Sharp 100GB BDXL Blu-ray Discs arrive in Japan

Sharp has prepared a new BDXL Blu-ray Disc that is able to store up to 128GB of information on a single disc, as the company invests heavily in increased Blu-ray storage capacities.

Single-layer Blu-ray Discs used today have a 25GB storage capacity, while dual-layer discs can store approximately 50GB of information.

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Sharp is now shipping its VR-100BR1 100GB BD-R in Japan, which conforms to the BDXL specifications. There is no word on availability or pricing for the Northern American market.

The new BDXL standard has organized guidelines for 3-layer 100GB storage capacities, so others in the industry should quickly catch up to Sharp and other early adopters. 

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The BDXL format will also be able to support Blu-ray 3D content as it becomes more popular among consumers.

Sharp's Blu-ray disc announcement makes sense since the company also recently introduced two Sharp Aquos Blu-ray recorders that support BDXL.  The Japanese company's new players support triple-layer 100GB discs and quad-layer 128GB discs.

The 100GB Blu-ray Disc storage threshold is a popular goal among tech companies.  TDK recently announced it will release a 100GB Blu-ray Disc this September.  Verbatim also plans to release 100GB Blu-ray Discs sometime in early 2011.

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The BDA plans to use the BDXL format to expand away from movies to high-definition video storage, data backup, and other tasks that require even higher capacities of storage space.  BDXL recorders could also be used in set-top boxes to help record live TV content, as the technology has 2x to 4x write speeds.

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