Mini Blu-ray discs show off wider adoption of HD format
by Nick Doerr 
{ Aug 2nd 2007 at 9:00PM }
This isn't really PS3-related or Sony-related, but it is Blu-ray related thus we feel it's important to keep you guys up to date on Blu-ray's adoption into the mainstream. Not to spark a flame, but there's been no news of handheld camcorders using mini HD DVD's, you know? What do you guys think: does this prove that the next format of choice is Blu-ray, or are Verbatim and Hitachi wasting their time making a mini BD for the future of HD recording?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:17PM
This is an awesome event. Right now, we're shooting in standard definition, on mini-dvds.
Try shooting high-def on one of these babies and your recording time is out the window.
You be switchin discs in an out o that camcorder so quick you be faster than a dj at a rave.
But now you got blu-ray, and you can shoot yo hi-def without having to be a dj at the same time, you know sayin?
Seriously.
This is a tremendous boon. I can't believe I never saw it coming, I guess I just thought blu-ray was way too new yet to miniaturize.
This will co-incide nicely with flash' gaining in size. While prices recently have gone up due to demand (thanks to such as the iPhone), they will come down much by fall '08, and will have increased capacity, and manufacturers will find it easier to implement them in their products.
So: blu-ray, and flash for consumer camcorders. Awesome.
Will Sony market a flash card called "Blu-Flash?"
One can only hope.
But then one thinks of those old commercials...
"Thish ish my bathroom toilet product,
2001!!!!111oneone ftw
"TWO THOUSHAND FLUSHESH BLOOOOOOOOOO!" whee whee whee
railven @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:18PM
Wait UMD sized Blu-Ray Discs?
Hmmm do I smell possible PSP inclusion in the future? Holy Crap that would be awesome!
Gunegune @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:22PM
It seems like it might be more expensive and most people would probably just use DV (or more commonly, MiniDV). Although, I think it might be safe to say that this will probably be the storage medium for the PSP 2.
GL @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:27PM
The digital trends article says, "That translates to about an hour’s worth of 1920x1081i high-def video, or two hours if the lower resolution 1440x1080i standard is used."
I'm not a camera tech guy. But what is the current length of mini-dvd movies shot in 1080i? How long can I record on one of those?
John @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:28PM
Great comments, guys, I didn't even think of that, either, blu in PSP2... coming to you
TBD
One other thing, I just realized, or wonder, will the ps3 be able to take these? Or if not, at least have a conversion thing to make up for the size?
Then you could shoot in hi-def and instantly not just have it on your ps3 for viewing, but you can store it there (NOW we need another HDD), and perhaps, in the future...
(PLEASE, SONY? LINUX?)
You could EDIT it there!
Mwahhh haaaa haaa haha hahahahhah hah ha @@@@@222224tehwyn
Joe @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:29PM
I wonder if the PSP2 will use this if it ever comes out.
SuperGayParade @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:29PM
to above- it'll be a long while till they do anything like that, but I agree it is likely and very cool
to PS3FB- I appreciate and enjoy blu ray coverage. This is really cool, although with the cost of bluray burners I imagine it will be on the highest ends as far as camcorders go. Still, exciting! Our mini blu ray holds almost as much as two layers of your DVDs.
Darkdrium777 @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:34PM
PS3 can read 8cm discs, so if this MiniBD is an 8cm disc, than yes, PS3 can suck it in. However the format would need to be .mp4 in order to be read by the system (and it probably is).
So I guess this is really cool. Soon the world will surf on the blu wave :D
John @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:36PM
@GL,
It appears that a mini-dvd can record about 20 minutes in "HQ" mode. I attempted to find how "HQ" is defined and it seems to vary, depending on when the camera was released. Recents docs seem to show "HQ" as synonymous with "Hi-Def," or "HD," leading me to believe that for modern purposes, we may tentatively consider that references to "HQ"-quality recordings use 20 minutes of a mini-dvd storing "HD"-quality content.
(somebody who knows what the heck they're talking about, HELP!)
Alex Cormier @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:44PM
The UMD perfected?
John @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:44PM
@Darkdrium777, I just now thought: can camcorders today do mpeg-4 encoding on the fly?
But then again, and even if they can't (and I would suspect they don't), it's all digital, so you can have a buffer of memory while the processors convert...
Still, that seems like you'd have to have some serious processing in there...
But wait, maybe they're already doing it? With mini-dvd's? Sheesh, I am behind...
BonBon @ Aug 2nd 2007 10:05PM
Just to put into perspective, these aren't UMD sized at all; they are 8cm mini-dvd sized disks (if your still not sure, its the sized of a Gamecube disk). I can't picture these in a PSP2 but still none the less these sort of products are great for HD adoption.
And finally another good question would be, would these play well with the slot loading drive of the PS3?
AznSniper @ Aug 2nd 2007 10:08PM
this kind of reflects PSP2 will be like......it will play UMD and MBD (Mini Blu-ray disc)....and they will pack the psp2 with a minicell....we will probably see it at 2009 or 2010
gullum @ Aug 2nd 2007 10:16PM
This is really cool news. And the though of watching my kids opening their presents in HD brought a smile to my cynical, bitter heart.
Popfrogs @ Aug 2nd 2007 10:21PM
Let's look at the PSP2 with this drive in another way.
Newer model PSP will include some sort of USB to television cable.
PSP2 may have mini-HDMI or something similar. Now..a UMD-sized Blu-ray disc..in a PSP2...with a cable... Can you say portable blu-ray player? How cool would that be? Imagine burning 7 gigs of mp3s to a disc and dropping it in.
Darkdrium777 @ Aug 2nd 2007 10:25PM
@BonBon: Yes, the PS3 can read 8cm disks just fine.
@John: I really don't know if they can encode in .mpeg4 on the fly, but if they do, this means we could read the file on the PS3 directly. It would be great, but I'm as behind as you on this one.
humpty @ Aug 2nd 2007 11:07PM
Of course it can record HD on the fly.. its using the AVC HD standard thats been out for about a year. Its already been implemented on several Sony HDD, mini-DVD cams and JVC units. That standard was developed specifically for non-tape mediums like hdd, ssd, and discs.
Andy @ Aug 3rd 2007 12:29AM
I'm surprised Sony didn't think of this.
If Sony were to put these Blu-Ray UMD drives into the PSP2 that would rock. Especially if they could put in a hard drive as well.
Laurens Holst @ Aug 3rd 2007 6:33AM
Ahh, just 8cm disks. Speaking of ‘UMD-sized’ confused me into thinking it was something different than 8cm disks.
@John: HQ means standard-definition with a high bit-rate. I doubt that those cameras using 8cm DVDs for recording have the technical ability to record in HD. The storage medium doesn’t have enough space to store it, so it would be pointless to waste money on more expensive CCD’s and lenses that can record HD.
Laurens Holst @ Aug 3rd 2007 10:42AM
@Josh, I wouldn’t say that, you’re just tying yourself to the ‘harddrive’ format then.
The ‘harddrive’ format can’t be easily swapped out when it’s full (e.g. when on a holiday, without a PC nearby). And you can’t just take it out and put it in your PS3 or Blu-ray player either. The primary advantage of a harddrive would be additional storage space, I suppose.
The Clunge @ Aug 3rd 2007 11:41AM
How cool do those look?
I bet they'll be wickedly expensive though.
Looks like I'll have to steal one!
Don't steal kids! Stealing is bad!
Pete @ Aug 3rd 2007 12:37PM
I have been saying that the PSP should play mini-blu ray discs since before the PSP really came out. I was hoping they included this reading software with the PSP to make it future proof (like they did with the PS3). This is much of the reason I haven't gotten one, just to see how much capacity a mini-BD would hold and it holds the amount of a regular DVD. THis will be amazing as soon as the price of blu-ray drops to a reasonable cost.
SuicideNinja @ Aug 3rd 2007 6:36PM
This is the potentially best thing I've heard about Blu-ray. This new format war has a large problem: the media isn't any more compact or more convenient. MP3s are more convenient than CDa, right? More songs AND smaller form factor. Neither video disc is really offering the same type of convenience improvement.
If they continue to prattle on about their 200GB full sized discs, then they should be able to go multi-layer with the smaller size and get full length movies on the dink version.
It's not going to happen that way, but I'd be sold on Blu-ray, even with it's non-standards-ish nature just on the smaller size alone.
Good question brought up earlier though: will the PS3 play these? I'd hope so. *mumbles about disliking autofed disc systems*
don_sf @ Aug 5th 2007 7:30AM
look inside your cd/dvd drive, you will see a small circle groove there - thats the size.
there have been mini cds and mini dvds so it is no suprise that this mini bd is being brought out.
although i have not seen one, im pretty certain these disks can go dual layer so about 13-14 gb mini bd should be out sooner or later. (lol xbox with its 8.5 gb 12cm dvd)