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3rd Hi-Def Format Joins Format War, Starts Selling in the U.S.
NME's "HD VMD" System
To most of us the "Hi-Def format war" is all about Blu-ray Disc vs. HD DVD, and the vast majority of you people out there either don't know about either one, don't care, or are just waiting it out until a winner emerges. In fact, my buddy Gord Lacey's latest Commentary Track blog post is precisely on that subject: "Do you care about the HD formats?"
The overwhelming response right now in comments responding to Gord's entry is "no". Well, that being the case, then here is a third High Definition home media format for you to not care about!
New Medium Enterprises ("NME") intorduced the HD VMD player to America early last month at the CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) annual expo in Denver, sneaking in an announcement among a barrage of attack and counter-attack between the HD DVD and Blu-ray camps.
NME's goal is to undercut both of them with much cheaper prices on the same hi-def quality. Here's the lay of the land in "cheap hi-def": HD DVD is touting a player at the $299.99 mark, but can't get big chain stores like Wal-Mart to sell it this Christmas because it's put out by a smaller brand that's not exactly a household name. And Blu-ray is maybe pinning their least-expensive-player hopes on a (currently rumored; not yet Sony-announced) new cut-down PlayStation 3 for $399.99. How? They supposedly will save money by taking away compatibility with the older PS1 and PS2 systems...which makes sense to Gord and I, since most of you who want that would already have a PS2 anyway.
Meanwhile, this week Amazon has quietly begun selling the HD VMD players for $189.99 for a black or a silver ML622S model, or $199.99 for a black ML777s model. The VMD models seem to have the same description text at Amazon, so I'm not sure yet why the extra $10 on the ML777s model. If anyone else spots it, just post a comment below, please.
One of the advantages that VMD is supposed to have to the studios is that their discs will be cheaper to produce. NME indicates that the manufacturing cost of the physical disc for each VMD will be around $1 per disc, just a bit more than it is for a DVD. That's about 1/2 to 1/3 the cost-per-disc of the blue-laser competitors HD DVD and Blu-ray, meaning that consumers may not only see cheaper hardware; they might also see cheaper films as well! But let's go beyond price, and see what kind of bang you get for your buck:
HD VMD stands for High Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc. NME's specs say that this is a fully-capable 1080p hi-def player, with ability to produce up to 1920x1080p video resolution, 7.1 sound channels in both Dolby and DTS formats, a data transfer rate of 45 Mbps (right in between HD DVD's ~36 Mbps rate and Blu-ray's ~54 Mbps rate, and significantly higher than DVD's ~11 Mbps), a video transfer rate to match, HDMI port, USB port, internet connectivity, and capable of playing (and upconverting) DVD discs. Current disc capacities are up to 30GB on a single-sided disc, according to the press release. Players are thinner and lighter than most of the competition, and would be available in a variety of colors that will eventually include a Flaming Red (see picture at the top).
HD DVD will not play Blu-ray. Blu-ray will not play HD DVD. Neither of them will play HD VMD discs. And HD VMD players will not recognize Blu-ray or HD DVD discs, either. So the three hi-def formats are all incompatible with each other. However (and let me shout this at you)...
I CANNOT POSSIBLY STRESS THIS ENOUGH, SO I'LL BOLD IT AND ALL-CAPS IT: ALL HI-DEF FORMATS, WHETHER IT IS HD DVD, BLU-RAY, OR HD VMD, WILL PLAY ALL OLD DVD DISCS. AND CD DISCS.
ALL old DVD discs and CD discs will work in the new machines. People seem woefully ignorant of that fact. So please pass it along! 
In fact, they make them better. When you hook up an HD source like a VMD, BD or HD DVD player to an HDTV screen, and you use an HDMI cable to make the hook-up, then a regular old DVD will be "upconverted" to look better on the new player.
It does it by a kind of trick, by using a software process that takes the individual pixels recorded on the DVD and multiplying them to fill up the otherwise empty resolution on the screen. So it's imperfect, because it's only guessing at what pixel ought to be there, not showing the true pixel that was lost when the DVD was recorded at the lower resolution. But hey, it's better than nothing, right?
Well, good, because that's all the HD VMD can do for you right now in the USA. Amazon is selling the hardware...but where are the movies? Not there yet. Although the NME website lists titles for the VMD system like Hostage, Apocalypto, Saw II, Saw III, Passion of the Christ, Babel, Hood Winked, Pulp Fiction, The Queen and even The Lord of the Rings, these are foreign offerings and not currently sold in North America.
Well, maybe I'm just assuming that they're foreign offerings. A quick trip around-the-world via internet didn't turn anything up on different e-tailers in VMD-supporting countries. If you know of anything, please link to it in the comments! I tried calling NME's offices in Los Angeles all morning to inquire about this, but the phone was never answered.
So what good is a VMD player to you right now? Well, at $189.99, it's about in the price range (maybe a bit on the up side) of other DVD players that do upconversion to hi-def levels on your existing library.
NME's obviously hoping that some people will buy it on that basis for now, and hope that a "format neutral" studio (that would just be Warner right now, right?) will include VMD in their offerings. It's hard to know if that's their plan, since I couldn't get them on the phone to ask.
Right now I just plan to kick back and wait and see what happens. I expect that most of you will do the same. But NME can't afford that. They've got to figure out some way to get all of you interested in their product, or it's just gonna die on the vine.
But then, one could say the same thing about HD DVD and Blu-ray, too. Stay tuned!
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Oct 10, 2007 4:57 PM
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It's all good having the cheap hardware, but you need the software too! But I like the promise of this new format.
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Oct 10, 2007 6:11 PM
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As I stated in the Commentary Track blog, until my fair use rights are recognized, I will not be moving to any HiDef format. HD VMD actually uses a rather insidious form of copy protection beyond AACS. It uses Optikey. http://www.nmeinc.com/technology_optikey.aspx
I'm tired of being treated like a criminal for exercising my rights to make a backup or transcode to a format friendly to my portable video players.
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Oct 10, 2007 11:29 PM
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I think it's a good thing to have another choice. Prices for both of the other formats are a little high for the average consumer, of which I am one. We can't just go out and buy a 400.00 machine and then expect to pay the 20 to 40 buck price tag for software, and that's just for movies. TV sets are another matter. Maybe it will get the BD and HD DVD formats off their high priced keisters to lower prices.
I know prices for BD and HD DVD formats will eventually come down anyway, but I can now buy a DVD player that will upgrade my present collection, with the promise, (hope?), of a hi-def collection in the future. If it doesn't come to fruition, well, I have a reasonably priced machine that upgrades my current collection, then, a wait and see who wins the war attitude. (that's what I was doing anyway)
I'll be buying one this holiday season.
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Oct 11, 2007 12:51 PM
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Just wanted to mention that those players aren't being sold by Amazon. Rather they are being sold on Amazon by NME themselves (or someone using their name) through an Amazon storefront.
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Oct 11, 2007 4:14 PM
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This is ridiculous ! There were several version of regular DVD but all the companies got together and settled on a standard format. Why can't the HD camps do the same. We have three competing formats. I know that (hope and pray, actually, as I'm a huge Disney fan and they make only Blu-Ray) Blu-Ray will win, but this whole "format war" is reminding me of the VHS/BETA war. Beta was the better format, but VHS won because the tapes ran longer (originally.) I'm with the Blu-Ray camp but will probably get a combo HD/BR player so I can watch movies that are only on one format or the other....as soon as they can make a combo player that can run the HD-DVDs' features ! Oh, and that doesn't cost a bazillion dollars.
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Oct 11, 2007 4:35 PM
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We already had something of a VHS vs Betamax vs Laserdisc war...
We already had the DVD+R DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW war.
Don't tell me now we're going to have another 3-way war for supremacy... Are we now going to have to have burners that write to ALL 3 formats?
Why can they not simply adopt one standard and go with it? Eventually the price of players will go down. Everyone will be on the same page. Theoretically all discs would be compatible and playable in all drives, and there would be no confusion.
I tend to put my buck behind the "Blu-Ray" camp. Though I have no intention of upgrading just yet, since there's no clear winner, and prices on the content / players have not yet come down to a "reasonable" level for Joe Consumer.
As far as I'm concerned, HD VMD will be DOA ASAP. We need fewer entrants into the standards war, NOT MORE!
Of course, in my opinion, discs will eventually give way to WORM (Write Once, Read Many) flash memory card based devices (something not unlike SD or xD cards) as more data is packed into smaller and smaller space. Flash memory would also be more desirable as it takes up a smaller footprint and has ostensibly no moving parts to wear out (in the flash memory chip or in the reader)... Theoretically this should reduce or eliminate "lifetime" issues for the media and/or for the drives.
So, the entire argument may eventually be rendered moot as newer technologies arise... Until then, simplify! Standardize! Agree on a format and use it universally. This will likely lead to economies of scale, etc.
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Oct 11, 2007 5:20 PM
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Great read!!! Thanks for the info. How about a blog on why one is better then the other, which benefits consumer the most and when do you think we'll have a winner? (although if past history is any indication, when Porn picks its format, the winner will prevail)
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Oct 12, 2007 5:08 AM
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In my post I mentioned that I had tried calling NME's offices in Los Angeles to ask them some questions about the software availability, but that the phone was never answered. Last night I received an e-mail from NME's PR firm representative, offering to hook me up with the right people, and I intend to follow up on that today. But, to kick things off, he gave me link to the online spec sheets for the ML622S and ML777S model players, and pointed out that the $10 difference in prices is because the ML777S has a USB output and memory card reader. I'd say that's worth ten bucks. Stay tuned and hopefully I'll find out more about the software situation.
I see that this story has gotten mentioned by TVSquad, where they ask a question that applies to ALL three of these hi-def formats: "why would anybody want to buy their whole collection all over again just to upgrade a picture quality that is good enough anyway?...All Hi-Def gives is a better picture and I don't think that's enough for the general public to go out of their way to get it."
Maybe. I agree in general that the picture on DVD is "good enough". But DVD is NOT hi-def. Some people out there think it's hi-def, but it's not. It is standard definition, just digitally recorded (which is why it looks better than non-digital VHS).
Well, why get a hi-def disc format?
There are a LOT of hi-def TV's out there. They're called "HDTV" sets. If you have any kind of flat-panel TV, then guess what you have? An HDTV! And you paid a big ol' price for it too, didn't you?
So what's the point of having a fast car if you're never, ever gonna drive it fast? At the same time, what's the point of having an HDTV if you're never gonna put hi-def content on it? You might as well appreciate what you've got! Right? So the only way to do that on home video is by getting discs in one of the hi-def formats (Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD or - now - HD VMD), and to do that you need a player that plays them.
That is what the people who sell these hi-def home video are hoping to convince you of, anyway. They've done a very poor job of educating people about that, in my humble opinion.
It gets complicated, though, because the appreciation comes into play only if a hi-def (HDMI) cable is used, and the HDTV is of a decent size (it's debatable, but for many the threshold is around 35" to 40"; any smaller screen and there really isn't that much to appreciate about hi-def for most people). But then, there's always "fine print", right?
Thomamon, I don't think that I really want to blog on which of these formats is "better". Gord and I have alrady discussed, a while back, whether we should declare an "official TVShowsOnDVD picks a format" like other sites were dong. While each site that has done so has surely been trying to help their readers by giving them recommendations based on their personal opinion, it ends up that they have alienated the fans of the player(s) they didn't pick. They got accused of taking some form of "payment" for picking a side. And they have to constantly and forever defend their position. So what if Gord and I picked one of these formats and recommended it to you? Does that mean we should stop covering the other formats to support our position? What happens if our format "loses" the war and goes off the market? No, we'll try to keep a bit of journalistic distance and just report on them all equally. It comes down to a personal choice for each consumer.
As far as your position that "if past history is any indication, when Porn picks its format, the winner will prevail": I disagree entirely, and so do many MANY industry pundits. Back in the BetaMax/VHS days, it made a difference because porn films were something you saw in seedy theaters, and rarely in the home. So being able to get porn into the home on VHS helped to make that format, and break BetaMax in the process. These days every home has this little thing called the "internet", where you can get all kinds of porn for free. There ARE a few porn discs out there already for both Blu-ray Disc and for HD DVD; about 20 choices for both formats combined. But at the prices charged for those discs, $50+ a pop, trust me: it ain't going to be the reason why someone chooses one hi-def format over the other. Porn is a non-issue in the hi-def war.
As "PurpleDisc" says above, the Amazon listings are not sold by Amazon themselves, but rather as a third-party "Amazon Marketplace" sale by NME, just listing it at Amazon like, frankly, anybody can. I actually knew this when I made my post, but I decided it was a minor point that didn't need to be brought up, because it would potentially distract from the main focus of the write-up. However, PurpleDisc makes the comment "or someone using their name", and that should probably be addressed, as it could be a valid concern for people who want to buy through that. Well, no worries on that score, I think: it does appear to be NME, and not someone else using their name. If I find out anything different while talking to the PR rep for NME, I'll certainly let everyone know.
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Oct 12, 2007 7:49 AM
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Dave, I made that comment because I feel a major US retailer like Amazon selling the product would add an air of credibility to the range that I just don't believe it has at present.
When studios start licensing their films to be released in the US on the format, I'll dive in and give it a shot. Until then, it's HD DVD and BD.
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Oct 12, 2007 10:28 AM
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I’ve seen alot of very different comments about the new HD VMD player and been wondering if it’s worth it to buy one or no… Like you, I tried to call the NME’s LA office, but couldn’t get through so I called their London office in the end and talked to the PR people there. They definitely made some very good points about their new player – it’s relatively cheap and, as you said, the old DVDs and CDs will still work in their new machine (but obviously if you use their discs, the quality is much better, that’s the whole point isn’t it). I personally think that “PurpleDisc” should contact them too to get some clarity so there’s no misunderstandings spreading around. And “PurpleDisc” could you let us know what you think after your phone call so we hear if you’ve got more doubts about the HD VDM… In the end, people are always cynical about everything that’s new - when TV first came along, everyone wanted to stick to radio! Anyway, if you want to call them (in London), and you haven’t got their number, it is 00442087462018.
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Oct 12, 2007 1:26 PM
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Hey, I've just spoken to their PR person in LA, and he's setting up a conference call for me (and Gord) to talk to at least a couple of the NME execs next week. I'm going to get a lot more info about this very soon, and when I do you'll all hear about it. No need for international calls if you can't afford to drop dime on that!
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Oct 12, 2007 5:38 PM
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