Sharp launches 100GB Blu-ray discs, new players

Matthew DeCarlo

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Sharp has become the first company to launch a Blu-ray disc based on the BDXL specification announced in April by the Blu-ray Disc Association. The company's new triple-layer VR-100BR1 disc can house up to 100GB of data, which doubles the capacity of the existing 50GB dual-layer discs and is enough for around 12 hours of terrestrial digital TV broadcasts or 8.6 hours of BS digital broadcasting.

As we mentioned when BDXL was unveiled, the updated format requires a new Blu-ray reader/writer, which Sharp is offering with the BD-HDW70 (1TB of built-in storage) and BD-HDW700 (2TB HDD). Along with being 3D-ready, those devices should also be compatible with the quad-layer 128GB BDXL discs in development by Sharp and presumably others.


The 100GB VR-100BR1 discs should begin shipping in Japan on July 30 for 5,000 yen or approximately $58. Meanwhile, the company is charging around $2,300 and $3,500 for the above-mentioned players.

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This is just stupid, to need a new Blu-ray player for these disc... could they not find a way to to make this compatible with current players? Ridiculous if u ask me...! Until this size storage is compat with current players...then this is a mega fail!!!
 
It's mega fail at any rate guest. They need to seriously drop the price of the discs themselves to make them a financially viable option. $58 = 1 disc = 100GB. Or you could just buy a 1TB external hdd for your htpc for the same price. 1TB hdd @ $58 = 10 discs @ $580.

Seems like a no brainer to me.
 
I bought a Sharp Microwave. It lasted less than a year. Then I bought the same class oven from GE. I retired it after at least 10 years, still working, a couple of months ago. Point being, I haven't the slightest inclination to defray the R & D costs on a new Blu-Ray product that, in its present form, hasn't really gained full traction. Well, truth be told, I don't plan on spending another dime on a Sharp product, period.

Sharp needs to take some of their a**h***s from concepts and marketing, (sorry, I meant "visionaries"), and transfer them to quality control.
 
$58 for a disc ???...I think ide prefer something a little less fragile for that money
 
Optical media is nowhere as popular as a data medium as it used to be a few years ago, and with these prices don't expect a comeback either.
 
The way I look at this is that these are in preperation for future gaming platforms where we will have DX12 and games that require massive hardware excelleration in order to do real time ray tracing at 120FPS...or it could be sharp just stroking their egos...
 
With external hdd's being so cheap and easy to use these days, not to mention the fact that you don't need to get new hardware to operate them, these 100GB Blu-ray discs will really struggle as a viable storage device option for everyday users. I know i won't be getting them.

Hopefully, much like the dual layer dvds, when companies start using them as default, the BD players will be allot cheaper, allot lot cheaper.
 
"...or 8.6 hours of BS digital broadcasting..."

I think I see some BS broadcasting from Sharp right there. Asking $58 per disc and $2,300 for the low end player? This is obviously not for the average consumer market. Perhaps professional high-end equipment, but as I understand it bandwidth and large hard drives is the standard in the studios. So who is this disc and player really for?
 
Within a year, the players will drop down close to levels we're paying now (if the concept survives its infancy). Keep in mind how expensive Blu-Ray players were when they first hit the market. Once they get down to appropriately inexpensive levels, and the discs are in a mass production stream that will cut their prices down dramatically, I'll take another look at them.

I'm thinking of the backup/archiving potential with the higher density formats. For instance, it'd be nice to be able to image a complete OS partition to a single disc for easy recovery later.
 
Vrmithrax said:
Within a year, the players will drop down close to levels we're paying now (if the concept survives its infancy). Keep in mind how expensive Blu-Ray players were when they first hit the market. Once they get down to appropriately inexpensive levels, and the discs are in a mass production stream that will cut their prices down dramatically, I'll take another look at them.

I'm thinking of the backup/archiving potential with the higher density formats. For instance, it'd be nice to be able to image a complete OS partition to a single disc for easy recovery later.

You could be right Vrmithrax but Blu-Ray was a tad cheaper than this when it first came out.

First Blu-Ray player was around £400 not sharps £1800 they want.

The ps3 played a key role in getting a player into a lot of homes.

Disks came out with prices between £10-£20 rather than £40+

I don't think this will go anywhere, as 9Nails said, this doesn't seem to be aimed at anyone unless your extremely (and I mean EXTREMELY) rich and have to have the latest of the latest, but I doubt even the Richest of folk will buy this since they all just got the latest Blu-Ray players anyway.
 
And on top of that... what happened to the 8 layer 200 GB disks that were supposed to be in the works and read compatible with existing bluray drives? I'm a huge BR fan but if they make me buy new drives for newer media then I'm done with optical formats.
 
This next generation "always incompatible" crap is really helping keep physical formats going strong...

Do any of these companies know how to run themselves or are they all being secretly being run by the same *****?
 
I always though that Sharp was basically an "off brand" manufacturer. My past experiences with their product have been unacceptable. I still think that all their new "gee whiz s***" is just an attempt to glitz up a generally mediocre product line.
 
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