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HD VMD Shows Up Late For the Format War

Posted by kdawson on from the other-guys-will-kill-each-other-off-see dept.

Fishead writes "As the fight heats up between HD DVD and Blu-ray, and as consumers seem to care less and less, a new contender has entered the fray. Next month, New Medium Enterprises will be selling a 1080p player through Amazon and stores such as Radio Shack and Costco for around $150 — half what the cheapest HD DVD player costs, and a quarter the cost of a low-end Blu-ray. The difference this new HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format brings is that the discs are created with the same (cheap) red laser as DVDs. From the article: 'HD VMD discs, which hold up to 30GB on a single side, are encoded with a maximum bit rate of 40 megabits per second... between HD DVD's 36 Mpbs and Blu-ray's 48 Mbps. The format uses MPEG-2 and VC1 video formats to encode at 1080p resolution for the time being, and will possibly move to the H.264 format in the future.'"

4 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. I don't care about HD Video... by Perseid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...but I do want a cheap burner I can throw 30GB at. Sell THAT to me at $150 and I'll buy.

  2. Poor Sony by psychicsword · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sony just pissed themselves.

    $487.99 for Blue-ray Vs. $150... wonder who will win that aspect to the format war?
    The only thing that may limit this format is whether the movie companies will pick it up, and more importantly the porn industry.

    1. Re:Poor Sony by MBCook · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Can we give up that stupid porn argument yet? I've posted this more than once, but that keeps coming up. Porn will not decide the new format.

      First, when VHS and Beta appeared, the only real way to see porn films was in a XXX theater. You couldn't watch them in the privacy of your home.

      Today, I can watch porn on VHS, or DVD. Or pay-per-view. Or satellite. Or the 'net. Or video-CD. Or I could play a porn related video game. Porn helped VHS because it was really the first time you could watch porn in the privacy of your home, so the inability to do that on Beta was big. That's not an issue today.

      Please, can we just drop that stupid argument? It doesn't hold much water any more.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  3. Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...how bad is its DRM? That's really the only thing I care about. Whichever format will give me - a paying customer - the freedom to do what I want with my movies will get my money. If none do, I'm sticking with regular DVDs.