According to a C|Net article (“Tomorrow’s DVDs“) new optical digital storage technology is being devleoped by Constellation 3D and Reveo that will allow you to store up to one terabyte (1,000GB) of data on a five-inch plastic disc.
Sit tight though folks, this cool new technology is at least two years away.
There was a time when compact discs were cutting-edge technology: “Wow, 650MB! How could you possibly need more than that?” Yeah, right. DVD may be the flavor of the moment, but even 17GB feels cramped once you put a high-quality movie, six soundtracks, and a bushel of extra features on a single disc. A high-definition, digital-television-format copy of a movie might take up 20GB, which is more than the current DVD capacity, requiring next-generation DVD players to use new, more expensive lasers, a different compression scheme (MPEG-4 instead of the current MPEG-2, perhaps), or a format beyond DVD to keep movies on a single disc.
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