Not content to sit back and watch the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps duke it out by themselves, developer New Medium Enterprises on Wednesday unveiled a third high definition disc format for the U.S. market at the CEDIA Expo in Denver.Seriously. Thanks to New Medium's HD VMD (versatile multilayer disc) the HD format fracas just got a little more confusing.Of course, jumping on board this late in the game calls for an angle, and the HD VMD folks aren't being shy about theirs. Unlike the bells, whistles and performance features of the other formats, HD VMD is all about price; $199 to be exact. Players will be available in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2007.
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Said Jayanarayan: "With the launch into the U.S. market this month and an accelerating rollout of HD VMD content and retail distribution partners, we plan to drive adoption of HD in the home."But there's still that nagging question -- a low price point is great, but isn't it better to spend a little more for a technology that has a chance of being around in five years?
All right. Start up company you've never heard of, check. Eleventh hour entry into the HD disc game, check. Ambiguity about which studios are supplying content, check. Lowball price point with (presumably) crummy margins, check.
I imagine that when the trade show floor opens today, they'll be signing up dealers like gangbusters!
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Isn't this strategy partly how JVC helped the VHS camp win the videotape format wars? As I recall they entered the fracas with a "new" recording speed and cheaper machines. Plus they were a major contributor to the "Beta is dead" campaign that developed legs only slightly less powerful than the "Paul is dead" rumour of the Beatles's "Abby Road" days.
OK. So JVC was a known quantity in their day - but I've been to Wal-Mart ducky, and all the "hoi-polloi" are interested in is what the ad splash on the box says.
"Lookit here Lurreen! Theyz a Hi-Deffy-Nyshun DVD player for only $199.00 and a Burt Reynolds "Smokey and the Bandit" movie pack for only $29.99. Hot dang! It's movie night too-nite at "Casa Dangwoodle"!"*
Again gentle reader remember the quote I offered up in this very blog recently. It's "bums" not "brains" that the entertainment industry marketing blitzkrieg is aimed at.
*Cultural Disclaimer - Before any of you fine folks in the lower 48 jump to the conclusion that my clumsy attempt to represent the colloquial speech accent patterns of the average Wal-Mart shopper is a not-so-veiled cruel jest at your expense, let me state that this is how they talk in CANADA too.
It is my theory that living in mobile homes, watching too much Jerry Springer, game shows and "reality" TV - coupled with constant consumption of low grade import products and kitschy housewares actually results in this kind of speech pattern regardless of geography or language.
If you don't think so, then I invite you check out the twangy accents displayed by some of the decidedly low-rent characters portrayed on the Quebec produced and located sitcom "Les Bougon". Seasons one and two are available on Amazon.com - yes with subtitles in English.
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