Is VMD the Next Blu-ray?
The discs and players are much cheaper to produce than either Blu-ray or HD-DVD because it uses the same red lasers that standard DVD players use. Red lasers are cheaper and easier to produce than the blue lasers used in the other high-def disc formats.
According to an article in today's New York Times, VMD players are sold directly through the NME Web site and will be available on Amazon in about five weeks for about $200, though Michael Jay Solomon, the chairman of New Medium, seems to think prices could quickly drop to $90 a player.
Low prices, however, didn't save HD-DVD, and with the lackluster selection of VMD movies (only 17 titles available stateside), the upstart disc format is going to have a tough time even carving out a small niche for itself.
Whatever. All these next-gen disc formats are doomed, since HD-downloading on devices such as Apple TV and Vudu are only going to grow.
From the New York Times
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nycmuscleasian @ Mar 14th 2008 4:08AM
Completely disagree with the following statement from the article:
"All these next-gen disc formats are doomed, since HD-downloading on devices such as Apple TV and Vudu are only going to grow."
Doomed? Let us examine available evidence...
Apple TV has already shown lack luster growth. HD-downloading market is not going to fair well mainly due to the lack of movie/film studio indurty support. The lack of support from the movie industry is what killed the HD DVD camp, despite that HD DVD software and hardware were cheaper to produce as compared to Bluray.
Furthermore, one cannot compare music downloading market with movie downloading industry. Downloading music industry is killing traditional CD sales mainly due to how music service is enjoyed and purchased by the consumer. The majority of the population values convenience, instantaneous service, and portability over quality. This is the same reason past business ventures into higher quality audio formats such as SACD and DVD Audio were all flops, and iPod and all sorts of MP3 devices proliferated. Majority of the consumer wants to buy only the songs they want, and play them anytime and anywhere as often as they want, all because music as a medium is more or less an enjoyable distraction away from a boring task being performed, such as exercising, cleaning, driving, doing the laundry, etc. This is also the reason that higher quality audio devices are now all geared toward home theatre surround sound systems.
Movies and films, on the other hands, is a medium primarily of a dedicated experience enjoyed by the consumers, where portability is not of much relevance when it comes to video quality. In the old CRT TV days, a 32" 4:3 tube TV was already considered "large" and most household owned sets of 25" or smaller. Today, 32" to 50" HDTVs are of common site in stores. There is a reason why the public is buying larger and larger HDTV's, because video quality is important since one cannot fully enjoy movies and films while driving or doing the laundry...
If downloading video services would over take next generation HD video formats in the future, it would have already killed DVD rentals, just like how MP3 downloads killed CD sales... After all, SD video resolution material such as DVD is much easier, faster, and more convenience to achieve sucess with downloading services, because the medium requires so much less bandwidth and storage space than any next generation HiDef video formats. If downloading movie servies have not already caught on and killed DVD rentals, then it would never take off in the future when the competition is Bluray rentals from BlockBuster....