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HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5613		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  substance [ 22 Sep 2015, 21:38 ]
Post subject:  HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
I used to hear about this format years ago when HD-DVD and BD was battling then it disappeared. I don't know if it ever had an official release in the US but it was available in Europe for a short while with maybe 40-50 titles.

I managed to buy one of the only two ever released players with two titles. These show up on ebay time to time but rare. I have never seen any titles for sale yet. If anyone has any for sale, let me know.

Its based on DVD tech with red laser but has 4 layers for 20Gb capacity. The video is 1080p24. Now the only HD format I don't have in my collection is CBHD ( China Blue HD) which is the BD competion in China based on HD-DVD technology. Early players were Toshiba A30 rebadges.

Attachments:
NME ML777S Top.jpg
NME ML777S Top.jpg [ 71.53 KiB | Viewed 9548 times ]
Author:  substance [ 23 Sep 2015, 17:41 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
Complete Title List: These were announced before the format died but I don't know if all of them got released. Notice the number of Indian films.

* Hostage
* We Were Soldiers
* Apocalypto
* Lucky Number Slevin
* Valiant
* Saw II
* Saw III
* Lord of War
* Fireplace & Aquarium
* The Ark
* Help I'm A Fish
* El Cid
* Mid Summer Dream
* Passion of The Christ
* Angeles Ashes
* Babel
* 16 Blocks
* Set up
* Hoodwinked
* Oliver Twist
* Princesse
* La Planete Blanche
* Pulp Fiction
* Sahara
* Demande A La Poussiere
* Gosford Park
* The Descent
* Miss Potter
* The Queen
* Butterfly Effect 1
* Butterfly Effect 2
* Hitcher
* Black Sheep
* Lord of the Rings
* Diario De Um Novo Mundo
* Inside Out
* Avion
* Welcome to LazyTown
* Dr. Rottenstein
* Hero for a Day
* Defeated
* Rottenbeard
* Cry Dinosaur
* Secret Agent Zero
* Sleepless in LazyTown
* Happy Brush Day
* Pixelspix
* LazyTown’s New Super Hero
* Sports Day
* Crystal Caper
* Lazy Scouts
* My Treehouse
* Swiped Sweets
* Sportafake
* The Laziest Town
* Soccer Sucker
* Dear Diary
* Miss Roberta
* Sports Candy Festival
* Remote Control
* Sportacus Who?
* Zap it
* Records Day
* Ziggy’s Alien
* Play Day
* Prince Stingy
* Robbie’s Greatest Misses
* Dancing Duel
* LazyTown’s Greatest Hits
* Sportacus on the Move!
* LazyTown’s Surprise Santa
* Sailor et lula
* Scorpion
* Le caïman
* Spy kids
* Scarie movie 2
* Les chansons d'amour
* Khakar Khakar
* Alaipayuthey
* Pammal K Sambantham
* Panchathanthiram
* Ghilli
* Boys
* Kandukondain Kandukondain
* Water
* Bheja Fry
* Bridge to Tarabitha
* Hanuman
* Malamal Weekly
* Constant Gardner
* Jo Jeeta Wohli Sikander
* Page 3
* Parzania
* Iqbal
* China Town
* Sholay
* Andaz Apana Apna
* Hum Aapke Hai Kaun
* Padosan
* Maine Pyaar Kiya
* Kashmir Ki Kali
* Pyaasa
* Sapoot
* International only
* Khanna & Iyer
* Inquilab
* Namak Haram
* Dil Ek Mandir

Attachments:
HD-VMD Media 3.jpg
HD-VMD Media 3.jpg [ 97.86 KiB | Viewed 9548 times ]
Author:  substance [ 23 Sep 2015, 17:44 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
I haven't received the player and the two above pictured titles yet but once I have them I will do a brief review here.
Author:  nissling [ 23 Sep 2015, 18:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
Read about it once. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that Pulp Fiction got a release on it, a title which didn't reach Blu-Ray in the US until many years later (the Scandinavian release however hit the market much earlier).
Author:  ace2184 [ 29 Sep 2015, 10:08 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
Learned something new today. Was the HD-VMD released in the US? I had no idea this was a thing until I ran across this posting.
Author:  substance [ 29 Sep 2015, 19:32 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
HD-VMD is VCD of HD home video formats. It's based on existing DVD technology, using the red laser but has 4 layers for 20GB capacity. NME announced 8 layer discs but those were never released. The marketing was towards a cheaper alternative to HD-DVD(it was still alive back then) and BD. A couple of small studios agreed to release HD-VMD discs, I can't tell how many of the above list was actually released but those were the announced titles.

The players: They released NMW ML677 first then ML777 later. I don't know the differences except 677 is silver and 777 is black. I own the ML777 model. It's very cheaply built, can compare to Toshiba HD-A3. It boots pretty fast like a DVD player(essentially it is a modified DVD player), the welcome menu has 4 options, HD-VMD, USB, SD Card, Setup. I don't know what file formats it supports through its usb and sd card but I probably will never find out. HD-VMD discs starts very fast, loading screen is only a few seconds, very similar to DVDs. The player has multiple resolution options all the way from 480i to 1080p60. There isn't an option for 1080p24 but in resolution menu there is an option labeled EDID. This options reads your displays capabilities from its HDMI EDID info and adjust resolution automatically. In EDID mode, the player was outputting 1080p24 which is nice. The player also has all of the usual composite, component, svideo, optical, coax outputs. No network connection which means firmware updates were not expected which is also good.

The discs: I only have two titles pictured above. They are unknown films and bad films. They are encoded in 1080p24 and my receiver verified this. The picture was very sharp, I don't think the player was up converting, I think it is legit 1080p. These films are so low budget, they look like they were shot on digital handycam, so I cant tell if the look is due to encoding or the film itself. They looked overly compressed, macroblocking and banding was available. The only good thing I can tell is I am pretty sure they are 1080p24. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0, I don't have any way of verifying bitrates but safe to assume it is 192kbps. It sounded very thin and weak. The player converts it to PCM and outputs it that way. I will later try optical out to see if I can get a bitstream output.

Forgot to mention, the films have no annoying previews of anykind. You pop the disc in, you get a few seconds of fancy HD-VMD logo shining then you get to the film menu. Since the player is very fast, all this happens real quick. The film menu has two options, play and chapters:) no subtitles, no audio options.
Author:  svwees [ 29 Sep 2015, 21:20 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
I like the ease of use operations on playing discs.

I don't like, if every title is really a very compressed picture, because then you'd be better off with a good mastered dvd upscaled.
- The fact that it has no closed subtitles (same problem with ld except ld-g)
- If it has only dolby 2.0, 5.1 whatever and no dts or pcm stereo.

But like you mention, a vcd like kind of hd disc in terms of picture sound quality.
Author:  substance [ 06 Oct 2016, 18:50 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
After over a year, I am still looking for discs to play on this machine.
Author:  xtempo [ 06 Oct 2016, 21:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
there is currently a player on eBay that doesn't have the HDMI out working. is it a good DVD player?
Author:  laserbite34 [ 07 Oct 2016, 16:32 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
Reading about the format it could support Dolby Plus 7.1
Quote:
The HD VMD format supports up to 7.1-channel Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS audio output, though it will not offer Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound codecs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatile_Multilayer_Disc


HD-VMD the sizes of their hips! :shock: :mrgreen:
https://vimeo.com/184005782
Author:  substance [ 07 Oct 2016, 16:39 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
xtempo wrote:
there is currently a player on eBay that doesn't have the HDMI out working. is it a good DVD player?


Players show up time to time. I have seen 2 prior listings in the past year but none with discs. I contacted each seller, no one has discs. I wouldn't spend any money on this for DVDs. I didn't test it but it's probably only ok.
Author:  substance [ 07 Oct 2016, 16:41 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
laserbite34 wrote:
Reading about the format it could support Dolby Plus 7.1
Quote:
The HD VMD format supports up to 7.1-channel Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and DTS audio output, though it will not offer Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound codecs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatile_Multilayer_Disc


HD-VMD the sizes of their hips! :shock: :mrgreen:
https://vimeo.com/184005782


Perhaps it could but I don't know of any titles with 7.1. I only own two titles and they are DD2.0 only. I think they cut every possible corner on this format to make it cheap.
Author:  elahrairrah [ 18 Nov 2016, 21:21 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
substance wrote:
HD-VMD is VCD of HD home video formats. It's based on existing DVD technology, using the red laser but has 4 layers for 20GB capacity

Huh . . . kinda sounds like someone in China read all the articles that Joe Kane wrote in advocating a 720p resolution DVD in the late 90s early 2000s and ran with it.
Author:  substance [ 19 Nov 2016, 01:00 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
elahrairrah wrote:
substance wrote:
HD-VMD is VCD of HD home video formats. It's based on existing DVD technology, using the red laser but has 4 layers for 20GB capacity

Huh . . . kinda sounds like someone in China read all the articles that Joe Kane wrote in advocating a 720p resolution DVD in the late 90s early 2000s and ran with it.



I think it's a European format as it was first offered in the UK. I don't believe it officially made it across the pond. Not certain on both.

China got CBHD - China Blue HD based on the defunct HD-DVD tech from Toshiba. 1st gen players TCL and Shinco were Toshiba A35 clones. It is not certain these players read HD-DVD discs (one player has HD-DVD logo on it) and whether CBHD works on HD-DVD players. Each title was like $8 and had 1080p with Dolby Digital (lossy) on them. Most releases were American movies from Warner and Universal.
Author:  xtempo [ 05 Oct 2019, 20:14 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
substance have you ever seen Cinema Sickness's Collection? he seems to have some though I have no idea when he got them or if the list is updated.
http://www.cinemasickness.com/collectionhdvmd.htm
Author:  substance [ 06 Oct 2019, 04:19 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
xtempo wrote:
substance have you ever seen Cinema Sickness's Collection? he seems to have some though I have no idea when he got them or if the list is updated.
http://www.cinemasickness.com/collectionhdvmd.htm



Yes he beat me on that auction which those titles were included with the player. I was busy with doing something that week. I wasn’t online near auction ending otherwise he would never beat me lol. But I won the subsequent listing a few later with only two titles included. Since then no discs or players with discs showed up.
Author:  rein-o [ 06 Oct 2019, 14:40 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
That's why I use Gavelsnipe.
Author:  substance [ 06 Oct 2019, 16:47 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
rein-o wrote:
That's why I use Gavelsnipe.



My rookie days with ebay
Author:  xtempo [ 06 Oct 2019, 17:09 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
have you tried to get any of the bollywood movies and do they exist? At the time it seem it was going to release more bollywood than anything.
Author:  substance [ 07 Oct 2019, 01:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: HD-VMD anyone heard of it?
xtempo wrote:
have you tried to get any of the bollywood movies and do they exist? At the time it seem it was going to release more bollywood than anything.



Afraid not. There seriously none anywhere. I have in my signature here and many forums for years. Searching all auctions. Not a single one showed up. No Hollywood no bollywood no nothing. I pretty much gave up long time ago.
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