First HD VMD Players Go on Sale

Something tells me that HD VMD (a new HD disc format that Chris Null blogged about in June) is destined to be little more of a footnote in the HD format wars. That said, if you're curious, the first HD VMD players are finally on sale, and they're a little less than $200.

Technabob found a trio of HD VMD players on Amazon.com: two flavors of the NME ML622S (white and black, both $189), and the NME ML777s ($199). The players will ship in about three to five weeks, and both models will supposedly deliver full 1080p resolution over HDMI. The region-free players will support MPEG-2, MPEG-1, VC-1, and H-264 video, as well as Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks. Needless to say, the current crop of HD VMD players won't work with HD DVD or Blu-ray discs, although they will upconvert standard DVDs to 1080p. The specs sound pretty solid, but since I've never seen an HD DVD player in action, I can't vouch for picture quality.

So, why are these players so cheap (well, relatively speaking) compared to most competing HD DVD and Blu-ray decks? As Chris wrote in June, HD VMD players use red-laser technology—the same used by existing CD and DVD players, which makes for cheaper manufacturing costs. That said, HD DVD prices are starting to catch up; witness the sub-$200 deck from Venturer Electronics.

Of course, price isn't the only thing to consider when it comes to picking an HD deck—there's also the issue of available movies, and HD VMD's list of launch titles (check the right side of the NME home page) is pretty weak. Only about 100 discs are available, and I've never heard of most of them. Some notable exceptions: "Apocalypto," "Lord of the Rings" (unclear whether it's the set of live-action Peter Jackson films or the older, animated version), "We Were Soldiers," "Hostage," "Saw I" and "Saw II," "Babel," "Pulp Fiction," "The Queen," and "The Descent."

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HD VMD players hit stores for under $200 [Technabob]