Posted on 09/10/2007 8:20:25 PM PDT by ShadowAce
At the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) trade show in Denver, a company promoting a new high-definition optical disc format demonstrated set-top players and high-definition movies that cost far less than ones that use the competing Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD formats. The only faux pas: Arriving late to a two-party format war that consumers are already reluctant to support.
Next month, New Medium Enterprises' 1080p set-top players, which use the HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format, will go on sale on Amazon.com and in stores such as Radio Shack and Costco for around $150--about half the cost of the least-expensive 1080p HD DVD player, and perhaps a fourth the cost of the least-expensive Blu-ray player. The movies that work in them are similarly inexpensive.
"Expect a small premium over DVD [discs], and a big discount over Blu-ray and HD DVD," says Jim Cardwell, an advisor to the company and former president of Warner Home Video.
Instead of the blue-laser technology embraced by the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps, the HD VMD format uses the red-laser technology already used to create DVDs, and as a result, keeps the cost of manufacturing discs and drives low, says Eugene Levich, director and chief technology officer of New Medium Enterprises. He said that manufacturing a Blu-ray drive costs ten times as much as manufacturing a DVD or HD VMD drive, because the latter two are essentially the same drive but with different firmware.
HD VMD discs, which hold up to 30GB on a single side, are encoded with a maximum bit rate of 40 megabits per second; that's within halfway 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,
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
If they get enough titles it would be worth looking into at those prices. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
1st 1080p format to sport a $99 player wins. Not too had to figure this out.
The player may be cheap, but making 4-layer discs probably won’t be.
Nice idea, but where are the movies? Unless the studios support the format, it will go nowhere.
Blu-ray’s Dirty Little Secret
http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/blu-rays-dirty-little-secret
WOW! Now I can watch Hollywoods crap in clarity....or get a life and read a book!
That’s interesting. Now, if they want to beat the other two hands down, all they need to do is get a reasonably priced recorder on the street, and it will be a TKO.
This is interesting. I had decided to sit out the HD DVD/BD war, but this one is interesting. Content will make the difference for me. If they can come out with titles that interest my discriminating palette, and for a good price, this format looks like a slam-dunk.
Oh, and recording is not of importance to most people. Not when software can be had for almost as cheap a price as blank media.
The Play Station III is well worth considering. It’s not as expensive as a set top BD but is a HD player as well as a game console. It also acts as a complete media center when plugged into your home network via ethernet cabel and can also play online. You can even load Linux on it and run your own media center software. Very powerful unit.
As I re-read my post I note it was unclear. The playstation III plays BD in 1080. Gotta remember to proof.
As I re-read my post I note it was unclear. The playstation III plays BD in 1080. Gotta remember to proof.
Don’t you know. The movies are on the internet. lol
I think regardless if they only release on one format the format we want will always be available from China. lol It is a sad statement that it is the Chinese that are protecting the interests of American consumers when they aren’t selling us poisioned dog food and lead coated toys. I suppose there are acceptable tradeoffs for easy access to emptyheaded entertainment.
That title has up to now been unavailable in any medium.
perhaps with the possible exception of VHS...
You can rent it in DVD format from Netflix.
I watched it recently. Ending was only so-so.
Worth it for a young Heston and drool-worthy Sophia Loren!
My TV is the latest HDMI HDTV and I am most definately holding off of buying any HDTV discs or player until this war is done, I did by a DVD 1080P player so I can enjoy the several hundred widescreen DVDs I do have. Its the same for getting Dish HDTV, its not worth the effort and money for a second dish. a new reciever just to get a few channels of HDTV broadcast. Sure I would love to see CSI and NASCAR in HDTV but in a couple more years it will be commonplace to see most everything in HDTV.
I took the first step and upgraded the TV, the only time I even come close to using its potential is playing my XBOX 360 on it with my son.
Like a recent movie, “There can only be One” is how it must be with the DVD war.
Four layers — three layer switches while you’re watching. Not looking forward to it.
I do not agree with the backwards compatibility angle. Our video formats come out only every decade or so, so we should use the one that is the highest technical advancement. Otherwise, we’re like Windows, hobbled with old technology and backwards compatibility. There will be enough time to recoup the run-up costs on the manufacturing.
For that reason I’ve finally settled on Blu-Ray. That plus you can get a player for $500 and get a powerful game machine to boot. The PS3 also does a good job at upsampling your regular DVDs for your HDTV, and works reasonably well as a media center. The price of the Blu-Ray diode has collapsed since the introduction, so regular players won’t be that expensive soon.
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