The format war is over, the winner is.....

Interesting...



Wouldn't that be a deal breaker for most people on this board?

Interesting...

NME’s ML622 and ML777 1080p HD VMD players are the first high definition
DVD players to output true 1080p. Utilizing the Sigma Designs EM8622L chip set
the ML622 and ML777 will output the native 1080p resolution from the disc rather
than adding a second conversion process by breaking it down to 1080i and deinterlacing
back to 1080p.

Isn't that what HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players do already? I thought that the ones that output 1080p24 could dump the full resolution without deinterlacing 1080i... If not what would be the point?

According to this section of the "White Papers" by Kevin Miller, President of ISFTV, it says differently, maybe things have changed.

"NME’s ML622 and ML777 1080p HD VMD players are the first high definition
DVD players to output true 1080p. Utilizing the Sigma Designs EM8622L chip set
the ML622 and ML777 will output the native 1080p resolution from the disc rather
than adding a second conversion process by breaking it down to 1080i and deinterlacing
back to 1080p, as all current HD DVD and Blu-ray players do. At a
suggested list price of $199 NME’s top-of-the-line ML777 HD VMD player, with
state-of-the-art HD performance and up-conversion for Standard Definition DVD
playback, will be competitively priced with current popular up-converting SD
players like Oppo Digital’s models, and priced well below even the entry-level
Blu-ray and HD DVD players. With true 1080p performance from the players, and
state-of-the-art software transfers, the HD VMD format will offer superior
performance at a lower price than both Blu-ray and HD DVD."

white paper

From Wikipedia




So it looks like these statements would be currently inaccurate.

I suppose. The units and price looked attractive. I was looking over the movie titles and that needs to grow some before I would be interested. By then, the BluRay pricing will surely come down further. I just need something for my Sanyo.

My other struggle is giving up my HTPC using TheaterTek software to run my movies. I see that Sony came out with a pc Bluray player only, but not sure my Nvidia 6600GT would be enough for 1080p.

I understand that! I wanted to build a HTPC with the blu-ray/HD-DVD drive combo but after realizing that it doesn't work that great (plus the need of using anydvd-hd since the Z2 doesn't always work well with HDCP). Also my wife wasn't really willing to deal with the quircks plus the price of the whole thing.

So that's why I got a Toshiba A2 and the ps3. At least the ps3 allows me to stream movies of my main computer through windows media player 11. I'm planning on putting all my dvds on it and stream them to the ps3. So I kind of got what I wanted until the whole hd-dvd/blu-ray htpc business comes up with something better

Randy, I believe the specs of the 6600 are not quite there for 1080P, actually i just looked it up and it won't do it, 1080i is as good as it gets. Time for the 8800GT or GTS or OC GT or....

Spec sheet 6600GT

HD VMD is dead before it even started, how can you be successful with no studio support?

Ditto, this is off the radar for a reason. Nobody wants a third option for HD disks. We're all frustrated enough figuring out options 1A and 1B.

The NVidia cards are not going to be your best choice for HD. Sure, they're your best choice for gaming, but getting your hands on one is crapshoot.

The ATi cards have HD decoding and audio built in, from the bottom range up. Personally, I'd get a 3850--good for gaming and HD!

I was kind of hoping HDVMD had something to do with streaming Medic8r over the web at 1080p.

Groan. . .

I would agree with Ken, Randy. If no gaming then you'd be better off with a Radeon since they have hardware HD decoding while the GeForce chipset only has hardware decoding for one encoding only (VC-1?)