VMD extends standard DVD capacity to 100GB.

B

BenQ

Newcomer
"Mahesh Jayanarayan, a consultant to the company, is keen to emphasise that VMD is not a competing new standard, but an enhancement of the standard DVD format. Indeed, VMD uses the existing red laser technology, the same pick-up lenses and the manufacturing process utilises only existing DVD manufacturing technologies and equipment."

http://www.dvd-intelligence.com/main_sections/news_archive/2003_free/3_wmd_demo.htm

I read the article, and as far as I can tell reading these "enhanced DVD" doesn't require any different hardware whatsoever. It seems the DVD players you all have are capable of of reading these discs. The only difference is that they need a software update - codec related.

What do you think this means for HD-DVD and Blue Ray? Does this solve the Xbox 360's potential problem of not having enough space on those DVD 9's? With a simple software update, it would seem that they could use these new discs have more than enough space and require only a standard DVD drive. ( No BlueRay or HD-DVD drive required )

I had a feeling something would come along.....
 
I don't think there was much actual talk about the format. There was one post that said the format was already selected by the market. But I like to think whoever has a machine that can read their content first has a shot. These guys have a very agressive schedule. I give them about 1-20 odds. Nothing in business is ever a forgone conclusion. Who knows they just might be able to pull a David.
 
the question is...

how much will these disc(s) cost?


EDIT!!!

nevermind :)

i skimmed through the article and missed the prospected price for the discs...

the article stated it will be an extra $2 per disc from what a dvd9 would cost.

pretty impressive!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think this sound pretty impressive and maybe somthing that even 360 can benefit from. If it is a matter of a codec, shouldn´t be a problem to infuse it someway into 360...
 
serenity said:
You can say that again. :devilish:

Wonder how Movie studios, manufacturers are going to react to this. :LOL:
Click to expand...

Won't matter, they are still going to go with either BD-ROM or HD-DVD, just for the copy protection methods. So people like me with my component only tv will have to stick with DVHS (which officially died with the release of I-Robot), or buy another TV.
I'm sure the BDA will follow HD-DVDs lead and only allow 480p from component outputs.:devilish:

For non-HDTRV owners you propbably can't feel my pain, until MSFT Vista is released and you only get ED from your non-HDCP monitors, I expect Apple to follow suit to cater to the movie industry as well. So sad, so sad...we are all criminals.
 
There is nothing about the physical BR or HD-DVD discs which makes them more secure than this one, it is all in the software. They dont really say what the limitations on HD signals will be, and if they will rely on CSS for "protection".

Their main problem is content, a couple of bollywood movies wont push the format.
 
This is all well and good - I'm a big fan of technology extension - but even though it's the same hardware essentially, only a codec difference, it would really require a new name beyond 'DVD,' because since none of the existing players will be able to read them, you're going to have to go through the whole rebuilding of the install base anyway. Plus, with capacities of 30GB expected by next summer, I'm not sure if it can pose a viable threat at this point to HD-DVD and blu-ray. Of course as has already been pointed out, it's fairly moot since Hollywood's going with these regardless.

Additionally, there is nothing about this technology that would preclude them from using it with blue lasers to achieve an even higher storage capacity; it's simply that the whole 'use of existing infrastructure' is the hook they're selling it on.
 
Well if they can use this compression method on DVDs imagine what you can have with HD-DVDs or BRD?
25X the original capacity.I am sure it requires a certain amount of processing power to pull it off and resources will be taken up.It's afterall a software based solution.
 
What BenQ says is a bit misleading ... they use bog standard HD mpeg2, the discs are physically different from normal DVDs. A lot of the existing hardware can be retained though, as for the actual readout it might very well just be a question of upgrading firmware if the hardware can support the higher datarate, but they will need new decoding hardware.
 
MfA said:
There is nothing about the physical BR or HD-DVD discs which makes them more secure than this one, it is all in the software. They dont really say what the limitations on HD signals will be, and if they will rely on CSS for "protection".

Their main problem is content, a couple of bollywood movies wont push the format.
Click to expand...

I know the physical disc doesn't make them more secure, however, Toshiba has already announced that HD will only be had through digital transmission methods, DVI+HDCP/HDMI, hence my comments about component out being ED only. That has been announced and I expect the BDA to follow suit, hollywood has no intention of allowing HD over analog medium.
 
If HD-DVD and possibly Blu-ray uses 480p through composite cables, isn't that the same thing that we have now with DVDs?:?:
 
By pure numbers, yes, but that also assumes the program on the DVD is really pushing the envelope in video performance. This may or may not the case. It certainly isn't a given "just because" DVD is a typical 480p.

Now take 720/1080 and squish it down to 480p, and you can be fairly certain that 480p will be as data-rich as 480p could ever possibly be. Naturally, it's kind of pointless to watch that on an hdtv, but on regular TV's it should be quite good.

Does this make everything work out fine? Of course not, but this should be no reason to ignore that there are perks here and there.
 
Weee, imagine how Random-Access would turn out on a 20-Layer disc, switching Layers takes time.
 
DVDs have atrociuous random access times anyway ... anyone have any numbers on the random access times with/without layer switch on modern drives?
 
pffffftttttttt they could hvae HD video on DVD 2 years ago if they would drop the worth less MPEG format and go with HDDIVX or WMV10, blame the stupid studios.
 
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