DVDs could be making a comeback after boffins created a disc that holds 220,000 films.
A standard single-layer DVD can store up to 4.7 GB of data.
This is approximately three hours of video footage – enough for one movie.
But, researchers in China, have been developing a new type of disc.
- Advertisement -
This contains a petabyte of data.
According to researchers, this is the equivalent of more than 220,000 regular DVDs.
They contain encoded data which “lands” on the disc’s surface.
READ MORE: Poetry book returned to library after 93 years
DVD players use a laser to read the data on the surface of the disc.
- Advertisement -
Many discs are ‘single-layered’, but double-layered DVDs are also available.
These have 8.5 GB of data and store up to four hours of video footage.
DVDs can be available in up to four layers.
- Advertisement -
However, the new disk now contains 100 layers – significantly increasing video time and storage.
The study was led by Miao Zhao of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics.
The team added a unique coating that allowed the etching of data at a much smaller scale.
But they say the super-DVD is not ready to be widely used just yet.
This is because the writing of the disc uses a lot of energy.
The team of researchers insist that the issues can be solved and the disc can be used to store data in the near future.
The study reads: ”We increase the capacity of [optical data storage] to the petabit level by extending the planar recording architecture to three dimensions with hundreds of layers, meanwhile breaking the optical diffraction limit barrier of the recorded spots.”
It adds: “This technology makes it possible to achieve exabit-level storage by stacking nanoscale disks into arrays, which is essential in big data centres with limited space.”
READ MORE: I’ll be Face-back! Life-sized Arnold Schwarzenegger for sale on Facebook for £1,800
