Third HD disk player enters market: plays 10 layer (40 GB) DVDs

[nintenho]

I hope this is the right forum for this.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/14466/Move-Out-HD-DVD-and-Bluray-Here-Comes-HD-VMD/

So, what exactly is the Versatile Multilayer Disc? Instead of using a new, shorter wavelength laser like HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc, the VMD uses the same red laser of the DVD format but puts more layers in the same size and thickness of a DVD disc.

This war might last longer. Basically it costs about $150-$200 and can play 1080P content. I'd imagine the price of the disks is about the same as other HD disks. So far the only disadvantage it has that I can think of is lack studio support, but all HD disks seem to have that problem...

 

[pcchen]

I don't know why we need another HD format, especially one like this. A 10 layer disc is likely to be much more expensive to manufacture than a normal 2 or 3 layer disc. IMHO this probably won't justify the cost savings (if any) from using a red laser instead of a blue laser.

 

[AnarchX]

10-20 layer is the (far) future of this format.
First it will start with 3-4 layers and the production costs(9ct) of the mediums are just a little bit higher than a SL-DVD(6ct).

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatile_Multilayer_Disc
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage/display/20070831215028.html

But on the presentation @ IFA there were some problems with the showed hardware:
Jerking and sometimes to high compression
http://golem.de/0709/54510.html

 

[nintenho]

It's not needed but when you think about it, does the market need any HD player? I'm not sure there's a huge audience for it but if you can go into a costco or on amazon and get a $150 player, that's probably going to be a huge advantage if they get decent marketing.

 

[pcchen]

Well, the player may be cheap, but it alone is not going to make many people buying them. Upscaling DVD players are already very cheap now. You still need a healthy amount of movies in your stock to lure customers.

By the way, if they only have 3-4 layers DVD at first then they'll have trouble putting a 1080p full length movie on it.

 

[nintenho]

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6477636.html

it's apparently just a standard DVD player with a HD decoder chip. Would that mean that PS3, 360, and PC could use this technology?

 

[Ty]

10 layers? I hate layer changes as is, and that happens just ONCE for our DVD player. Unless they do a better job of buffering/reading forward, I would personally avoid this like the plague.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I'd be all for a 3rd option if I thought it had a hope in hell of succeeding.

$150 won't be cheap enough by the time they get these on the shelves they will be competing against $199 HD DVD players with ~300 titles.

 

[nintenho]

I don't think I've noticed any layer change lag but you'd think that would be their main focus with this player. and apparently there won't be any U.S. releases or more mainstream releases of the VMD disks for a while. Sad, but not surprising considering how long it'll take to convince hollywood studios to support a third HD disk, if they can...