LOS ANGELES, Feb. 26, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- New Medium Enterprises (NME) (OTCBB:NMEN) today announced its first U.S.-based distribution deal with PC Rush to bring its HD Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) players to the U.S. market for the first time. Through this three-year distribution deal, PC Rush will distribute and market the HD VMD Media Player Duo and HD VMD Media Player Quattro, which will allow consumers to play their existing standard-definition DVD collections up-converted to HD, as well as allow consumers entrance into the HD playback market with the high quality, and high value VMD disc format. The HD VMD Media Player Duo, starting at $199 (MSRP) and the HD VMD Media Player Quattro, starting at just $249 (MSRP), will both be available from PC Rush in Q2 2007.
The HD VMD Media Players Duo and Quattro will fill the market need by delivering high-definition discs and players at an affordable price for a broad consumer base. With HDTV adoption continuing to grow, consumers need a proven technology and affordable solution for content storage and playback. Utilizing red laser technology, the same technology used to produce today's global DVDs, NME is bringing consumers an HD option at a comparable cost to the current consumer DVD market.
HD VMD is a true HD format with 1920 x 1080i/p resolution, up to 40 Mbps bit rate playback, video up-conversion for SD DVD, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and all region codes. The HD VMD media format is suitable for playback on all HD capable display devices and will support existing optical disc formats: CD, DVD (DVD5 & DVD9).
"We are committed to providing U.S. consumers with an affordable and high-quality HD experience via the HD VMD solution. The red laser-based VMD format and players are a natural successor to the DVD market, allowing consumers to get high-definition for a fraction of the cost of today's HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs and players," said Mahesh Jayanarayan, CEO, NME, Inc. "Our partnership with PC Rush represents a strong step towards our goal to bring HD VMD to a wide consumer base in the U.S."
"We are excited to partner with NME," PC Rush Chairman and COO Frank Khalili said. "Market forces demand solutions that couple true High Definition video playback with existing DVD technology. The world-class supply chain and logistics expertise provided by PC Rush is the ideal complement to NME's breakthrough technical innovations. For the past few years the USA customer base has eagerly awaited a product that addresses the desire for high quality HD playback without abandoning existing investment in conventional formats. PC Rush stands ready to satisfy that pent-up demand."
VMD is currently being adopted by content providers and distributors in 12 regions worldwide, including Brazil, Central Europe, China, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Japan, the Middle East Russia, Scandinavia, and the United States.
VMD technology can provide up to eight information layers on each side of a disc and can be utilized for both blue laser and red laser formats, thereby offering numerous content options and business opportunities for the high-definition and content ecosystem. VMD is applicable for single- and double-sided discs and a multiplicity of formats, including Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
About NME
New Medium Enterprises HD VMD format and players provides the world's first low-cost and true high-definition playback solution utilizing today's red laser technology and existing DVD industrial infrastructure. Incorporating break-through optical storage capacity, a red laser-based HD file format, encryption technology, authoring tools and compression technologies, NME is providing the only high-quality and high-value offering for the discerning consumer electronics market. New Medium Enterprises, Inc. is listed on the OTC exchange in the U.S. under the symbol NMEN. For additional information about NME, please visit http://www.nmeinc.com .
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