New “Super DVD” Can Hold More Movies Than You Can Ever Watch

DVDs could be coming back in a big, big way. Researchers in China have figured out how to make a DVD-like disc be able to hold an absurd amount of content. According to a new study released in Nature, the research team has been able to make a disc with upwards of 100 layers, allowing it to store roughly 220,000 feature-length movies. As it stands now, single-layer DVDs can hold about two hours’ worth of content while dual-layer discs can hold four.

“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,” the team writes in its paper.

Why are DVDs disappearing?

The technological advancement comes at time when retailers are scaling back their physical media offerings. Earlier this year, Best Buy started removing their physical media sections from stores entirely.

“To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a spokesperson for the retailer said at the time. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”

Late last year, Netflix even sunset its mail-order DVD service, the product responsible for the service’s popularity at launch. It was Netflix’s subscription service, afterall, that many attribute as the reasoning behind the downfall of Blockbuster and other home media stores.

“Those iconic red envelopes changed the way people watched shows and movies at home — and they paved the way for the shift to streaming,” Netflix boss Ted Sarandos said last September. “From the beginning, our members loved the choice and control that direct-to-consumer entertainment offered: the wide variety of the titles and the ability to binge watch entire series. DVDs also led to our first foray into original programming — with Red Envelope Entertainment titles including Sherrybaby and Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion.”

He added, “We feel so privileged to have been able to share movie nights with our DVD members for so long, so proud of what our employees achieved and excited to continue pleasing entertainment fans for many more decades to come.”