Video Business reports that Japanese electronics giant Matsushita has introduced a DVD disk that can store more than 50GB (gigabytes) of information per side.  Disks available today typically store about 5GB per side.  The new disks should prove to be increasingly important in the era of high definition TV, since they will be able to store over four hours of high-def TV.  The disks should eventually also provide enormous potential for use in creation of collections of TV series that were not shot in high definition, since they can hold ten times as much as current disks, raising the prospect of a single DVD holding four or five seasons of Ranma ? or some other long-running series.

 

While full exploitation of this new disk technology is clearly well in the future, the possibilities are mind-boggling.  Unfortunately we may have to wait until the slow-developing market for high definition television finally takes off before this new disk technology is fully implemented, but early adoption for computer applications may hasten the day when a two-disk Seinfeld collection can encompass the entire series.