Sep

11

HD-VMD attempts to go toe to toe with HD-DVD and BluRay

Posted by Todd

September 11, 2007 |

After my previous rant about the confusing format war and digital distribution being the wave of the future, New Medium Enterprises has decided it would be a good idea to bless the world with yet another high def optical format: HD-VMD.

HD-VMD stands for High Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc.  According to their website it will output native 1080p and they claim a faster output rate than both HD-DVD and BluRay which they say will yield a sharper picture.

The players themselves are dirt cheap when compared to HD-DVD and BluRay players.  This is because they don’t use a blue laser and rely on the same red laser that is found in traditional DVD players.  In order to increase the capacity of these red lasers, the company has created a multilayer disc which maxes out at 30GB.  The player’s firmware allows the laser to read these different layers and content is encoded with a proprietary HD-VMD codec.

Major studios so far are avoiding this format like the plague.  I would suspect they have a serious uphill battle if they want to enter the market.  Not only are they late to the game, but the company makes no mention of network connectivity.  They would have to allow similar capabilities if they even want make a dent.  If I had to guess, even though they are set to launch in October, there is a spot reserved for them in the dead technology museum.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Format war to continue for quite a while : The DVD Shrink on September 26, 2007 11:31 am

    [...] blogged a couple articles about the format war.  More specifically, I blogged about a new format HD-VMD and the fact that Warner has shelved its Total HD format.  It seems like these moves, along with [...]

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