It says that is like blu ray, not that IT IS blu ray.

So no, is not Blu ray.

On the contrary, it's very likely that this tech will indeed be the next true format advancement. Holographic data is superior to traditional disc formats in nearly every way - faster seek times, lower power usage, far denser storage possibilities. This 500GB disc stuff is incredibly old in the grand scheme of holographic storage. We're talking this is the equivilent point in the tech's lifetime as when people were touting Blu-ray being able to do 25GB discs. Obviously, Blu-ray is capable of far more than just that today, but nobody made those statements until after the tech had been around a while and was researched a good deal.

Holographic data storage is still a new technology. Yeah, it's not capable of much more yet, but it can do far more... especially since it's regularly and easily rewritable from the get-go. This is a technology that could potentially replace the hard drive as well. After all, it doesn't have to be done in a "spinning disc" format. There are a mess of ways holographic storage can work. Even more, the discs can be far thicker than CDs/DVDs/BDs - and since you're storing in the very disc material itself, the thicker it is, the more that theoretically can be stored in it. Imagine a disc an inch thick... 20TB, anybody? Naturally, the motor to spin that disc and the laser to read it still need to be worked out, but the tech can at least be done.

correct. This technology is not even remotely related to blu-ray. In fact, it's completely different than any optical disc ever made. All discs so far, including CD, DVD, BD, and all the proprietary game console discs only store data in two dimensions on the surface of the disc. They just use different pit sizes and laser wavelengths.

This technology uses two lasers with different wavelengths and a three-layer disc. The top layer is transparent to both lasers, the second layer is transparent to the first laser but not the second, and the bottom layer reflects both. This difference, coupled with 3D "designs" in the structure of the second layer creates an interference pattern that can be picked up by the reader and transformed into useful bits. The advantages of the approach are that nearly the full 3D volume of the disc can be used for data storage instead of only the 2D surface and in addition the data can be placed much deeper in the disc so the data will be better protected from scratching.

the only the OP is saying about BD is that the holographic players/reader will be able to burn/read the old 2D discs as well as the new 3D ones.

That's pretty awesome tech. Would be even more awesome if you can put the data in patterns so that when you look at the bottom of the disc you can see real holograms.

It better have some kind of scratch proof coating. Scratches would probably wreck havoc on the lasers.

Blu-ray is having enough trouble with downloadable content, SD cards approaching blu-ray size without the moving parts, cheap DVD pricing, and people's gigantic DVD Collections. Even at under $200 lots of people are weary or replacing thier DVD players.

I have a damned BR player built in to my computer, which is hooked up to my 1080P tv. I don't own one BR movie, I do own a few hundred DVDs. I rent or borrow BRs once in awhile. Other than that everything is downloads.

Yeah, this isn't going to hurt blu-ray, like.. at all.

Of course not, PLAYSTATION®3 is the future

^^^LMAO

*clicks profile, looks at sig*

Oh wait.. nevermind.

Sega fan confirmed. ~_n