Added the beloved day of October 31, 2007

NME Launches a HD Alternative That Means Prettier Motion Pictures for Your Eyes and the Environment

On November 15, 2007*, New Medium Enterprises (NME) finally releases the more affordable, more eco-friendly and, yes, prettier alternative to the current clunky HD DVD and Blu-ray high-definition players on the market. Their alternative is the HD VMD (High-Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc) player, which comes in white, black, gray and, we're still hoping, "flaming red." Although HD VMD is yet another batch of letters to remember, we hope you'll take note.

Notably, the current high-definition options available are not very eco-pretty. Because Toshiba's HD DVD and Sony's Blu-ray use new blue lasers (thus the "Blu" in Blu-ray), both companies had to invest a lot of resources in creating new production lines to accommodate the new technology. The cost of that investment is not only passed on to you, the consumer, but also is passed on to our environment in an excessive waste of resources and a potential scrap-heap of outdated or useless manufacturing equipment in the future.

We applaud New Medium Enterprises (NME) for making high-definition possible with the same red-laser technology already used to make the same low-res DVDs we all buy and own. The company can simply adapt plain ol' DVD production lines into HD VMD lines without reinventing the wheel. Think recycling on a factory scale. This smart, more resourceful approach saves lots of money in production costs (savings which are passed on to you) and requires much less energy and fewer resources in the long run (savings passed on to the environment).

With a starting price of $199.00, HD VMD players will be hundreds of dollars cheaper than their competing high-definition formats, yet offering the same video quality. We're also happy to see that HD VMD movies will be half the price of other high-definition movies as well. While new releases on Blu-ray and HD DVD go for either $34.99 or $39.99, HD VMD movies will go for $17.49 from the get-go -- and that's not even on sale. So much prettier for our wallet.

Some of our favorite HD VMD titles in English, available Nov. 15, 2007:
- Alexander - Angelina Jolie, Colin Farrell, Jared Leto
- Alpha Dog - Justin Timberlake... Swoon!
- Babel - Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Rinko Kikuchi
- Butterfly Effect - Ashton Kutcher
- Gosford Park - Huge, ensemble cast
- Match Point - Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
- Miss Potter - Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor
- Pulp Fiction - John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, Uma Thurman
- The Queen - Helen Mirren, James Cromwell
- Sleepy Hollow - Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci
- Spy Kids - Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega

Buy HD VMD movies online, beginning Nov. 15, 2007*:
- NME Store

Buy HD VMD Players online, beginning Nov. 15, 2007*:
- Amazon
- NME Store

UPDATE (Nov. 7) - Read more about HD VMD in TV Guide:
- HD VMD In-Depth: We Talked to NME's Execs

*Date subject to change

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Fug Alert: Don't get swindled into buying an "upconverting" DVD player hawked at Wal-Mart. No player can create true high-definition quality from a non-high-definition disc. It's just that simple. It's the equivalent of trying to get CD quality out of a vinyl record.