No sooner has the battle for the next-generation high definition DVD format ended, with Blu-ray triumphing by HD DVD, than a new contender has emerged.

A new system that is incompatible with Blu-ray, called HD VMD, is trying to find a niche. New Medium Enterprises, the London company behind the HD VMD technology, says that the quality of its system is equal to Blu-ray’s but costs less. By undercutting the competition in production, replication and hardware costs, it thinks it can find a market among consumers with less disposable income, particularly outside the United States.

An HD VMD player costs less than a Blu-ray considering it uses the red-laser technologies found in today’s standard-definition DVD players. The Blu-ray and HD DVD machines use a more-expensive blue laser system. VMD stands for versatile multilayer disc, the company said.

“We do not mean to take on Blu-ray,” said Shirly Levich, vice president and product development manager at New

Medium. “We see VMD as a natural extension of mass market DVD product enhanced to HD capabilities. We shall not rekindle the format war.”

The industry and consumers may not see it that way, given that the company is promoting its price advantages. While Blu-ray players typically cost more than $300, an HD VMD unit is priced at $199. Sales through Amazon should start in five weeks, a company spokesman said. No talks have been held with the big-box retailers, like Wal-Mart Stores, to carry the product.

New Medium thinks that its secret weapon is Michael Jay Solomon, one of Hollywood’s best-known film distributors, who has been named its chairman.

Although he has yet to approach the studios, Solomon, a former president of Warner Brothers universal Television, said his lengthy tenure in the industry would help him succeed in licensing movies for HD VMD. “It’s a combination of…

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