What is it?: Holographic: Holographic Video Discs, or HVDs, are a disc-based storage medium that uses holographic technology to record large amounts of data on a disc no larger than a CD or DVD Older than you’d think: Holographic storage has been around around for 40 years Still not ready for the market: As of April 2010, no company has manufactured a Holographic Versatile Disc despite the formation of the Holography System Development Forum that set standards for HVDs in 2007
The Holography System Development Forum (HSDF), formerly the HVD Alliance, was created in order to form standards and collaborative testing for the HVD format. On July 28, 2007 the HSDF approved and published standards for the HVD format. Members of the HSDF include Fuji Photo Film Company, Ltd, LiteOn Technology Corporation, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Company, Ltd, and Optware Corporation.
Standard ECMA-377 was established by the HSDF to established the specific workings of the HVD system. These standards include such things as the size of the disc, capacity of the disc, conditions for testing holographic hardware, and the characteristics of the data written on the disc. These standards were created in order to promote interchangability between holographic disc drives.
- The compact disc, or CD, holds 700MB. The digital versatile disc, or DVD, holds 4.7GB single layer, and twice that in a double layer. Blu-ray, the latest high-definition video format, holds 50GB single layer, and 100GB double layer. Holographic Video Discs will initially be able to hold 300 GB of data, although they will eventually have be able to hold more than 1 Terabyte of data, which is 1024 GB.
The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, which takes up 9 Blu-ray discs worth of space, will eventually be able to fit on a single holographic versatile disc. It would still be in HD format and include all of the extras one expects from movies today.
In addition to storing larger amounts of data than other disc-based media, holographic versatile discs access the data much faster as well. CD: 1200 kbps/sec DVD: 10.5 Mbits/sec Blu-ray: 36.5 Mbits/sec HVD: 1 Gbps/sec = 1024 Mbits/sec
Holography – holography is the act of recording patterns of light on the surface of the disc in order to create a three dimensional object Examples: Holography is used on such things as bank cards, collector cards, and artwork
Storage: Whereas DVDs store information side by side, HVDs stores information in overlapping patterns. This allows data to be stored throughout the volume of the disc, as opposed to just on the surface
Collinear Technology – Until recently, the only way to read holographic discs was by using two lasers, set at precise angles. These lasers are called the information beam an the reference beam. The reference beam diffracts through the hologram in a different way depending on how it is aligned according to the information beam, and creates an image of data. This data then traveled below the disc onto the CMOS, which handled the data. Collinear technology greatly streamlined this process by aligning the information and reference beam. The address info for particular information is now written on a substrate of the disc, meaning that the laser assembly could be much smaller due to the discs being on the same axis. In addition, a reflective layer was added to the disc which would bounce the reconstruction beam back up to an objective lense, which would then reflect the information to the CMOS which is now located on the same side of the disc as the rest of the laser assembly. This change in assembly also made the laser compatable with CD and DVDs.
- Similar to current optical discs, an HVD could be used for the storage of video games and home video. The entire series of a video game series could be packaged together and resold on a single disc.
Current high definition video, 720p (1280x720) and 1080p (1920x1080), requires large storage capacity such as Blu-ray or the defunct HD-DVD. The HVD’s superior storage capacity and read speed could help introduce even higher definition video, all the way up to Ultra High, which is (7680x4320).
Entire hard drives could be backed up to a single HVD, saving consumers from having to redownload precious data when upgrading or after a system crash. Businesses could use HVDs to back up sensitive company data, and would have a much-more reliable disc format than a hard drive. Multiple HVDs take up the same amount of space as a single hard drive, all while holding much more data.
When? – Although standards were set in 2007, as previously mentioned, HVDs are still not being produced. This is largely due to price problems, although, as with any new technology, the price of the HVD will continue to plummet as the hardware becomes more streamlined and research and development costs are reduced. How Much? – In 2006, the cost of a 300GB HVD was $120, and the disc player was around $3000. A 500GB portable, external hard drive on Amazon is roughly $70-100, meaning that the HVD format needs to get a lot cheaper before it sees any use.
Consumer Acceptance – Right now, the Blu-ray disc format is starting to be accepted as the default in optical media, though it didn’t happen without a fight. For a while, Blu-ray was competing with HD-DVD to become the successor to the DVD format and many consumers sat on the sideline waiting for a winner to emerge before dropping a few hundred dollars on the requisite player. Aside from that, DVD is still a popular and accepted format among consumers, despite the growing popularity and superior storage capacity of the Blu-ray. Before HVD becomes accepted, companies that produce films, games, and storage solutions will have to choose HVD as the successor to Blu-ray and get prices down to a level that consumers will see as beneficial.
![Background ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)