Just when we thought the dust was settling between BLU RAY and HD DVD a new format comes to challenge both of them. HD VMD is the latest edition to the high definition arena, but with one big advantage.

The latest format is one based off old red laser technology but offering the capacity of its competitors, making each unit cost half of its cheapest competitors. HDVMD players will be released onto the market at just $150US.

The new format encodes the video at a maximum of 40mbps; close to halfway between HD DVD’s 36mbps and Blurays 48mbps. The disc itself will be able to hold up to 30gb of data on a single side, which is comparable to the hd-dvd format.  The format uses MPEG-2 and VC1 video formats to encode at a 1080p resolution for the time being.

There are a few downsides to the format though. The smaller data size means that it won’t be able to support Dolby Digital True HD or DTS Master Audio Surround sound codec; however 7.1 channel audio is still supported.

New Medium Enterprises will launch its new ML622S HD VMD player next month, being released with only 20 movies in the format. Similar to the support of its competitor formats at launch.  

For more information see their site at http://www.nmeinc.com/