China developing incompatible version of HD DVD

As if the money grubbing battle 'tween HD DVD and Blu-ray wasn't enough to shake the collective will of the sofa ridin' set, now China is weighing in with their own official standard based on, but incompatible with, HD DVD. So what, you might be tempted to twitter. Well, keep in mind that China produces somewhere around 80 percent of all the world's DVD players and these manufacturers must pay licensing fees (estimated to be 40 percent of the total cost for each player) to foreign patent owners. Could this formidable foe bring some unity to the HD DVD and Blu-ray camps who risk losing all? Nah doubt it, both camps should be firmly entrenched with product by the time the Chinese standard hits the market in 2008.

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

China may produce 80% of the h/w but they produce only a fraction of the content. Unless they steal the content, which China seems to do with impunity, no one will buy a player that plays only Chinese produced content.

[TAZ427 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Don't worry, the content will be stolen, if you ever take a trip to China you'll know that just by walking out of your hotel.

Actually China is well know for taking existing formats and making small (insignificant) changes that make them incompatable with other markets. That way only Chinese companies bother to sell into chinese markets. The changes are simple though so that the same design with minor changes can be sold into the world market.

This is what they've done with Digital Mobile Phone standards and a number of other things.