PC/Rush Distenex To Carry Red-Laser HD Deck

LOS ANGELES — New Medium Enterpriese (NME), the developer of a red-laser-based high-definition disc system called HD VMD, said it has reached an agreement with U.S. distributor PC Rush/Distenex to carry 10,000 HD VMD players.

Starting this month, PC Rush will sell NME's 1080p HD VMD multilayer players through its PCRush.com e-commerce site, and will distribute to retail outlets in the United States through associate company Distenex.

Players will be supported with HD VMD film content currently available in the United States, NME said.

"PCRush.com will make strong Internet sales here in the USA for HD VMD products thanks to its high traffic e-commerce site and its dedicated sales force," stated Alexandros Potter, NME U.S. operations chief.

Potter added, "In addition, distribution of our products to brick-and-mortar outlets will be carried out by Distenex, a sister company of PCRush.com."

NME said HD VMD is currently being adopted by content providers and distributors in more than a dozen countries worldwide, including Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, India, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

HD VMD is a full HD format with 1,920 by 1080i/p resolution, up to 40Mbps bit rate playback and DVD up-scaling so users can watch their existing DVD collection and achieve premium picture quality through their HDTVs.

The HD VMD player is suitable for playback on all HD-capable displays and will support existing optical disc formats, CDs and DVDs.

The decks in this new format also feature Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and all region codes for greater film-viewing flexibility, according to NME.