As recently as a few weeks ago, TDK had announced plans for a 200GB Blu-Ray disc. Many thought this to be a digital media storage impossibility. Well, TDK has pulled it off in a most unique way.

TDK had tried to cram 50GB on each Blu-Ray Disc layer (2 layers per side, 4 in total) but it couldn't be done. The they tried to add more layers, and viola. A conventional Blu-Ray Disc will hold about 25GB per layer. So, two sides per layer and two sides equals 100GB. Further storage can be achieved by muxing, aka multiplexing multiple signals together. It's like writing fours books in one. You have one book, but four different types of text on the page. Each type of text represents a different book, you just have to choose what book you want to read and pay attention to that text and that text alone.

Though TDK couldn't compress four data layers per side, they did manage to make an extra layer on each side. The new 200GB from TDK has six layers for storage, an extra layer for each side. The manufacturing of these two extra layers required a little creative thinking. TDK developed a new recording medium called bismuth peroxide. This medium can be laser etched with far greater accuracy than the conventional media writing techniques. When struck by laser light, the bismuth peroxide will oxidize and produce small bubbles in the medium, and in therefore more written bits to the disc. TDK also cranked up the storage capacity for each side, pushing it from 25GB to 33GB.

It may never catch on, but it feels nice to know that someone out there is thinking of those of us dreaming of ever larger storage capacities. This new data writing technique isn't part of the Blu-Ray media standard, therefore, it may not even be accepted. And who knows, perhaps the typical set top Blu-Ray reader/player might not make sense of the extra layer. It's all up in the air right now, but it gives a peek of what's to come. I for one would like to have every single 'Simpsons' episode on one handy disc.