Panasonic, Sony seek higher Blu-ray capacity

Panasonic and Sony reportedly have teamed up to co-develop Blu-ray discs with an anticipated storage capacity of 67GB, as consumer electronics companies plan to show off numerous Blu-ray products during CES.

The i-MLSE (Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation) evaluation technique should be able to better analyze the optical quality of the disc as it reads and writes the disc.  Unlike disc jitter, i-MLSE is able to handle disc evaluation for higher capacity storage technologies, which makes it an extremely appealing method.

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Furthermore, i-MLSE is now able to conduct disc evaluation in real-time, and this new technology relies more on software instead of hardware -- no new lasers or other expensive hardware necessary.

Blu-ray disc

Both companies already have the ability to manufacture 33.4GB per layer Blu-ray discs -- an upgrade from today's standard 25GB per layer discs -- and anticipate a 66.8GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc as the next step.

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The new and improved Blu-ray discs will be able to play in current Blu-ray players.

Panasonic and Sony haven't publicly announced a launch date, but it is estimated at sometime in 2010.  Sony is expected to present i-MLSE to the Blu-ray Disc Association, which would allow Samsung, LG, Apple, and other association members to use the technology.

Even though current Blu-ray discs have the ability to store a good amount of information, especially compared to DVDs, manufacturers supporting the format have said in the past that innovation that pushes the boundaries is inevitable.

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