Audio Video News

General Electric has developed an optical disc format using microholographic technology that stores 500 gigabytes, or about 100 times the capacity of a DVD, and 10 times the capacity of a Blu-ray dual-layer disc.

GE's disc stores data in the form of three-dimensional patterns, and farther below the surface than existing optical disc formats. Storage capacity may eventually exceed a full terabyte.

The new format will be aimed initially at industrial users looking for an alternative to tape-based storage systems. But GE says it will eventually seduce consumers with the potential of storing massive amounts of movies and other media. Says the press release, in a hopeful tone: "The day when you can store your entire high definition movie collection on one disc and support high resolution formats like 3-D television is closer than you think."

Players would also play BDs, DVDs, and CDs. The first discs and players may be available (to someone, somewhere) as early as 2012.

Reality check: GE isn't the first company to propose a holographic mass-storage device. A Japanese consortium has been working on the HVD (Holographic Versatile Disc) for many years. Other companies working on similar technology include InPhase Technologies and Colossal Storage. Perhaps the best angle on the GE technology is that it's coming from a huge deep-pocketed player.

Even if GE's ambitions come to pass in the form of consumer-level hardware, its technology still would have to surmount the same copyright concerns as other mass storage technologies. It wouldn't be the first company with a hot new technology to run up against Hollywood and fail.

See The Wall Street Journal and press release.