DVD, HD DVD & Blu-RayAlthough DVD is currently the main format for the moment, Blu-Ray is looking to be the future for this format. Anyway, as collectors and fans you can discuss your libraries, home theater setup, and current and upcoming releases here.
No sooner has the battle for the next-generation high definition DVD format ended, with Blu-ray triumphing over HD DVD, than a new contender has emerged. A new system that is incompatible with Blu-ray, called HD VMD, for versatile multilayer disc, is trying to find a niche. New Medium Enterprises, the London company behind HD VMD, says its system’s quality is equal to Blu-ray’s but it costs less. By undercutting the competition in production, replication and hardware costs, it thinks it can find a market among consumers with less disposable income, particularly outside the United States. An HD VMD player costs less than a Blu-ray because it uses the red-laser technologies found in today’s standard-definition DVD players. The Blu-ray and HD DVD machines use a more-expensive blue laser system. “We do not intend to take on Blu-ray,” said Shirly Levich, New Medium’s vice president and product development manager, in an e-mail message.
“We see VMD as a natural extension of mass market DVD product enhanced to HD capabilities. We shall not rekindle the format war.” The industry and consumers may not see it that way, given that the company is promoting its price advantages. While Blu-ray players typically cost more than $300, an HD VMD unit is priced at $199. Sales through Amazon are scheduled to begin in five weeks, the company said. Neither Walt Disney, Universal Studios nor Warner Brothers would comment on their interest in releasing movies on HD VMD. But even without major studio movies, Mr. Solomon thinks the company will be successful. The low cost of producing HD VMD master discs, from which the consumer products are made, and the inexpensive consumer players have attracted the owners of movie rights in China, India and Spain already.
I still think people havent got the best out of normal DVD let alone blu-ray ot HDDVD. But based on the mucho cheapness of VMD that would probably pique my interest. If its as good quality as the other versions, then why not compete? after all it is suposed to be for a world market, and most of the world cant afford the new fangled stuff.
i would like to see one day where there is a worlkd standard instead of companies making propietry stuff forcing people to spend excessive amounts on accessories and things. It works on pc peripherals, they shold so it for other stuff too.
anywho, back on topic. Is there a launch list of available movies etc for the machine, or will it go the way of the Philips CD-I?
id like to see a standard wich gives us smaller and more rugged media,
idealy like the 3 inch floppy with its own protective case,
but with like 10gb, also read/write ofc
No movie interest shown in the format so it will probably end up being like ZIPP drives a format for storage only.
I really cant see the industry moving from the blu-ray format to another format so soon after having to cut their losses because a much bigger player in the field admitted defeat and stopped producing the competition (even at half the price it started at).
Unfortunately solid state memory has taken over on the PC front and with 4GB of USB memory costing less than £30 I really cant see it breaking ground there either.
What does surprise me is why they haven't added usb interfaces to tv's via the Common Interface as you can stick movies onto USB and play them from your TV without having to fork out tons on players
What does surprise me is why they haven't added usb interfaces to tv's via the Common Interface as you can stick movies onto USB and play them from your TV without having to fork out tons on players
yeah that would be good, ive seen one tv with a usb stick interface but aparently all it can do is read images from it not movies.
I realy dont see why its so hard, especially when many have a digital tv receiver wich includes a mpeg2 decoder, i also dont see why it doesnt have a usb interface to transfer mpeg2 stream instead of extra hdmi inputs, wich arnt suitable for long leads.
id like to see a standard wich gives us smaller and more rugged media,
idealy like the 3 inch floppy with its own protective case,
but with like 10gb, also read/write ofc
They're called flash drives.
There are dvd players which have usb ports on them, i've even got a cd player with one - i'm sure if you looked there are tvs with it aswell.
New high def DVD format - HD VMD
Linear Mode
