The Blu-ray Disc Association will release a new commercial HD disc format that offers up to 128GB of write-once capacity. The association also plans to release a rewritable disc format for consumers that will support up to 100GB of data, or 2x today’s Blu-ray capacity.

The specifications for BDXL (High Capacity Recordable and Rewritable discs) and IH-BD (Intra-Hybrid discs) are expected in the next few months. The BDXL specification is targeted at filling the data archiving needs of broadcasting, medical and document imaging companies, provide customers with write-once options on 100GB and 128GB capacity discs and rewritable capability on 100GB discs.

The discs reach these capacities by incorporating three to four recordable layers. Because both BDXL and IH-BD are specially designed formats for specific market segments, new hardware is but because the new media specs extend current Blu-ray Disc technology, future BDXL and IH-BD devices can be designed to support extent 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray Discs.

Want to see the entire spec?  Go to:  http://www.blu-raydisc.com/assets/Downloadablefile/BDXL-IH-BD-Release-draft-3-%28mwh%29-16971.pdf