China's Blu-ray competitor CBHD brings HD DVD back from the dead

CBHD, née CH-DVD -- the Chinese version of the now-deceased HD DVD format -- is in production, gearing up for a fourth quarter launch. DigiTimes cites reports from enorth.com.cn that Shanghai United Optical Disc has laid out the first production line, although Taiwanese disc makers (already burned by HD DVD) aren't as confident it can take on Blu-ray, even with considerably lower royalty fees and hardware costs for disc replicators. Coming alongside news that Chinese-built Blu-ray players based on increasingly affordable hardware is on the way, plus a decided lack of studio support, it's not hard to see how this one will turn out (again.) Not to underrate China's national pride, but unless it can gain an unexpected foothold among DVD pirates, CBHD will probably be on the high definition scrap heap alongside HD DVD, EVD and the rest before long.

[ijyt @ Jul 28th 2008 9:45AM]

Enjoy failing.

[Dave @ Jul 28th 2008 10:24AM]

Yeah I'm sure this will be adopted all over the world just like China's proprietary 3G...

[I.E @ Jul 28th 2008 10:44AM]

It's amazing that this entry doesn't even take into consideration that there are 2bil+ people in china. Pretty much a a third of the worlds possible consumers.

[mike @ Jul 28th 2008 10:58AM]

hey you forgot that more than 1/2 of the 2+ billion people in china doesn't make a decent wage like the people in US or Europe. So HDTV and HD content is still not part of their world. and the other 1/2 that can afford such luxury will no doubt be already buying imports good such as blu-ray players and PS3

[joe23521 @ Jul 28th 2008 11:05AM]

2 billion plus people? Are you counting India as part of China to get that number?

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jul 28th 2008 11:19AM]

Joe, he's kinda right. It's about 2.5 to 30 bil. ppl there. India has around 1.5 to 2 bil. people.

[I.E @ Jul 28th 2008 11:30AM]

would you have preferred if I said EXACTLY 2 billion?

[EvilEuropean @ Jul 28th 2008 11:48AM]

China has around 1.25 billion, while India has just over a billion people....a bit short of 2.5 billion (or even 30 billion!).

[thatrotierkid @ Jul 28th 2008 11:42AM]

2B is a little high. more like 1.3B

http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/chinapopulation.htm

[joe23521 @ Jul 28th 2008 11:42AM]

There's 6 billion people in the world, I don't think China and India take up 5.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jul 28th 2008 12:03PM]

6 bil? Where the hell are you getting your numbers from?

[le Chen @ Jul 28th 2008 12:34PM]

a bit more then 6 bil
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop

[thatrotierkid @ Jul 28th 2008 12:36PM]

it was 6B in 2000, about 6.7B now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

still, the 2B figure for china is wrong

[Silverfrog @ Jul 28th 2008 12:56PM]

I.E., you got PWND bigtime. The song "why ya gotta act like ya know when ya don't know" comes to mind here.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jul 28th 2008 2:02PM]

woops. I meant 3 billion

[initialxy @ Jul 28th 2008 9:47AM]

my guess is that, although there's no studio support, they will probably burn a bunch of pirated movies on them.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jul 28th 2008 11:16AM]

China lies. When they first announced it, they said CH-DVD will try to prevent piracy, but I agree with you on this one. If know one comes to help them to prevent piracy, they'll just use piracy! All the Commies are happy :)

[OneLove @ Jul 28th 2008 9:47AM]

oh china.

[rock99rock @ Jul 28th 2008 10:48AM]

is that a play on the Canadian anthem :)

[Alex @ Jul 28th 2008 10:54AM]

O China, duh!
O China, duh!
The pirate's native land!

[Shinigami @ Jul 28th 2008 9:48AM]

If they manage to make disks hold more data than Blu-Ray and gain studio support (majority, no less) then they have a chance.
Otherwise if they manage to make disks as cheap as DVD, they can replace the good old format (HD-DVD fits for data archive format).

If CBHD can do neither, lets pretend they never existed :)

[Pochi @ Jul 28th 2008 10:05AM]

Back from the dead?

Sounds more like a Weekend at Bernie's type of deal.

[Karl Hackswell @ Jul 28th 2008 10:07AM]

Pfft, who gives a crap, its China.

[Ryan Chan @ Jul 28th 2008 10:07AM]

Blu ray is too expensive for pirated, now poor people can enjoy HD movies!

[superjeff @ Jul 28th 2008 10:11AM]

now we have 140 usd blu ray read write drives, i dont think anybody can win from the blu now

[mj @ Jul 28th 2008 12:14PM]

"140 usd blu ray read write drives"??? are you serious? More like $300.
And what about the price of blank discs? 7$ for the single disc? Still too much.
If they could make CBHD, right now, and as cheap as DVD drives and discs, I think they'll have a really good chance of success.

[Shinigami @ Jul 28th 2008 5:23PM]

Now we have $140-300 per blu-ray writer
But we still have $15 DVD burner
Now we have $7 per blank Blu-Ray ($10 here)
But we still have $0.5 per blank DVD

Now we have Blu-Ray, which should be at least 20 times larger than DVD to be cost-effective (14 times larger for ya).

So its still DVD for me.

[teecas @ Jul 28th 2008 10:23AM]

"Here comes a new challenger!"

[Danny F. @ Jul 28th 2008 11:05AM]

"ROUND ONE...FIGHT!!"

(10 seconds later)

"PERFECT!"
"Blu-Ray WINS!!"

[jason51873 @ Jul 28th 2008 10:26AM]

Not that Blueray has anything to worry about, but I really think they need to get over themselves and get some sub $200 players out there. I know they can do it, its just the fact that they are trying to push more PS3's so they don't want to lower the standard players down too low because then ppl would buy those rather then PS3's.

[Aspartame @ Jul 28th 2008 11:09AM]

It is clearly in Samsung's best interest for people to buy the PS3 instead of their player.

[jason51873 @ Jul 28th 2008 11:11AM]

Sony = Blueray

Blueray = Sony

I'm sure there is some fine print that Sony has included in the licensing of the format to any other venfor that says "Sony is god and you cant undersell Sony or you will be destroyed" or something along those lines.

[Ayrkain @ Jul 28th 2008 12:04PM]

The Blu-ray Disc Association is not just Sony. Seriously. They have been very active supporters of the format, but there's no need for conspiracy theories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association

[Technex @ Jul 28th 2008 12:23PM]

Fuck Sony shit anyhow.

[Jon Acheson @ Jul 28th 2008 10:28AM]

In the past, oddball formats like SVCD have flourished in China, maybe this one will gain a foothold in China as well. It wouldn't have to be as good as Blu-Ray, it would just have to be a whole lot cheaper.

I wouldn't expect it to gain any support anywhere else, though. For Western cheapwads, digital downloads will remain the format of choice.

[boe @ Jul 28th 2008 10:37AM]

Part of the failure of BR to catch on quickly is the lack of effort by the studios to court HT enthusiasts. Clearly this is a new expense in hardware and potential double dipping on dics that people have already bought the DVD version of. How is someone going to convince me to spend the money - BETTER dics.

The studios are still playing the crap version first release - better version later reverse hoping we didn't notice it with the regular DVD version. First comes the Crap Version
Then the Unedited Crap Version
Then the DTS edited version
The the collectors editoin which contains all sorts of details on what the gaffer and best boy were thinking during the scenes
Finally the ultimate unedited DTS version.

Frankly I've already bought a few discs twice when I was more naiive about the evil that dwells in the hearts of studio execs. When they start releasing the ultimimate unedited MA-DTS or HD DD version on BR in 1080p - I'll be happy to BUY at least 100 DVDs I already have - until then I'll keep my netflix subscription and make copies of the DVDs until the studios can stop playing games - they are only hurting themselves until they release the BR dics with the good releases.

[jntaylor @ Jul 28th 2008 11:05AM]

I'm in the same boat with you.

I am so sick of being double dipped, for example:

Alien Collection
T2
Chronicles of Narnia
Lord of the Rings Collection

And I know that they will do it with Blu-Ray. Right now they have the standard edition of T2 and Ind. Day. I own the extended editions and WILL NOT buy the Blu-Ray until I see these versions.

[SirZRX @ Jul 28th 2008 10:37AM]

someone didnt get the memo!

[I.E @ Jul 28th 2008 10:43AM]

It's amazing that this entry doesn't even take into consideration that there are 2bil+ people in china. Pretty much a a third of the worlds possible consumers.

[ChrisMizzleInfo @ Jul 28th 2008 12:34PM]

i guess that was such a good observation that it needed to be posted twice, eh?

[NLI @ Jul 28th 2008 10:54AM]

Cool if the Chinese would make this a new standard, simply like DVD but with more capacity and no DRM built-in.

[Montusama @ Jul 28th 2008 10:58AM]

Chinese goverment should start giving out CBHD-R's and CBHD Burners to those pirates....

[Neeko @ Jul 28th 2008 11:02AM]

A technology thats cheaper and can potentially be adopted easily by PIRATES in china.


YEAH I REALLY SEE THIS FAILLING.. (sarcasm)

CMON ENGADGET DONT BE SOO PRO BLU.

With a population that loves it cheap technology and advancement in every form a alternative to Bluray in china with a population of as earlier stated 2BILL+ PEOPLE has the potential to BE HUGE. Now if the can get it to the people for cheap then i think theyll have the hit there that they didnt have in the USA.

Whats a failure here in the states doesnt automatically mean a failure everywhere.

[Ellianth @ Jul 28th 2008 11:04AM]

They just performed a resurrection? God will not be please... nope.. not at all. They've totally stolen his thunder.

[D-shan @ Jul 28th 2008 11:09AM]

Geez.... lets just let both formats die already.

[ShadowKain @ Jul 28th 2008 11:33AM]

Oh China, WHY!?!?!?

[Silverfrog @ Jul 28th 2008 1:00PM]

As bad as piracy is purported to be in China, South American piracy is just as bad. There, taxes on video games DVDs are outrageous and no one can afford a retail game, so everyone pirates--and I do mean everyone.

[h0mi @ Jul 28th 2008 1:18PM]

"Not to underrate China's national pride, but unless it can gain an unexpected foothold among DVD pirates, CBHD will probably be on the high definition scrap heap alongside HD DVD, EVD and the rest before long."

What, no mention of everyone's favorite, stillborn format- HD-VMD?

Seriously, until hardware and software is released (which convienantly continues to be pushed back, not unlike VMD), this is vaporware.

[Mike C @ Jul 28th 2008 1:43PM]

How come it has to be Miami vs. Buffalo....?


And how come Buffalo is losing...?


Someone explain why I am a Bills fan?

[teamrican @ Jul 28th 2008 1:46PM]

The "piracy" scene is huge in China, so I don't see why studio support would necessarily be the deal breaker it was in the West. And we have to remember that IP is a modern, Western, construction. IP is not actually property. It wasn't considered property for most of Western History and it has never really been considered property in the East. So the use of the word "piracy" is somewhat ethnocentric because it connotes some sort of theft. Bootleg or unauthorized might be the better word choice.