Pioneer 400GB Optical Disc Readable In Blu-ray Players!?

[Ian]

Pioneer hauled out its new 16-layer 400GB optical disc for the IT Month fair in Taipei. According to DigiTimes, the disc format uses the same pick-up head (PUH) as existing Blu-ray players and should be able to be read in them.

http://digitimes.com/news/a20081201PD212.html

The technology of the super multi-layer read-only disc is based on Blu-ray Disc (BD) with a breakthrough in material of reflective layers, according to Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan. The specifications of the pick-up head (PUH) of the disc is the same as those for the PUH of blank BD discs, and therefore the Pioneer discs can be read on BD players, the company said.

According to Pioneer's internal roadmap, its super multi-layer technology development is read-only (ROM) discs in 2008-2010, rewritable discs in 2010-2012 and 1TB (1,000GB) disc in 2013, the company indicated.

I think DigiTimes is reading into this a bit too much. The PUH specs (405nm, 0.85) are the same for BD and the 400GB disc but the track pitch and reflective material is different.