Sanyo doubles Blu-ray disc capacity

Sanyo Electric has developed new laser technology that could double the capacity of Blu-ray discs to 100GB – enough for 18 hours of HD video.

Sanyo announced that the new blue laser diode provides a beam of light at 450 milliwatts, allowing Blu Ray disc systems to read and write two extra layers on a Blu-Ray disc, at speeds of up to 12X.

The technology won’t be commercially available for a few years yet, but the future looks bright for the format.

The present doesn’t look too bad for Blu-ray either – despite the credit crunch and doom and gloom on the high street, the Blu-ray Disc Association is expecting strong sales this Christmas.

Sales are especially strong in North America, where they have grown fourfold since last year.

However Blu-ray has failed to completely see off Toshiba’s competing HD DVD technology, with online retailers such as Amazon still supporting HD DVD.

Although Hollywood studios are no longer releasing new titles on HD DVD, it seems that consumers might not be upgrading to Blu-ray as quickly as expected.

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