Chinese manufacturers prepared to switch from DVD to EVD in '08

Chinese engineers have been working on homegrown disc format EVD since 2003 with little to show for it, but today 20 firms -- representing 97 percent of the DVD manufacturers in the country -- displayed 80 players and announced plans to switch from DVD to the new format exclusively by 2008. EVD joins VMD as a low cost alternative to Blu-ray and HD DVD, using conventional red lasers combined with advanced compression technology to put high definition movies on discs. This "Red-ray" HD approach promises to support resolutions up to 1080p without a need to increase disc capacity significantly, and will allow them to launch with players at the same price as current DVD -only models. EVD is just one of several recent Chinese initiatives to decrease reliance on outside standards and licenses, but is doubtful to catch on elsewhere. That's really too bad, because with players priced at only $87, we're interested in the group's ideas and would like to subscribe to their newsletter. Additionally, the format's backers plan to sell movies at download-and-burn kiosks and allow users to rip movies to their hard drive -- no hacking necessary.

Read - China firms unveil new video players
Read - EVD Substituting DVD Basically in 2008

[KevIncognito @ Dec 6th 2006 3:25PM]

"State media say the Chinese system has performed poorly in tests."

...great

[primetime4 @ Dec 6th 2006 3:13PM]

This should be awesome for the Chinese bootleg industry which also represents 97% of the Chinese market.

[chris @ Dec 6th 2006 3:16PM]

EVD for probably about $100 vs. Blu-ray for $1,000 or HD DVD for $500. Meanwhile Microsoft is trying to make downloadable high def content practical (albeit a ways away). I think we can compare HD DVD and Blu-ray to DIVX. So much for PS3 being a "great deal."

[PG @ Dec 7th 2006 1:16AM]

DVD for chinese bootleg.

Anyway, I hate chinese product.

DO NOT BUY CHINESE THINGS.

They threaten all world economy.

[geoff @ Dec 11th 2006 2:53PM]

"20 firms -- representing 97 percent of the DVD manufacturers in the country"

Aren't these just guys that own a camcorder, a PC and a DVD burner.

[Ross @ Dec 6th 2006 3:31PM]

Amazing that someone managed to bash PS3 in an article about CHINESE EVD. Just when I think it can't get any worse.

[Jimmy @ Dec 6th 2006 3:31PM]

Anyone that thinks that Hi-Def movies are going to look great when compressed to less than 10GB is foolish. Having seen side-by-side comparisons of very good DVDs upconverted on a very good DVD player (Denon) with either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD I can tell you that there is a huge difference. Even on screens as small as 32 inches the difference is very noticable but obviously more so as the screen gets larger.

[andyo @ Dec 7th 2006 8:33AM]

It's not the same. Upconverted dvd still has dvd resolution. I watch and record over the air HDTV, and for about an hour you get 7-8 GB of 1080i of acceptable quality. mpeg2 is an old compression algorithm, and I bet with mpeg4 and its variants much better quality can be achieved (and is actually, mariposa HD for example, 1.5-2 GB for 30 minutes of good quality 1080p)

[Mihir @ Dec 6th 2006 3:48PM]

"interested in the group's ideas and would like to subscribe to their newsletter"

love the simpson's reference!

[FrankTheCrank @ Dec 6th 2006 3:55PM]

Last I remember isn't China Communist? Don't they have long range nuclear warheads pointed at our major cities?

How did everyone forget? oh yeah, $.

Also, didn't we lose 58,000 Americans in Vietnam fighting the northern Vietnamese who were mainly supported by Communist China?

Oh yeah, $.

[Leoedin @ Dec 6th 2006 4:17PM]

ok...so the fact China is a communist country should come into this where? Although the way communism ends up (corruption, bad treatment of citizens) is bad, there is nothing wrong with communism, and at least it tries to give the little guy something back, unlike the capitalist west.

Anyway, if this works, good for them. The chinese are really coming out from under the covers with regards to homegrown stuff these days - they don't just make stuff for western companies anymore.

[Karl @ Dec 6th 2006 6:58PM]

God, you are so clueless.

1. Communism rocks. It's just never been done yet.
2. The Americans had no business in Vietnam. They were there supporting a government nobody wanted. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy said it, and events in Vietnam made it pretty damn obvious. You go in to a country you have nothing to do with, and support a government nobody likes, and you get beaten.

And how the hell can you complain? The US did more damage to Vietnam than the Vietnamese did to the US military.

God, I could go on for ages about how stupid your comment is, but most importantly:

3. Why the hell does it matter? Why must you care about things that will never effect your life?

[Time Magician @ Dec 7th 2006 2:39AM]

You obviously don't know what the world looks like in now days.

[Andrew Fong @ Dec 6th 2006 10:30PM]

Long time ago pal. China is more capitalist than we are now. Most of the Chinese who fought in Vietnam are more concerned about healthcare than about the US, and those who led China during the Vietnam War now have as much influence as ... uh ... well, Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon have on us.

Long time ago ...

[I, Robot @ Dec 7th 2006 8:54PM]

@FrankTheCrank

That is the most RACIST F*cking thing I’ve heard since “Seinfield-Kramer” Meltdown on YouTube. What the hell is wrong with you? What does the Vietnam War have to do with DVD players? Nothing.

OMG!! You Racist, Nazi, Motherf*cker – Grow-up!!! Stop making All Americans look like complete assh*les. The U.S. is NO VIRGIN to bloodshed and money, you know? Now, stop embarrassing our country, and go read a book – learn something before you post another comment.

[Nobuyuki Idei @ Dec 6th 2006 6:41PM]

"there is nothing wrong with communism"

You're kidding, right?

[Tom @ Dec 6th 2006 7:24PM]

Not even when human rights are trampled on can communism be wrong. Communism is freakin awesome.

[ScottMaximus @ Dec 6th 2006 10:01PM]

Anyone who thinks communism was anything more than an idealist fantasy is a moron.

Communism is a fantasy land.

[Mike @ Dec 6th 2006 4:24PM]

The Chinese don't want to pay royalties to ANYONE. They want to be the ones collecting royalties. With that said, I could see them using it locally, though it won't catch on elsewhere. The capacity increase isn't enough to justify the expense compared to DVD.

DVD is already ubiquitous in the region and few people there have hi-def sets.

[James @ Dec 6th 2006 4:30PM]

Who wants to pay royalties to anyone if they don't have to? That said, I think piracy problems are greater in Russia than in China.

[metalhero @ Dec 6th 2006 5:40PM]

Leoedin, Communism is probably the reason they want to create EVD so that their country doesn't have to rely on the outside world and can limit the populace even further. not that theres anything wrong with that

[Ryan @ Dec 6th 2006 4:48PM]

Bart: Sharing is a bunch of bull, too. And helping others. And what's all this crap I've been hearing about tolerance?
Homer: Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Ryan @ Dec 6th 2006 4:49PM]

oops sorry.. I didn't realize someone caught the reference before me

[WareWolf @ Dec 6th 2006 8:46PM]

Wow, if they succeed in accomplishing this on any mass scale...watch out MPAA/RIAA [u nazi fu___]. I bet they'll accomplish their goal, it wouldn't take much to come up with a better system of distribution for DVD-type materials.

[Awwalu Salihu @ Dec 19th 2006 8:57AM]

This is quite interesting. The human spirit has no limits. It only makes one sad that we are still watching the world go by.

[andyo @ Dec 7th 2006 8:35AM]

Communism is an ideal. In short, and being somewhat simplistic, communism has never been achieved, it is too naive, and doesn't take into account human nature. That's why all those authoritarian regimes have failed to being humanistic. But communism is as bad as the next thing, and capitalism, and dare I say it DEMOCRACY, are not perfect either. Democracy, for example does not work at all when a large part of the country either is deeply religious, or largely ignorant/illiterate.

[Tom @ Dec 6th 2006 7:30PM]

Not being American for Vietnamese (or even French for that matter), resisting communism prevents all of the pitfalls of communism from ever happening. Communism does not give power back to the people, it is constantly restricting the rights and privledges of every subject.

[Tom @ Dec 6th 2006 7:31PM]

Not being American for Vietnamese (or even French for that matter), I can say relatively free of national pride, that there was a damn good reason for the Americans to be in vietnam. Resisting communism prevents all of the pitfalls of communism from ever happening. Communism does not give power back to the people, it is constantly restricting the rights and privledges of every subject.

[Erik Peterson @ Dec 6th 2006 8:48PM]

Dear Frank, Answers to your Questions-
>Last I remember isn't China Communist?
Not really. China may be governed by a "Communist Party" but it displays few of the economic or social principles involved in Marx-Leninism or even Maoism.
>Don't they have long range nuclear warheads >pointed at our major cities?
No. China's ballistic missiles could only reach the west coast at best, and one generally doesn't point one's weapons at one's biggest trading partner.

>How did everyone forget? oh yeah, $.
Uh maybe because the two times we've been in military conflict with China we were the aggressors and we lost?

>Also, didn't we lose 58,000 Americans in Vietnam >fighting the northern Vietnamese who were mainly >supported by Communist China?
Actually it was 57,000, and most of the American deaths were caused by fighting with the Viet Cong, a resistance army of South Vietnamese volunteers (and some conscripts) economically and logistically supported by the North Vietnamese government. Additionally, in polls conducted before American involvement in the war and during the war, Ho Chi Minh was consistently selected by South Vietnamese over the dictators installed by the french and the Americans. The war started as an indigenous attempt to throw off the French colonial oppressors by the Viet Minh, a socialist leaning nationalist group. Ho Chi Minh often quoted American political icons in his speeches, and appealed to America for help in getting the French to agree to leave peacefully. When that didn't work, Ho turned to the Chinese for support and as a result introduced more Maoist and Leninist ideals into his platform.

Your point would have been better served by calling the Korean War to memory, as Americans actually fought Chinese People's Army soldiers on the peninsula. However, once again, America had no business being in this war and lost when American generals pushed too close to the Chinese border and prompted a self defensive Chinese counter-attack.

>Oh yeah, $.
That's just asinine and doesn't deserve a response.

[Erik Peterson @ Dec 6th 2006 8:03PM]

Oh and by the way, over 1 million Vietnamese died at the hands of the American military. Killing people is a really great way to get them to adopt a nationalist leader who opposes you instead of the brutal dictator you've installed to rule them.

[Steve Jobs @ Dec 6th 2006 8:23PM]

Boring talk about VC. I'm going to watch the news cuz something about IRAQ is on.

[h0mi @ Dec 6th 2006 9:40PM]

This is engadget, not digg or USENET or some political blog. enough with the commie bashing/love.

I'm uninterested in EVD as a movie format since few American movies will be released in the format and given the level of compression being suggested, it will probably look no better than current DVD media upconverted, but I'm more curious how it will work as a media drive... can an EVD disc hold more than a dual layer DVD? Assuming it can, that would make me more interested in buying one for my computer over BD or HD-dvd.

[Tom Ritchford @ Dec 6th 2006 10:00PM]

What does China have to do with Communism?

[Tony Tones @ Dec 6th 2006 9:44PM]

err, 20 firms represent 97% of the industry? How many firms are there in all?

[Ed @ Dec 6th 2006 10:49PM]

Sign the HD DVD petition to end this foolish format war.

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/HD_DVD_Studio_Support

[Castle @ Dec 6th 2006 11:20PM]

>>EVD joins VMD as a low cost alternative to Blu-ray and HD DVD.

NO, please do your research Engadget, its a competitor to the DVD. ITs a 8.4GB using Mpeg2 and a second rate codec called VP6 which does not offer the quality of VC-1 and Mpeg4, but has cheap royalties of $2/player.

The EVD is a method for China not to pay royalties on DVD's 6C forum that requires 5% going to 6V companies like Toshiba, Time-Warner, Universal, etc, and a method for the communist party to control the media.

[whiskey @ Dec 6th 2006 11:46PM]

Oh you silly americans, everything else than your own is "strange" or "satanic".
About this? i wonder how much divx/xvid their discs can hold... It would be sorta cool also to have a EVD burner on your pc. You know, for backing up and stuff.

[another_it @ Dec 7th 2006 2:19AM]

anyone else catch the simpsons reference in that post?

[Chris Taylor @ Dec 7th 2006 4:16AM]

What we need is a grass roots movement to SUPPORT this format in the US. ABANDON bluray and hddvd in favor of this and FORCE studios to support it or die on the vine.

The problem with Blueray and HDDVD is not the format or the resolution but the insane DRM and RESTRICTIONS and SECURITY put in place to eliminate our property rights.

If it means supporting an inferior format to retain my property rights SO BE IT

I would rather have lower quality than a USELESS disc that can on be used when how where and if they decide its ok after validating 10 forms of ID etc.. first off course and paying extra fees off course.

We need to support an OPEN standard format and get enough people and hardware manufacturers to USE IT to force there hand to either use OUR format or ABANDON the practices on there format that make them so distasteful.

[cloud811 @ Dec 7th 2006 9:17PM]

this thread is the funnest thread i've read in awhile. lol. Honestly im chinese and as much as i wanna say omg final go china! im not sure....lets be truthful guys....things coming from china...arn't....that good quality. Does anybody remeber china's failed satilate launch? But im "hoping" it's a good invention

[evo @ Dec 7th 2006 10:27PM]

Um, the state-controlled Chinese media isn't exactly known for stating accurate statistics.

This is just posturing to let the rest of the world know that they are serious about what they see as unfairness in licensing fees (if they could, they'd do the same to us, of course). In other words, it's a state-sponsored negotiation tactic. China is like any other capitalist country, and it and its citizens will go where the money is. Even though players may only cost $80 (640 RMB), that's still expensive for something that's merely a luxury, especially since most people already own a DVD player and there are millions of bootleg DVDs out on the street. Don't expect this to change anything at all.