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Pioneer hits China with $300 BDC-S02 Blu-ray drive

Paul Miller — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:17:00 -0400

We're sure China hasn't given up on its efforts to skip over the major format war players and go with its home grown EVD format, but that doesn't mean Blu-ray manufacturers can't give it the old college try over there. To that end, Pioneer is busting out a $300 combo Blu-ray burner / player drive for PCs, the BDC-S02, and is launching it exclusively in China, with other markets to follow later. As far as we know, this is significantly cheaper than any other such drive on the market, and while $300 definitely isn't cheap by Chinese standards, it's a valiant effort on the part of Pioneer -- though we wouldn't mind a bit of that effort Stateside, we've never been bonkers for these $500-$1000 pricetags ourselves.

[Via TG Daily]

Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Storage

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Pioneer hits China with $300 BDC-S02 Blu-ray drive

Paul Miller — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:17:00 -0400

Filed under: Blu-ray, Pioneer, HD

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

Richard Lawler — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:58:00 -0500

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

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

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

Richard Lawler — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:58:00 -0500

Filed under: Other formats, Players, HD

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More not-1080p silliness at SINOCES

Richard Lawler — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 22:42:00 -0400

It's clear to us now, even the manufacturers don't know what is 1080p and what isn't. Well, maybe they just don't care. TWICE's report from SINOCES (Chinese CES) indicates many manufacturers are putting the 1080p tag on everything they can, if a TV can accept a 1080p signal but not display it, and even on displays that don't do 1080p at all. As they note, it's not such a big deal yet in China because until HD DVD and Blu-ray launch there won't be much at that resolution to watch. They also mentioned Chinese manufacturers looking at the US market as a hard one to enter because of low-priced 1080p displays like the Westinghouse LVM-47w1. Hisense, who manufactures the Best Buy house brand and HP televisions, was showing a 71-inch 1080p plasma based on the LG one we've seen before, maybe you'll be getting an in-store demo sooner than you think.

Conspicuous in their absence apparently are EVD and VMD based players, targeted as low cost alternatives to HD DVD and Blu-ray using old school red laser technology.

[via Home Theater Blog]

Filed under: HD

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New PH-DVD technology triples the space of blue and red laser DVD's?

Richard Lawler — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:23:00 -0500

Just when you thought there weren't enough disc formats (HD-DVD, Blu-ray, VMD, EVD, HVD, and you might have missed VCDHD yesterday), here comes one more, PH-DVD. Apparently, by "exploiting the polarization element contained in all current DVD formats", Dr. Oron Zachar, founder of Polarizonics Corp believes he can triple the capacity of DVDs, HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs, without changing the disc structure, replacing mass reproduction equipment and providing a new layer of protection against piracy.

We have no idea what any of that means, but apparently it adds up to disc capacities of over 100GB, which we do understand because it adds up to a-whole-freaking-lot of high definition content. Of course the real question is whether this technology exists, is feasible and will ever be relevant to HDTV owning consumers, but it seems way too early to tell. Information on Mr Zachar and Polarizonics Corp is pretty limited, although he apparently is or was a professor at UCLA and they are hiring. Still, this sounds a lot like polaronics (yes, that is a /. article from 1999 and no, no such product exists).

Any HD Beat tipsters willing to take a job as an optical engineer and get us the inside information?

Filed under: HD

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Blu-Ray, HD-DVD? Nah, how about EVD instead

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 08:30:00 -0500

In a semi-snubbing move, some Asian companies plan to show off their red-laser based next generation DVD formats at CeBit this week, and why wouldn't they? China never really adopted the DVD standard; instead, they're using the Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) format. New Medium Enterprises claims that they can use the current EVD format but increase the number of 5 GB layers to ten layers per disk. Keep in mind that this format uses a red-laser, like today's DVD format, making the EVD a potential high-definition successor in China. New EVD players with this format are expect to provide support for 1980 x 1080 resolution and only retail for $150.

Filed under: Industry, HD

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More competing formats? EVD/VMD High definition players coming to CeBit 2006

Richard Lawler — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 17:12:00 -0500

Who needs blue lasers? Not New Medium Enterprises or Beijing e-world, as they have announced they will be showing off a combo EVD/VMD player at next year's CeBit in germany. Amazingly, while Blu-ray and HD-DVD continue to fight in the streets over who has the birthright to the high definition throne, a little collaboration could be a big boost to two other formats.

EVD (Enhanced versatile disc) is a Chinese backed format that has produced very little since being originally announced in 2003, but promised high definition DVD's with standard red laser technology.

VMD (Versatile Multilayer disc) is a new format pushed by NME, where they say they can increase the storage of a standard red-laser DVD, by adding additional layers, all the way up to 100GB storage (theoretically).

Could all this Blu-ray/HD-DVD posturing be for naught? If these companies can get any studio support and cheap but high quality (MPEG-2 apparently) high definition DVD's on store shelves before the big guys get traction.......2006 will be an interesting year. Read on for the full press release.

Filed under: HD

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