In case, the manufacturers approve new specifications, the Blu-ray Disc format will be able to showcase several nifty tricks. It is expected that the capacity of a Blu-ray disc will be boosted up to 128GB, while the current maximum capacity is 50GB. Moreover, a Blu-ray disc will be able to store data on two layers. The first one is for permanent data and the second one will be used for rewritable data.
But, actually, the current Blu-ray hardware will be unable to use enhancements of the new Blu-ray disc. As a result, it may lead to the necessity of buying new Blu-ray players, which will be not so easy.
BDXL as well as IH-B are considered to be two new Blu-ray disc formats.
In case U.S consumers do not use BDXL as a standard way to record television programs, still it is able to find its advantages in the market of professional storage. It can be used as a medium for archival storage as well as computer backups. Also, if it is used by media manufacturers and hardware producers, it can become a viable alternative to hard drive storage. It especially concerns professional markets of data, including document imaging, media, as well as medicine.
As for the IH-BD format, it is also highly specialized. It is expected that the format will be used in games. As a result, games will be stored in a single 25GB read-only layer.
In fact, BDXL discs provide more layers compared to IH-BD discs. For that reason it will be necessary to have new hardware in order to read the discs. The discs have three or four layers. Actually, it depends on the capacity. As for BD-R, it is possible to have up to four layers, in case of 128GB.
But when products that can support IH-BD as well as BDXL will appear in the market is not clear. In fact, hardware manufacturers as well as media companies are responsible for that.
