China Blue HD players revealed, second stage of the format war is officially on
By Richard Lawler 
posted Apr 24th 2009 7:27AM
posted Apr 24th 2009 7:27AM
[Via CDR Info]
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Who cares... Its not like People in China actually PAY for DVD/BR/SOFTWARE anyway...
C'mon I saw "Wolverine" a month before it was released on one of their web-sites... nubs
When I lived in China people were still using VCD's. .
Expensive things like this aren't going to even replace DVD or VCD in China because right now, China is in deeper recession than America is. No one is going to spend money on this because #1 DVD players are cheaper and #2 most Chinese don't have HD televisions. In fact, I'd go so far as to say, a lower ratio of Chinese have HDTV's compared to Americans - who still don't have HDTV's accross the country. A Large percentage of American and Chinese homes are without HDTV and still without internet.
And nothing is going to replace Blu Ray anytime soon. I've always bet on Blu Ray and sure enough it triumphs. The next format will end up being widespread digital downloads through broadband.
stereotypes??
@QP - ugh.. you replied too fast
Well actually, there are a number of formats that are close to commercial viability - it's true that Blu-Ray will be the standard for a couple of years, but I don't expect it to last as long as VHS did or DVD's are for that matter.
It's advantages over DVD are small, sure the picture is sharper and cleaner, and you can fit a LOT more onto a single disk, but that's really about it, I have a couple movies in both formats, and honestly I only see small differences from my upconverting DVD player and my PS3 Blu-Ray player.
@QP
How exactly is China in a bigger recession if their economy is slated to grow this year, rather than shrink as the US economy has done the last few years?
Just to clarify...
The nubs are the people who think this well actually sell...
Noobs
why does people keep thinking digital download is the future???
im on dsl getting 700kb/s with verizon. fios not available
comcast cable limits how much i can download in philly
music download is here to stay cause the songs arent that big. HD movie dl is an entirely different beast
@ QP. China is not in a bigger recession. If they were there is no way the United states would be getting its bailout money from them. Yes, its true that is where we are getting our bailout loans. So in a sense China owns the United States because we owe them trillions now.
Just to reply to the people claiming I'm wrong about China... keep in mind that although China is sitting on a mountain of capital (upwards of 1.5 Trillion US dollars) there is still widespread poverty and there is still widespread downsizing - less jobs for migrant workers.
A large amount of China's economic zones - Hang Zhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Guan Dong, etc employ a large amount of workers who migrate from the countryside to work in the cities. Those jobs are dried up and those migrants have been returning home broke.
Also keep in mind that the Asian markets take larger hits when stocks decline because they do not legaly allow short selling there.
Unless you've lived in China, you'd understand what I'm talking about - the housing market in China is in worse shape than ours right now. WHerein we are faced with around 3million homeowners that would be in foreclosure right now if not for government intervention, China has a huge amount of people who can't even afford to get into the inflated priced apartments there which are sold by the Square meter.
Most of our homes in danger of foreclosure were investment properties.
digital distribution won't go anywhere until this bandwidth cap situation gets figured out, blu-ray will eventually grow when the prices drop - it's been pretty well established as the next gen of media, especially to the not-so-tech-savvy
I agree, I just spent a month in china, an you can buy movies for less than $.50 anywhere, and they consider the fakes to be more desirable because they come with additional subtitle tracks in chinese or even chinese dubbing, which the legal versions dont always have. there is no way that a majority of the population is going to go for this, perhaps some of the rich in the big cities will buy them but it is going to be to small a group to be viable. but with cheap dvd/vcds and youku, the price will have to drop tremendously to be competitive.
I find it interesting that the top one looks EXACTLY like my Toshiba A3 HD DVD player.. Makes me wonder if this format is just a different name for the HD DVD.. hmmmm.....
lol yea.
as for chinas recession, i'm sure its mostly hitting the poorer parts harder as usual. income isn't evenly distributed there at all at this time, theres a mass of reasonably well off in the cities now. and theres a ton of poor in the other areas. so low end sh*t like vcd might be viable in the sh*t areas for quite some time but it doesn't mean the well off section will have to settle for such low end stuff. chinese buy flat screens and stuff now you know, its not all poor. when you have 1+billion people even if just 10% of your people are very well off its a whole lot of consumers. this compromise format is pretty much junk. if you can afford a 1080p set you can afford better than this. dvd dl is good enough for 720p hd, not 1080p. bitrate starved material is not at all a good thing
@ QuantumPhysics
China is in deeper recession than America is. No one is going to spend money on this because: asian's are damn stingy, finally have an excuse for it, and buying CAMS/Screeners/dvdrips in china is about as hard as it is for us to walk down to the nearby Deli...
Urghhhh optical media. No thankyou.
I would be upgrading my siezable dvd collection until either:
A) A non optical media format takes hold
B) DVD's are no longer sold
*wont
Eugh... out of that entire, gramatically horrendous comment, the only part you correct is "wont"?
*despairs*
aaand we have a grammar nazi.
I did have seen morer worse grammerised comments in past.
I did notice anuther mistake after ized re-read it but honestly i have betterer things to do than cry over grammar.
Bru-Lay?
Crème?
Nah, it would be "Boo-wray"
Just out of curiosity, do you actually personally know any Chinese person who gets Rs and Ls exactly reversed? If not, STFU.
@Joe
Who cares if he knows someone who actually does that- he could (and should) easily justify it w/ a Team America reference. Don't be so sensitive.
ro noes!!!! i am breing thletnd ron de interlebs!!!@!! *falt*
Come now, fellows, I (for one) look forward to a new format war simply because of the opportunity to witness a line of products from Shinco... and possibly Kneecapco, Ankleco and The Big Toe Group. This CBHD isn't giving *me* the heebie geebies.
OMG you made me cry from laughter.
b4 hd-dvd went away blu-ray was relatively affordable. now that it's the only game in town the prices are quite steep about 30 to 40 per blu-ray movie. that's what happens when there's only 1 company and no competition. well most people will still be keeping their dvds until blu-rays start becoming affordable like dvds.
Your telling everyone here you pay MSRP for a movie? Since when does ANYONE pay MSRP for a movie? The most expensive movie I ever bought on Blu-ray was $26 dollars. That was a 3 disc set. A blu-ray, a dvd copy and a digital copy. Not bad if you ask me. Most times I spend UNDER $20 for a movie. A FAR cry from $30/$40 dollars.
Blu's now are in line with what DVD was a few years back. DVD's are cheap NOW because well - THERE IS A NEW FORMAT OUT!
Please use what little brain you have before posting. It would save me from having to use mine :)
absolutc - be realistic, while we on tech blogs know how to find deals on Blu Ray discs, the masses are not sitting reading this site and instead head off to Best Buy and whereever else and pay what they price the movies at. Maybe you should not be so quick to criticize someone for making a valid point effecting 80% of the market compared to the minority that we all represent. Blu Ray is way too high of a price point for most the people that end up buying them.
@Duke
If you go out and buy something without researching it - you deserve to pay too much for it. Were not talking hours of research here. Were talking check 3 sites to compare the best prices. Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy. The first two are pretty much the same on pricing. Whereas the third option, well - is usually the most expensive option. I will say, sometimes they are the cheapest, even beating Amazon. However this is rare.
Most people will research a price before they buy. If you don't, well - your loss.
@duke
Maybe you say the same to xconan. I was browsing the BRs at Wal-Mart just this week and the vast majority of the movies were in the $15-25 range. Very few $30 and certainly no $40 unless they were a collection of some sort. More expensive than DVDs, but certainly not the $30-40 price range xconan is trying to claim.
*should say
No, this is not the second stage of some format war. This is the first stage of a World War.
There's a good reason why Jobsy called Blu-ray a "hag of burt" (He was drunk at the time). Anything that threatens the Blu-ray consortium's ridiculous licensing structure is a Good Thing. Unfortunately I don't think this is it.
These wars will stay for ever, hardware technology is advancing every hour, and consumers will not be able to keep up to date with all of that. This all stupid and big companies are supporting this crippled system just for the sake of their own money.
The future is all online, I said it before (got low ranked) and will say it again: I want my HD, DVD players online, hit a button and watch. I see services like Netflix & OnLive as the future of mankind. Screw buying machines and filling your house with stuff that will be outdated in a couple of weeks!
Stream life.
I was thinking of returning to the jungle.
You are in the wrong website, BobTurbo.
Gag... I'd like to actually own a few of the movies I watch. All online sounds great from a convenience standpoint until you realize that you're basically giving away all your rights to Big Content. And, of course, with the big ISPs trying to push caps you're going to be stuck watching whatever over compressed movies they offer on their own on-demand service because those magically won't count against your cap. Streaming is a great thing from a convenience standpoint, but I personally handle all of it on my local network (i.e. file server). But I have to give a big "fuck that" to having everything "in the cloud". Enjoy being owned by big corporations.
How is this competition outside of China & North Korea???
BLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU RAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Suuuuuuper Gaaayyyyyy
@Tarnation
mdscinto's comment practically screams hetero.
1- Blu-Ray wannabe for China market.
2- ????
3- 赢利
@danimaldan
supply and demand buddy...US demand is what drives the chinese economy. If US fails so does china, especially since china owns so much of US already.
Technically they r covering their own asses, and no china economy is withering because they thrive on production, if you have read anything about chinese steel mills they r producing on credit but no1 is buying. So ur creating jobs with no returning revenue (Y)
many factories in china r closing down, trust me my family owned a few. Recession is hitting every1 hard. China might not feel it yet but soon enough
@QP, after another lengthy post, you still haven't provided any evidence to back up your claim that China is in a deeper recession than the US is.
Truth be told, China is definitely affected by the global economic downturn, hence the lack of jobs for migrant workers who used to find work in export-oriented factories, however, with huge internal demand for infrastructure spending, cars, housing, and other consumer goods, the Chinese economy is expected to continue to grow by 5% to 8% this year while the US economy is shrinking.
With regard to housing prices in China, that is another half truth (not even, many one tenth truth?) you presented as evidence. Although it is true that in a few major cosmopolitan cities, the prices for mid to high end condos/houses have climbed very fast in the few years, the house prices in most part of the country are still reasonable and remain within the reach of regular citizens. In fact, the notion of comparing China's housing market to US' sub-prime loan plagued housing bubble is ludicrous, in China, a lot of people still buy their home with cash from their savings and they won't get into market unless they have enough money saved.
It seems that you have stayed in China for a short while, but that doesn't make you an expert on all things China, so please keep your fact straight before sounding all authorial.
i refuse to buy those type of "made in china" electronics from china, especially if its something more than $10. They'd break easily, somewhere along the factory lines it gets replaced by some cheaper material, and i'd prefer to know my technological investment is worth something/or is working at the end of the first week.
Most electronics are made in China (Capital C)! See the new super-expensive Adamo from Dell? http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-13636_11-287411-19.html
Huh... that Shinco player at the top looks an awful lot like a Toshiba HD-A3...
The irony is that China does have a couple trillion in US currency and more in T-bills.
But, when the dollar loses value, so does their investment in dollars and t-bills. So, to keep it simple (Cause this is a tech blog) China would be happy if the dollar were stronger. They are stuck in a cycle of loaning us money to keep our economy going so we can buy their stuff, which keeps their economy going. Our little 'housing crunch" has upset this cycle.
Can't you already get Blu-ray players for well under $292? I mean, credit for trying and all that, but I can't see this new format gaining traction (even in China) if the players are more expensive...?
I could be wrong, I don't know much about the format - feel free to explain. Are the discs going to be much cheaper? (Er... the legitimate discs, I mean...)
well, they starting create their own mobile network, now their own HD format ...
let see what next heuehuehe
when we talk about china product, ... it's more quantity rather than quality
I'm sure it will be cheap stuff... they gonna create cheap HD tvs
The video pirates will have the final word over what will sell.