A new "Wal-Mart" of HD formats has arrived

[Dace]

The HD War has a new contender and its name is HD VMD...its cheaper since it still uses a red laser and its better than HD-DVD (but thats no surprise).

Here's the article:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136977/article.html

[glenn22]

More like the dollar store of HD movie formats.

[statikcat]

That is a pretty cheap 1080p player though..

[Blu-Runner]

I don't think it will survive. It's still inferior to Blu-ray discs, plus it's just out the door a bit late. And I suppose ultimately, it will fail to gain momentum due to no big names backing it, like those associated with the BDA. Furthermore, the outlets it will be available at -- Radio Shack? Seriously, c'mon.

Once Blu-ray disc drive manufacturing costs hit a new low, and the PS3 starts to move more units off the shelves with MGS4, FFXIII, RE5, GT5, etc. (1-3 years), I think Blu-ray is going to gain more ground on any opposing format. New or old.

[CptGreedle]

Interesting. I still think Blu-ray with the more advanced violet laser and 50 GB capacity (etc) is far superior to anything else out there. It might have stood a chance against HD-DVD if it started a year ago and there was no Blu-ray.
But as it is, it has no chance. Sure its cheap, but so is the UMD/PSP format which is a failing format. It is more of a niche product since only PSP owners can use it.
Since BD and HD-DVD already have all the studios behind it and thousands of players and hundreds of movies, I think this thing is about 1 to 2 years to late.

[SKRUhddvd]

I'm taking bets as to how long it takes the rumor mill here to start the "OH NO DISNEY, FOX, UNIVERSAL, PARAMOUNT, ETC IS GOING HD VMD EXCLUSIVE!".

[Luis_A51]

The big issue is having studio support I would think. In all honesty neither HDDVD or Bluray movies are that much more expensive to produce than dvd, yet they charge $5-15 more per movie. Why? Because they can since its "premium" content. Same goes somewhat for bluray players. Sure those are definitely more expensive to produce than dvd players, but im sure the profit margins for those are quite high.

Those prices, and the fact that for the most part the specs are better than HDDVD, will mean it might just compete directly with HDDVD. Bluray has nothing to fear, since the PS3 will blow away sales of standalones for all 3 formats combined for the new couple of years, so bluray isnt going anywhere. But HDDVD just lost its only selling point.

That being said the brutal movie selection (it will likely be all indy/small studios for a while) and the fact that its the 3rd one (and a latecomer) means that HDVMD probably wont do well.

But what I dont understand, is why if its so cheap/easy to get 30gigs/disk and 40 Mbps from red laser, why did the new formats switch to blu laser? Was it simply for patent purposes?

Something to note: They claim titles such as Lord of the Rings, Lucky Number Slevin and Babel, Pul Fiction, so a few big titles. If anything I can see these players taking a chunk out of HDDVDs sales this year, which isnt a bad thing.

EDIT: they dont claim to have support from a single major studio in North America, therefore the titles I just mentioned are likely to only be available in other regions where the rights belong to third parties.

[Sonny]

lol not long !! na just kidding!

[Footloose301]

This now competes with HD DVD, not Blu-Ray.... It offers no advantages besides cost. But since its is pretty much like HD DVD and half the cost then people will start buying those up. But then again, if you're buying a $150 player for HD content then you're probably buying the $800 720p Sanyo from Walmart to go with it

[Luis_A51]

Just some clips from their website:

HD VMDs have a maximum data transfer rate of 40 Mbps versus 36 Mbps for HD DVD and Blu-ray, which gives it the potential of sharper more detailed pictures over the competing formats.

Some definite missinformation there.

ML622 and ML777 HD VMD players are the first high definition video players to output true 1080p. Utilizing the Sigma Designs EM8622L chip set these two players will output the native 1080p resolution from the disc rather than adding a second conversion process by breaking it down to 1080i and de-interlacing back to 1080p.

Dont know if thats true or not, or how much of a difference it actually makes.

Anyways as someone pointed out, it depends on what stores actually carry these. Im sure a lot of retailers will be leary of carrying a third high def format, and thus now 4 different versions of the same movie. It does however have the potential to destroy the low-end HDDVD player market. It wont affect bluray since people buying bluray standalones have been doing it for quality reasons since bluray players have always been more expensive. Plus theres always PS3 sales.

[Footloose301]

Originally Posted by Luis_A51

Just some clips from their website:

HD VMDs have a maximum data transfer rate of 40 Mbps versus 36 Mbps for HD DVD and Blu-ray, which gives it the potential of sharper more detailed pictures over the competing formats.

Misinformation is correct. Blu's run at 48 Mbps.

[Luis_A51]

Other things to note:

In the specs it says it supports MPEG2, VC1 and I think MPEG4-AVC.
It does NOT however support PCM or any other audio format via HDMI.
It does not support 1080p/24hz
It obviously does not support DTS-HDMA/DolbyTrueHD/PCM
No interactive online features (ie no BDJ or HDi type)

Currently they offer dvd 4-layer disks with 24gig capacity. It states that they have a proprietary production line "in the works" that will result in "very high yields" compared to other multi-layering processes. Also they state that these lines will be capable of being upgraded to "2-4 layer BLUELASER VMDs with UPTO 60gig capacity"

Quote:
"In contrast to other known technologies, such as DVD 18 and dual layer DVD-R discs, the VMD 2P technology is practically errorless"

They should hope so, considering they plan on using 5-20 layer dvds (says so on the disk section of the website)

[aristotles]

It is still vapourware. I looked at their website and I could not find any shipping dates in any market their players, burner or even authoring software.

It looks like a hack to me based on old DVD red laser technology and I cannot see how they could get high yields with so many layers or how consumer burners would work either.