China announces CH-DVD, a new high definition DVD standard

As if two different high definition DVD standards weren't enough for the world, China has gone ahead and said "actually, it is, at least for the western portion of it." The Optical Memory National Engineering Research Center has announced CH-DVD, a high definition DVD standard based on the DVD Forum's HD DVD, but with additional Chinese-owned technology tacked on. This additional technology takes the form of advanced copy protection designed to prevent the spread of pirated content. A new foundation called the China High Definition DVD Industry Association will be promoting the format, with the aim of launching a hardware player in 2008, and getting content producers on board before that.

[Thanks, cullen and JL]

[a ham sandwich @ Sep 9th 2007 2:50PM]

um, no.

[manfesto @ Sep 9th 2007 2:50PM]

Wait, so CHINA is putting copy protection on their new format?

CHINA? Land of cheap knockoffs and pirated content? Land of the fake DisneyLand?

[Paul @ Sep 9th 2007 3:49PM]

Yeah, sorta like India coming out against phone customer support being exported to other countries.

[eh @ Sep 9th 2007 7:18PM]

and under a government that is more corrupt than the pirates.

[Charlie Calhoun @ Sep 9th 2007 9:02PM]

That's why theres Ninjas. In Japan.

[Daniel @ Sep 9th 2007 2:51PM]

I have yet to try the other 2 let alone this. But i guess if it stops piracy (hahahah nevarrrr mwhaha) then it will be widely adopted i gather.

[ukickmydog @ Sep 9th 2007 2:53PM]

lol, communism

[crow610 @ Sep 9th 2007 3:29PM]

What the hell does communism have to do with this article? Were you just so eager to say something bad about China that all you could think of is communism? Grow up man.

[Jonathan Dixon @ Sep 9th 2007 3:44PM]

Why are you assuming he is saying something bad about china when all he said was communism? You are quick to defend china yet your assumption reveals that you yourself might have something negative to say about communism. Just something I noticed. ;)

[crow610 @ Sep 9th 2007 3:52PM]

Whether or not this was an attack on China why even mention the word, and only word communism.

[Josh @ Sep 9th 2007 5:16PM]

Because it was a witty statement. Calm down.

[Iced_Eagle @ Sep 9th 2007 2:53PM]

Insta-fail.

People already started their HD collections. If China was serious about this, they would have decided this a while ago. Plus, launching in 2008? Jeez, the HD format winner may already be clear by that point, before this CH-DVD launches.

[Flaming_Pig @ Sep 9th 2007 3:37PM]

"Insta-fail."

What you don't understand is that this is China we are talking about. First, There's some 1.3 billion people living there. Beijing has ~15 million, Shanghai has 20+ million. The domestic market is big enough, they don't need to care about the Outside World. Second, this is government-owned operation, and the government is not afraid of (ab)using its powers.

All they need to do is impose extremely high tax on HD-DVD or BluRay technology (players + discs) and make CH-DVD cheap as dirt. The Hollywood studios can choose:
1) have their movies pirated on DVD (which they will not make money), or
2) try to cling onto HD-DVD/BluRay (which they won't sell many units), or
3) adopt CH-DVD for the Chinese market (the only way they can make money)

And before you say something like "or they can just ignore the Chinese market", I will ask you to pay some attention to the population figures there, it's a biiiigggg market to ignore, and these companies are purely for-profit. They'd do anything to make a profit.

[crow610 @ Sep 9th 2007 4:00PM]

Totally true! A perfect example is while the rest of the world uses programs like AIM (mainly America), yahoo and MSN most Chinese Internet users us a program called QQ.

By 2008 Blue-RAY and HD-DVD could still be fighting for dominance while along comes CH-DVD that turns out to be the best of both worlds. If that was the case which one would you choose?

[Fruition @ Sep 9th 2007 6:08PM]

They use a program called QQ? Stop crying, China, your instant messaging software isn't that bad.

[DAZA @ Sep 10th 2007 8:05AM]

I've read that CH-DVD might actually help HD DVD in the format war. This is because since the two are so similar to each other, the cheap players and recorders built for CH-DVD can easily be modified to work on HD DVD. Cheap media and drives would certainly help HD DVD against Blu-ray.

[Antton @ Sep 9th 2007 2:55PM]

Me think's China is the only place on earth you will see this shower. CH-DVD, that's funny. Phone Jacker is guna have a riot with this, 'u got any a them chdvd, i don't want hddvd i want chdvd'.

[Robotochan @ Sep 9th 2007 4:20PM]

I was wondering if you had the chidiiivvvvd player?

They currently have their own format at the moment, I don't see why they wouldn't make a new one for themselves...

[joe @ Sep 9th 2007 3:00PM]

Who cares anymore about optical discs? In an era of increasingly fast network speeds, streaming HD content will win in the long run.

[Lazerface @ Sep 9th 2007 3:08PM]

nah, they should just make movies on 8 gig flash discs. USB flash drives are dirt cheap now, and moving to a flash-based format would cause inane price drops

[Terry @ Sep 9th 2007 3:13PM]

@joe

How fast do you think the Internet is going to increase over the next 5-10 years? A friend showed me a 1080i rip of the Matrix, it was 10gigs. @ 1080i. Checking a post on the HDTV service for the 360, movies on average are 5-6 gigs, 720p. Any idea how big a 1080p would be? Now I just "upped" my internet service to 10meg. You do the math. We are, I would guess, 5-10 years away from being able to download an HD movie where it isn't faster to drive across town to buy it on a disk.

[Twitchy @ Sep 9th 2007 3:59PM]

Yeah HD content on Flash based memory. Doesn't scratch like discs do, plus you can carry a movie or two on your keychain. USB Flash FTW!

[JeffDM @ Sep 9th 2007 6:04PM]

Lazerface, the idea of selling on flash media won't quite work until that 8GB card costs $2 or less in volume. That's what pressed 30GB HD-DVD and 25GB Blu-Ray media costs in volume. And flash that still doesn't absolve the issue of having to change the media.

I have no problem with optical media right now, I just don't see my Internet service being good enough for HD downloads for many years, Netflix is still quicker or is about as quick and I don't have to tie up my Internet connection for a night or entire day for one movie. I can't say anything about HD-DVD, but Blu-Ray's anti-scratch coating is actually very good.

[Blackster @ Sep 9th 2007 3:03PM]

That's great, so they are trying to protect their own stuff, but they are free to make cheap knock offs from the rest of the world? *bg*

[Jack @ Sep 9th 2007 3:07PM]

since its chinese made atleast itll be cheap and affordable, lets not forget that to have cheap HD and Blu-ray players this is exactly where their manufacturing plants will be :)

[S Dreams @ Sep 9th 2007 3:10PM]

Copy protection to protect piracy not prevent?

[Bilal @ Sep 9th 2007 3:10PM]

Okay. o_O

[Bob @ Sep 9th 2007 3:24PM]

What is the lead content of these new disks?

[lordebon @ Sep 9th 2007 4:28PM]

The new discs are going to be 100% lead and other toxins. That's the copy protection -- they'll kill you before you can copy them.

[ImaFreak @ Sep 9th 2007 3:26PM]

Ooook. So, does it come with extra lead?

[ryan @ Sep 9th 2007 3:29PM]

Does this include 1080ch?

[Paul @ Sep 9th 2007 3:49PM]

The great part of these discs is that they have a protective layer of lead which increases the quality of the video.

[rkho @ Sep 9th 2007 6:51PM]

So this, on top of the new HD-VMD? This isn't some Royal Rumble, guys.

[Krazy Koala @ Sep 9th 2007 3:57PM]

Um....

I think you're all missing the significance of this. It is fully HD DVD compatible. This means that China (land of cheap manufacturing) will start kicking players on the door on the cheap that can play HD DVD. CH DVD isn't meant for outside Chinese borders but with China adopting it, its a huge gain for the HD DVD format.

[Paul @ Sep 9th 2007 4:05PM]

It's a given that HD-DVD is going to win. Side by side comparisons have always favored HD-DVD, so it was only a matter of time before the dominant format won out over the "spiffiness" of blu-ray. China just helped us out.

[Alex @ Sep 9th 2007 5:57PM]

Will these players you speak of be made of lead?
:D

[Ed Canale @ Sep 9th 2007 4:12PM]

ummm no.... Thaaaats just fekking retaaaaaded

[anthony @ Sep 9th 2007 4:46PM]

Would a CH-DVD work on a HD-DVD player? Since it based on the HD-DVD?

[UnnDunn @ Sep 9th 2007 4:56PM]

No, but an HD DVD will likely work in a CH-DVD player.

[humpty @ Sep 9th 2007 4:51PM]

This sounds like its for the Chinese market.. so they dont have to pay licensing fees to Japan.

[ark_v2 @ Sep 9th 2007 5:08PM]

I have to admit, you Chinese are great. Too bad it's too late. If you want it to succeed make it something like the CD was for the GD-ROM.

[dUN @ Sep 9th 2007 5:10PM]

I am from China and I can say this will ultimatly FAIL ! The reason for CH-DVD is nothing about copy protection, it's just a sound excuse for doing the new formate.

It's their to stop BR-DVD & HD-DVD players from SONY or TOSHIBA etc, entering the home market coz of the CCC certificate issue (like FCC in US), look at the member list guys!

This is exactly what the goverment did with Wi-Fi standard in China, yet no one use the homeland standard after it was launched, if I remember correctly, 2 yerars ago!

[JeffDM @ Sep 9th 2007 6:07PM]

I know that there will be a Chinese HD-DVD maker this fall, it's coming to the US under the Venturer name.

I know there were Chinese EVD and HVD video formats, that went over very well. Or rather, it didn't go well at all.

I forgot about that Chinese version of WiFi, I think that process makes Sony look saintly in comparison.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Sep 10th 2007 12:40AM]

@dUN

Not only has china tried to create it's own WiFi, HD formats, and other communist state sponsored against the grain protocols, but they have also threatened to disrupt the internet by creating their own competing version of ICANN. I see a pattern developing here...

[MonteVale @ Sep 9th 2007 5:12PM]

For some reason I care less on the format war as if the war has no meaning for the end user.
Remember all CD/DVD wars? How many standards are there now written on the box that the drive reads and writes...
In today's life there is no longer a "good time" to buy technology for the long term. Get what you need for what you need as this is no longer an investment like the one that your parents went through buying a vcr.

[Mike @ Sep 9th 2007 6:04PM]

Content is king and the big studios are backing HD DVD and Blu-ray. It sounds like this "CH-DVD" is HD DVD with some sort of BD+ encryption layer on top.

There's no way this thing gains traction outside of Asia. Remember HVD?

[Fruition @ Sep 9th 2007 6:15PM]

"Remember HVD?"

No, but I guess that probably proves your point.

[justin @ Sep 9th 2007 6:04PM]

wow another sleeper that's trying to take down the giants. i dont think either hd-vmd or this crap has much of a chance in the war, it's a little late in the game.

[rockstar @ Sep 9th 2007 7:37PM]

In my opinion, CH-DVD (lol) is a very stupid name for a very stupid idea.

and I'm chinese.

[MonkeyHood @ Sep 9th 2007 8:47PM]

I hope North America comes out with a High Definition Optical Storage Media Industry Association... group committe high overlord commander board.

Seriously? Talk about redundant words. Anyone else find that "association" being tacked on is a little weird? is a lit