HD-VMD: The Third Contender In The Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Format War

You may have seen the news about HD-VMD. If you don't know, HD-VMD is using a red laser(CD, DVD) instead of Blue and offer a good capacity for HD movies. Also, it's much cheaper than Blu-Ray/HD-DVD formats. VMD movies should cost a little more than DVD but less, again, than the other 2 formats.

Show Me the Movies

The catalog has many movies (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are now near 300 each but started low too). I took the list from their site and kept those that I knew of.

• Hostage
• We Were Soldiers
• Apocalypto
• Lucky Number Slevin
• Valiant
• Saw II
• Saw III
• Lord of War
• Passion of The Christ
• Angeles Ashes
• Babel
• 16 Blocks
• Hoodwinked
• Oliver Twist
• Pulp Fiction
• Sahara
• Gosford Park
• The Descent
• The Queen
• Butterfly Effect 1
• Butterfly Effect 2
• Hitcher
• Black Sheep
• Lord of the Rings
• Spy kids
• Scary movie 2
• Bridge to Tarabitha
• China Town

After seeing the list, it looks promising. What's the use of a cheap player if you can't watch movies on it? If VMD can show an alternative to more studios, it can make it harder for the other formats. Some movies are from studios that support one or the other. Unless Sony decide to support it, which I doubt for now, you won't see Spider-Man 3 on VMD any time soon.

What's missing?

A part from content, the interactive features is missing. For me, it's not a big deal. Yes, you have the Wow factor at first but in the end, how many will really use it? Unless your are a big fan of a movie or like behind the scene while viewing a movie, most won't care for it.

What about cost?

One advantage often mentioned by pro HD-DVD is price. A VMD player will cost $150 and be able to upscale a DVD to HD. That will give them a run for their money and may appeal to those on the side lines who may just want to upgrade their current DVD player. Blu-Ray will need to lower their cost pretty fast if people start to buy VMD players.

And the market is....

The current HD market is still young. The vast majority have not decided yet, so a cheaper player that could play DVD and possibly HD movies may have an appeal for them.
I can see a potential for this format in the rental movie market in North America. Studios could just mass produce VMDs with only the HD movie on it. That way, they will be able make more media at lower cost while people wait for the format war winner. Studios would still sell Blu-Ray/HD-DVD movies with all the bells and whistles for those that decided to took the plunge.

On the other hand, people may like it more than expected.

The lower cost will also appeal to countries with less money.

Conclusion

Is is too late? No but they must work fast and provide both content and distribution of the hardware. The next holiday seasons will be critical enough for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD but for them, it would mean a live or die in North America. From now on and into 2008, it will be very interesting to watch if it turns in a 3-way war but that's what happens when big egos(Blu-Ray and HD-DVD camps) can decide on 1 format.