A new specification has been announced this week by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) that promises up to 128GB of storage on write-once discs, or 100GB on rewritable discs. Called BDXL, the new format more than doubles the amount of storage possible, and is achieved by packing up to four recordable layers on a single disc; current Blu-ray discs have a maximum of two layers, and come with either 25 or 50GB capacity.

The write-only version will be available in 128GB and 100GB capacities, while the rewritable version will be able to store 100GB of data. Another format, the IHBD, or "Intra-Hybrid" disc will incorporate both read-only and rewritable layers. According to the BDA, this allows users to add their own content to a published disc.

The downside for the new formats are their incompatibility with existing hardware, though new players can certainly be designed to work with the new and old formats. The BDA says that new formats should be available in the next few months.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at InformationWeek
- check out the article at PCMag.com

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