Do all good things come in threes? The TV Shows on DVD
blog are reporting that a third
HD home video format was unveiled at the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association in Denver this week. This format is called
HD-
VMD and is from a UK company called New Medium Enterprises (
NME). The format is similar to
Blu-Ray and
HD-DVD in that it offers full 1080p video, up to 7.1 surround and potentially offers a bit-rate of 36
mbps, higher than
HD-
DVD's 36
mbps but lower than
Blu-Ray's 54
mbps. The main difference between the formats is that
HD-
VMD uses a red laser rather than the blue laser used by
Blu-Ray and
HD-DVD.
NME believe that makes the units cheaper to build also allows for cheap authoring of discs. The players themselves look rather futuristic, are very slim and compact and are available in a series of different colours. But, even better, the initial launch price will only be $199.99, roughly £99.
This news came as quite a surprise, I almost had to check the date to find out if it was September 7
th and not April 1st. It harks back to the early days of the VCR when there were four tape formats available: VHS,
Betamax and V2000. This could end up being V2000 of the
HD format war. If this had been released a year ago along with the other two
HD formats it might have stood a very small chance of receiving some support but without any studio support this surprising format looks doomed to fail. The hyperbole filled
press release, however, states that distributors from countries such as "
Australia, Brazil, Central Europe, China, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Japan, the Middle East Russia, Scandinavia, and the United States" have adopted the format. It will be very interesting to see how this develops.
