Versatile Multilayer Disc
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This article contains information about a scheduled or expected future product. It may contain preliminary or speculative information, and may not reflect the final version of the product. |
Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) is a high-capacity red laser optical disc technology designed by New Medium Enterprises, Inc.. VMD is intended to compete with the blue laser HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats and has an initial capacity of 20 GB to 40 GB per disc.
At CeBIT in March 2006, NME demonstrated a prototype VMD player and announced that they were expecting to launch the format in the third quarter of 2006. Rather than competing head-to-head with the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats, they intend to market their format in China and India initially with a possible expansion into Eastern Europe, Russia and South America coming later. With this in mind, they have signed a deal with Bollywood production company Eros Group who intend to release 50 Bollywood features on the format before the end of 2006.
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[edit] Technical Specifications
[edit] Disc Format
Although initial details are sketchy, it appears that the format uses 5 GB per layer, similar to standard DVDs. The larger formats come from adding more layers. Whereas DVDs hold up to 2 layers per side, standard VMDs can use 4 layers, for 20 GB of storage. There are also reports of 8 and 10-layered versions which can hold 40 and 50 GB, respectively.
The Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats use blue-violet lasers, rather than VMD's red laser, which mean they can store more information per layer. However, those formats have so far announced only 1-and 2-layered versions with experimental 4-layer versions some way ahead. Therefore, a standard 4-layer VMD stores 20 GB which is comparable to a 1-layered HD DVD (15 GB) and 1-layer Blu-ray Disc (25 GB).
[edit] Content Format
The VMD format is capable of HD resolutions up to 1080p which is comparable with Blu-ray and HD DVD.
