Singulus Technologies announced a new machine, the Bluline III, which is capable of developing triple-layer Blu-ray discs with storage capacity of up to 100GB.
The German optical disc replication equipment maker, Singulus Technologies, showed off its latest invention, the Bluline III, capable of manufacturing triple-layer Blu-ray Discs with a storage capacity of 100 GB. But to our surprise, there has been no official word from Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a company that is currently developing a new standard for 4K Blu-ray.
It remains unclear whether Singulus is getting any support at all from BDA on the project, or if the discs are compatible with existing players. The 100GB triple-layer Blu-ray discs are a huge jump from standard Blu-ray discs used today. The storage offered by the new ones is twice as much as current models.
But without hardware to support such high capacity discs, the new technology hints that an official 4K Blu-ray format is in the offing soon. "After all, there would be no other use for a machine capable of manufacturing factory-pressed 100GB discs if a hardware update was not imminent," HDTVTest.uk noted.
"Until the end of this year's August we received significantly more orders for Blu-ray Disc production machines than in the prior-year period," Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck, Chief Executive Officer of the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG, pointed out in a press statement. "We also see good opportunities for the sales of our Blu-ray production equipment in the future. The positive life cycle of the Blu-ray Disc will continue for some years with the launch of the new ultra-high definition television format."
The 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in January is expected to unveil several 4K related technologies from various companies, which makes it imperative for BDA to make the 4K Blu-ray official.
In July, Sony and Panasonic announced a partnership deal to develop optical discs with storage up to 300GB, which projected the end of dual-layer Blu-ray discs. But those optical discs are mainly targeted toward professional use for archiving large amounts of data, rather than consumer use.