News

posted on 28 July 2008 10:55

Just what the world needs; the China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) is a competing format to Blu-ray and raises the spectre of another damaging optical disk format sales war.

Just when the wasteful HD-DVD competing format from Toshiba has been buried with a Blu-ray stake through its heart another format pops up from the Hydra-headed monster that is the optical high-definition format creation beast. Unlike Call/Recall and the InPhase holographic format it is affordable.

Apparently an existing DVD production can be upgraded to CBHD capability by spending $0.8 million. Turning a DVD line into a Blu-ray line will cost $3 million.

We can expect China to start assserting its technological independence as it gains technology smarts, marketing confidence, and its home market takes off. There's also no need in this instance to pay license or royalty fees to Mr Stringer's business in Japan.

A 55 yuan royalty fee willl be needed to produce a CBHD player, according to Taiwanese industry sources here. That's a lot lower than Sony's Blu-ray tax.

But Blu-ray players in the US have just dipped below $300 and none of the major Hollywood studios have signed up to the CBHD format. Why would they? Having just gained a unified post-DVD market the last thing these blockbuster-producing behemoths want is a freshly fractured one. So is CBHD just another Pekin duck?

It could be a marker, just like China wanting to build its own disk drives and its own PCs. Imagine a Chinese Bollywood equivalent - Beijingwood? Doesn't sound good but millions of Chinese want movies in Chinese and will buy players for them. This is a sign of the times and the period in which Western world-influenced technology formats were imposed on, and accepted willy-nilly by, the Chinese is comong to an end.

^{[Martin Edwards, news writer.]}