We can't and don't
always expect segments of the Asian market to follow suit with the goings on of the western tech world (see
TD-SCDMA, for on example), so for
some
"viable"
alternatives to HD DVD and Blu-ray, see EVD and VMD: the Enhanced Versatile Disc and Versatile Multilayer Disc.
Medium Enterprises claims to have bumped up EVD to 50GB capacities now after their majority purchase of Beijing E-World
Technology and putting in hours with VMD's R&D department. What's this mean for your average Chinese consumer? 1080
high def video in a red-laser player box costing about $150, or so they claim; definitely "good enough" to
compete in the Chinese market, and perhaps even abroad. NME should have a box ready to show off at CeBIT, which can't
wait to see for ourselves.
[Via
HD Beat]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
veniex @ Mar 6th 2006 10:38AM
This is really good at $150. Why cant Blue-ray and HD-DVD players be that cheap at lunch???
geoff pedder @ Mar 6th 2006 10:57AM
why can't they be that cheap at breakfast and dinner too?
slyecho @ Mar 6th 2006 11:09AM
It's not cheap because of the licensing fees. If you wanna make a Blu-ray player, you have to throw some cash at Sony.
c.Lake @ Mar 6th 2006 11:24AM
Fuck Sony and Mircosoft! If this thing was a HD-Recorder I would totally buy it! Now you could record Movies in HD right off Cable. Hahaha -- at a $150 dollars, who needs Blue-ray.
I knew this Blue-ray Business wouldn't turn-out the way Hollywood thought it would. Even if nothing come of it, that just goes to show you -- "Don't count your chickens..." Hahaha - this is still priceless.
Jay @ Mar 6th 2006 11:47AM
Check out the reflection! This box has a new feature that makes some of the controls invisible, except in a mirror, of course. Impressive.
nullsmack @ Mar 6th 2006 11:51AM
#4, you already can.. kindof. The DVICO hdtvfusion 5 cards do both broadcast and cable, as long as the cable bit is unencrypted. (Around here I only get the broadcast locals from the cable) Some digital cable boxes can pass the signal over firewire too. With the right processing, a mpg2 HD stream for a 2hr movie will 'only' take 10-13gb. You can compress that down to ~4gb with divx/wmv without losing resolution or much quality. Add mythtv to the mix and you can schedule stuff to record too.
yuppicide @ Mar 6th 2006 12:39PM
For $150 I'd buy one if the media prices aren't too crazy. I would need one that can go on my PC as well for it to be useful to me.
chuck @ Mar 6th 2006 1:57PM
way to go! as soon as blu-ray & hd-dvd start hitting the market chinese will rip'em and release in evd/fwd/vmd formats. hail to the chinese! (actually, some russian guys invented this 5..9-layer red-laser dvd)
and you can not record on it, sorry.
Barrington @ Dec 12th 2006 6:50AM
I don't think that it is possible to record on HD-DVD and possibly Plu-Ray at least in England using NTL/Telewest Digital Cable system.
Film studios and brodcasters worried about piracy.
Steve Rosenberg @ Mar 7th 2006 7:04AM
This has the potential to really muck up the Blu-Ray future! Amen and I want thttp://www.engadget.com/2006/03/06/higher-capacity-50gb-evd-vmd-at-cebit/wo.
Bryan @ Mar 7th 2006 9:52AM
"And if you scour the web, there isn't much of a difference in quality between DVDs, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray in terms of video quality."
What have you been smoking? The difference between DVDs and HD is HUGE on a good display. And Blu-Ray/HD-DVD are HD but with better compression (less artifacts) than broadcast HD.
Barrington @ Dec 12th 2006 6:54AM
In theory Blu-ray and HD-DVD picture quality should be better than DVD:
1) If the new Wizard of Oz films which has been properly been cleaned is compare to the old version on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD then the cleaned version may look much better.
2) Defects (grainess in the old version may look better on DVD than on; Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
Barrington @ Dec 12th 2006 6:49AM
You are correct you need to see the picture from the following sourses rather than then the internet: -
1) Blu-Ray disc
2) HD-DVD disc
3) Digital Cable company, using an HD box
4) Satellite, using an HD box
5) External powerful Tv aerial (antenna),use HD box
6) An excellent DVD player
Use the above with excellent; cables, TVs (especially 1920x1080p TVs - possibly 40" 1080p Sony TVs), which ever are is the best; Blu-ray, HD-DVD and DVD players.
Before I forget, the actual film and programme should be of the best quality.
Too many people think buy a cheap HD product and expect it to display the best TV picture, which obviously is impossible!
mythmanq @ Mar 15th 2006 1:36PM
The EVD/VMD recorder will be avaiable in about 6 to 8 months I think... because the cost of the recorder is more expansive, its more like around $350 for the first wave of release...
GO EVD/VMD...
Barrington @ Dec 12th 2006 6:42AM
Better than paying some of the inflated prices for Blu-ray and HD-DVD if the players are excellent.
There are far too many problems with existing HD products.
Some problems should have been solved years ago.
See HDMI 1.3 - HDMI's official website:
http://hdmi.org/about/faq.asp
mythmanq @ Mar 15th 2006 1:37PM
Does any one know? when will these be comming to the US? We are always the last to receive new hit technologies...
Barrington @ Dec 12th 2006 6:57AM
We in England are usually the last to receive new products and also they are usually much more expensive than what you pay for them in the USA.
mythmanq @ Mar 15th 2006 1:48PM
recorder will be on self for sale at the second half of the 2007.
ref:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181500595
Barrington @ Dec 12th 2006 6:47AM
Do you know when these devices will available in the UK - To be precise England?
sr @ Mar 29th 2006 9:15PM
Yeah, wow, I really want a 7 layer disc red laser format like I need a 7-layer burrito at Taco Bell.
What people don't understand is that when DVD launched players were $1000-1500. To see HD-DVD launching at $500 is a good acomplishment. What is that? An iPod + a charger and a case?
Even Blu-Ray at $1000 MSRP or about $700 street price is excellent for a new format that fixes the blunders of DVD.
For those of you who think DVD is good enough, you probably don't have TVs that display HD so why not work on getting better TVs first and in the meantime Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will be in your price range.
These players today are for discerning customers who don't want 7 layer switching pauses in a movie and who have already invested in displays capable of displaying what these new players will output. These people don't find $500-1000 to be a lot of money to have technology that maximises the quality of picture they get. Anyhow by this time next year you'll be picking up Blu-Ray players for $200-300 anyway with the capability for layering upto 200GB. That's progress - not 7 layers of red laser disk.
Barrington @ Dec 12th 2006 6:51AM
Why should people pay if it is correct about 40% or anything for Licenses with the extent of compatibility problems - HDCP with HD products?
Manufacturers should be compensating consumers, whom have purchased expensive pieces of HD junk.
People should also be notified of HDMI 1.3 version, which will probably make earlier versions of HDMI obsolete, because earliar versions are probably not upgradeable.
Especially, since at least one HDMI 1.3 will not only be new but have a new shape.
http://hdmi.org/about/faq.asp
Carbonize @ Mar 30th 2006 3:44AM
#14 - The HD format wasn't around when DVDs were developed so of course DVD doesn't support HD.
From your post I'd say you need to rediscover what your front door is for and reunite yourself with real life instead of sitting watching TV and Movies constantly.
Barrington @ Dec 12th 2006 6:41AM
I am sure that they were thinking about HD whilst thinking about DVD burners about 1999.
So, they could have made them forward compatible if they wanted to.
But, their priorities were to maximize their profits as usual.
Probably the only reason why we are having HD products now is because what i call, 'The Establishment' weren't making adequate profits with existing products - otherwise we would still be waiting.
barrington.thompson @ Dec 12th 2006 3:20AM
I don't care how many layers the disc has providing it works properly automatically without having to turn the disk over manually.
I am sure that Sr doesn't check each PC used and then complain when a hard disk uses more than one platter (disc).
The cost now a days is much cheaper to what it would have cost not only in the past but probably every three to six months for example the electronic goods becoming cheaper.
Therefore, if Sr wants to get ripped-off and pay much more money is fine.
If Sr wants me to waste money paying much more money then necessary then I won't.
How does HD products fix the, 'bugs' (problems) in DVD and which problems is the person talking about?
It would be a much better idea if HD products repaired the numerous problems created by HDCP in HD products.
This is besides HD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are just an extension of DVD.
As DVD was an extension of CD and not a completely new technology creating something from scratch ( finer lasers and finer holes (piths).
Boasting about HD being superior to present technology just shows your ignorance.
What about the following problems which HD TVs has compared to the best CRT TVs: -
1) Standing probably at least 6 to 8 feet away
A: Not to see imperfections in TV pictures
2) Artefacts
3) Shimmering
4) Stripes
5) Contrast
6) Brightness
7) Flesh tones
8) HDCP compatibility problems
9) AACS, which will also probably cause compatibility problems - used by film studios 2010.
10) Component when switched off will probably cause similar problems to, AACS - see 9) above.
11) You are beginning to sound and talk like a snob
A) Majority of Audiphiles would probably disagree with you.
1: One of the pricipal purpose of a TV is to get the best picture quality as possible.
2: If somebody creates a DVD with ten layers, which produces a much better picture quality than present HD, without any pauses, then people like me who want to buy the best DVD picture quality in a particular price range would buy it, if obviously quiet reliable etcetera.
3: For example if your computer plays video, than despite that the hard disk's data is probably stored on different platters (discs), I am sure that you haven't noticed any pauses when you are watching a DVD clip or DVD movie, due to obtaining information on different discs within your hard drive, have you?
4: Information on a computer is stored on different places on the hard disc and I am sure that you haven't noticed that your computer pauses due to trying to find the next information, do you, whilst watching a DVD film?
5: HD Doesn't maximise the picture quality, which is why HDMI 1.3 (PSP3, late 2006 and other HD products early 2007) is replacing; HDMI 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.0a.
Since Sr is an expert - would know that HDMI's official website is:-
http://hdmi.org/about/faq.asp
, which if you were an expert would know about, before wasting your money buying something, which you think is the best, which isn't.
6: For $500 and $1,000 despite that I don't know much about the prices in the USA, it means that you don't have a 1080p TV.
7:The minimum size for an HD to maximize the HD effects, but it depends how far you want to watch the picture from is usually 40", but some people say 50".
8: It obviously means that you are not an expert, which you claim to be because it is probably impossible to buy one of the best 40" TV for $500 to $1,000 - Sony 1080p for example.
When has any new product, which sells for about 1,000 is reduced by about 80% in six months or 12 months, unless virtually nobody wants it?
If the hype of EVD is correct then why is E-World giving-up not only controlling interest but only selling for $8.5M & 40% of NME (New company), which is peanuts compared to billions to be made, even 8.5M sterling would have been peanuts.
For several months now, E-World has worked with New Medium, a U.K.-based company with R&D operations in the US. In December, E-World agreed to sell a 69 percent stake in itself for $8.5 million and 40 percent of NMEs shares. The new company will be called NME-World when the transaction closes this month:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181500595