fantastic - you should see Shenmue :) )
GCN - Well that felt unique for a while , now you can get it :) - still Japanese games have awesome boxes
DS - Cartridge and box
PSP - UMD and box

I hate it when all games and movies are packed exactly the same.

I wouldn' t mind getting movies and games directly to my hard drive but only if that hard drive was a part of a Sega / Nintendo console or Apple computer.This way I' d know that if I lost any of it - it' s my fault, not the hardware.

So as long as I will have to tolerate those damn PC' s (like the one I' m writing this on) I wouldn' t feel secure.