HD VMD Day is January 22, celebrate the one true red contender in the HD war
Still not sure if HD VMD is a viable or even notable contestant in the next-gen disc wars? Find out more during "Global VMD Day", January 22nd, hosted at NME's first manufacturing line in The Netherlands. For the price of one transcontinental plane ticket (or intra-continental for our European friends) attendees can enjoy a celebration of all things HD VMD, learn about new supporters of the format and experience tech demos. You're an HD enthusiast right? Be a pal and hop the next Concorde to Europe, then let us know if VMD is a contender or pretender.[Via CNN Money]
Filed under: Other formats, Other hardware
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Larry @ Jan 11th 2008 9:22AM
http://nmestore.com/index.php?cPath=2
Great to see many "Blu-Ray exclusive" movies already available, such as Crank and Saw II/III from Lionsgate...
Just shows exclusivity means nothing to us outside the USA ;-)
Doc @ Jan 11th 2008 9:38AM
One question...why? complete waste of time and money.
Mr Stevo @ Jan 11th 2008 9:39AM
Yet another stupid format to add in the format war. I thought we were done having Blu-ray being the chosen format. With all the studios having exclusive contracts/agreements to either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD I don't know how this company can have any chances of selling in the States without having any content. This product may work well if its owners travel a lot or don't mind importing the movies. We shall see.
Larry @ Jan 11th 2008 10:33AM
USA is not a main target... There's huge markets (South America, Asia, Middle East, China) where even DVD is considered expensive and they're still using CD-Video!!!
They just can't afford the massive production and licensing costs of Blu-Ray. China is developing it's own HD disc to avoid MPEG2 royalties (CH-DVD).
HDManiac @ Jan 11th 2008 9:50AM
Umm, Concorde is no longer around! Was decomissioned a few years ago!
Moose @ Jan 11th 2008 9:53AM
Glad someone else noticed that.
John B @ Jan 11th 2008 10:03AM
It was a joke, guys. Looks at the article that the Concorde link points to.
John B @ Jan 11th 2008 10:13AM
It was a joke, guys. Looks at the article that the Concorde link points to.
John B @ Jan 11th 2008 10:17AM
Okay, there is definitely a problem with the posting system. In this case I must have mistyped my password, but I let it go thinking that it might just be a delay in getting the message posted. When I got the confirmation e-mail, I realized that I must have goofed on my password, clicked the link, and now there is a double-post. And what's more confusing is that as I'm seeing it now, one has my avatar, the other doesn't.
There have been a bunch of multiple-posts over the past few days. Methinks that gremlins are running about the Blogspot environment.
BMZ @ Jan 11th 2008 10:25AM
How can they ever be a "contender?" They have no price advantage over HD-DVD; and they will not be able to get more major studios content than HD-DVD.
Franssu @ Jan 11th 2008 10:44AM
"You're an HD enthusiast right? Be a pal and hop the next Concorde to Europe,..."
What about you, Engadget HD bloggers ? Aren't you supposed to be HD enthusiasts and go out of your way to keep us informed of the states of affairs in the global shiny HD discs format war ?
Of course this format has no chance to sell more than a few thousand units to maniac collectors here in N.America, but in other parts of the world this could be big ... or not. Anyway, we deserve to know :)
Franssu @ Jan 11th 2008 10:45AM
"You're an HD enthusiast right? Be a pal and hop the next Concorde to Europe,..."
What about you, Engadget HD bloggers ? Aren't you supposed to be HD enthusiasts and go out of your way to keep us informed of the states of affairs in the global shiny HD discs format war ?
Of course this format has no chance to sell more than a few thousand units to maniac collectors here in N.America, but in other parts of the world this could be big ... or not. Anyway, we deserve to know :)
Elad @ Jan 11th 2008 10:59AM
Fuck this. I don't care what this product is, I will never buy it. All they are doing now is ruining the HDM market. The format war has been awful for the entire industry. If these ass holes prolong it I hope they go bankrupt. This has just gotten fucking irratating.
TrentD @ Jan 11th 2008 12:31PM
Thanks again, Richard Lawler, for another brutally hostile shot at HD DVD.
TJ @ Jan 11th 2008 12:31PM
2 years too late, VMD.
Larry @ Jan 11th 2008 12:40PM
yes! Go HD-VMD. I still think this red laser, cheaper tech will rear its head in the videogame console market. It would be great to see the Wii 2 support this. It's just another way to have multiple layer High-definition media discs. The kick is that it uses cheaper tech. I love cheap tech!
indadogghouse @ Jan 11th 2008 12:54PM
IMHO, this format war thing is blown out of proportion.
Let's examine the US market.
For hi-def players to become common place it needs to be affordable and to be affordable, it needs to be more widely adopted.
Problem one. A prerequisite is an HDTV, have to have one, otherwise the hd player is irrelavent. How many in the US have an HDTV? Not even close to 50%. HDTVs are going into their 10th year now. Maybe in another 5 years, the numbers will be at 80-90%? Very hopeful.
Problem two. Of those who own an HDTV, how many actually have HD content? The number I saw from CEA was a miserable 11-20%. Let's be optimistic and say 50%. Either they don't know what HD is or they're not willing to pay for HD. And if they're not willing to pay $10 a month more for cable or satellite HD, what makes one think they'll pay $400 for a player?
Problem three. Not all HDTVs bought are true 1920x1080 and not all will notice a huge difference between 480p or upscaled 1080p and true 1080p. I will say that everyone will see a difference when the 2 sources are set up side by side, but will the average consumer (not enthusiast) care or notice enough to pay the extra $300 to get an HD player over your ubiquitous DVD? I have to say no. Most people will appreciate just having a new HDTV and theater sized movies at home. In the end, will they enjoy the movie more on an HD player vs a DVD player? I think content will make more of a difference vs medium.
Just because blu-ray is the choice will not mean now it will inundate the market because consumer "confusion" has been eliminated. Please! Format confusion is the last thing to worry about. There are what, 4M players and 308M people or 120M households, 3%? I wouldn't hold my breath on mass consumption and lowering of prices in the near future. But, who knows, maybe blu-ray will work itself out in the computer market and game console; helping lower manufacturing costs and eventually movie players and video get cheaper as well.
The format war hurt the early adopters. The format war hurt the corporations. The format war hurt the retailers. It's all about money. In truth, consumers will take what they are fed.
Another spin to this is the format war may be a good thing. To take the advantage, it'll force the 2 sides to improve their technology quicker with more features. At this point in time, I feel the format war wasn't that big of a deal, given the other more pressing issues HD players had to deal with.
KushielsScion007 @ Jan 11th 2008 1:13PM
I'll support this over HD DVD and definitely over bluray IF it comes to the United States and I think HD DVD owners/backers and the studios supporting HD DVD and even bluray (out of fear) should support VMD IF it arrives here.
Thats just my opinion though. If bluray wins I'm definitely just just going to download my movies. Fuck sony and its forcing bluray on the consumer. The format isn't even fully developed yet! I mean really this BD Live crap is probably just the beta version. I would not be surprised if a year from now BD Live Ultra comes out.
Peter @ Jan 11th 2008 1:37PM
I 90% agree with you. My only disagreement is that I am still supporting HD DVD. I love then name, and I love the special features and non forceful tactics used by the companies supporting it. If BD wins, I refuse to ever buy one of their players, or any of their movies. BD became complete crap as soon as they revised the standard, and it will continue to be this way for years to come. I refuse to put anything Sony anywhere near my computers or home theater setup, due to the fact that they are a horrible company with horrible tactics that makes horrible electronics that are way over priced.
Leroy Vargas @ Jan 16th 2008 12:20AM
You are forgetting that SONY IS NOT THE INVENTOR OF BLU-RAY! Actually, the patents pertaining Blu-ray are spread evenly across several companies, and Sony is just one patent holder beside JVC, Matsushita, Samsung, etc... Indeed, the only big patent holder for HD-DVD is Toshiba, so why bash on Sony when you should be bashing instead on Toshiba?
Gus @ Jan 11th 2008 10:37PM
I'm with you Peter, Fuck sony, how dare they try to force their products on us at over inflated prices. i will never buy sony or blu ray-period.
I am a HD DVD supporter and I think that HD DVD was the best way forward because it is so much cheaper. IMO the only way forward for main stream HD adoption is if the product is so cheap no one cares and just buys the product.
IMO BR will fizzle out and die because it is to expensive and will be for a long time. As someone said above, the majority of people just don't care about HD media, so please tell me how BR is going to win with such ridiculously priced products, insanity.
sony and the BDA must have spent 10s of millions of dollars so far on a tiny market place, it will take them years and years just to break even, too greedy, typical sony bullshit!
And on another front, Panasonic (BR faithful wtf??) is doing some amazing things with DVD, their new recorders are capable of burning 3 hours of HD content onto a standard DVD, who needs BR!
This whole thing may be a blessing in disguise for Tosh if they walk away, IMO BR will never get close to replacing DVD, they will spend many many more $millions in the next few years on BR and it will remain a niche market because the whole greedy BR plan is fundamentally flawed.
Leroy Vargas @ Jan 16th 2008 1:04AM
That Panasonic camcorder might be able to record HD on a DVD, but is it 1080p? I think the HD they were talking about was in fact a lower resolution and not 1080p.
With MPEG2 compression and 480p, a single-layer 5-inch DVD may hold up to an average of 2 hours; with VC1/MPEG4 (which is about 1.6667 times more byte-efficient than MPEG2) and again 480p, then it may do in theory up to 3 hours 20 minutes easily (just enough to hold the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven plus the menu and the theatrical trailer). With MPEG2, a double-layer 5-in DVD will hold up to 4 hrs at 480p; with VC1, up to 6 hrs 40 mins at 480p.
480p as encoded on an NTSC DVD is 720480 pixels, while 720i is typically 1280720 pixels, and that amount is about 2.6667 times more resolution than 480p pixel-wise. However, 1080i or 1080p (doesn't matter) is 19201080 pixels (6 times the 480p resolution!)
So, doing the math and crunching the numbers: a double-layer DVD will hold up to 1.5 hours of MPEG2 720i content or up to 2.5 hours of VC1 720i content (enough to hold Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, its menu, and its theatrical trailer). Indeed, I believe this tactic has been already exploited by some Asian company I looked up in Wikipedia although I can't recall which one.
However, at 1080i/p, the same double-layer DVD will hold not more than 40 minutes MPEG2, and VC1 will only pump it up to a measly 66 mins! (Barely enough for a single episode of CSI HD, a flashy menu, and perhaps a few small non-HD extras.)
And all those analyses assume that the audio streams are still Dolby Digital or DTS and not Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD (or even Dolby Uncompressed! That would take even more space!)
So, my best guess is that that Panasonic camcorder records either VC1 480p on a single-layer 5-inch DVD (3.3333 hrs) or VC1 720i on a double-layer 5-in DVD (2.5 hrs). But true HD (1080i/p)? In your dreams!