Sony and Panasonic have announced the next-generation optical disc standard after Blu-ray. The first 300GB “Archival Discs” will be available from the summer 2015, but the goal is to eventually create 1TB discs.

Archival Disc announced
A DVD can store 4.7GB of data and a Blu-ray can store up to 50GB. Sony and Panasonic have been involved in the development of both, and are now unveiling the latest generation of an optical disc format, dubbed Archival Disc.


The first Archival Disc products are expected to launch in summer 2015, but Archival Disc is aimed at professional use initially, such as backup. The goal is to create a 500GB variant later, and eventually a 1TB version. The companies say that Archival Discs are robust and designed for long-tern storage. A typical Archival Disc is double-sided with 3 layers on each side, which means that you have to turn the disc to take advantage of the full storage capabilities.

We are still waiting for the Blu-ray association to announce a 4K Blu-ray standard, but the press release makes no mention of a connection between Archival Disc and a 4K optical movie disc standard.

- Source: Sony