New York (NY) - In an accelerating race to create a viable successor of the DVD, New Medium Enterprises has demonstrated its 20 GByte Versatile Multi Layer Disc (VMD). Other than the much touted HD-DVD and Blu-ray, the VMD utilizes a common red laser technology.
While two industry groups already are competing for the winning concept of a next-generation DVD, a relatively unknown new player has come to play. New York-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) demonstrated its four-layered VMD (Versatile Multi Layer Disc) with a capacity of currently up to 20 GByte. The medium is planned to only be used for pre-recorded movie content in High Definition format and densities of up to 40 Mbit per second.
The VMD is a new format which will require specific players, which however, will be able to play CDs and DVDs, NME said. In contrast to Blue-ray and the HD DVD which use blue lasers with shorter wave length to read data stored in higher density on discs, the VMD utilizes common red laser technology. According to NME, this helps to keep production cost low and will allow consumer to buy discs for a similar price than today's DVDs.
