For DVD the Angel of Death is abroad in the land
By Gareth Powell
It is possible, not probable, but possible that DVD will die out as a format. Not next week. But in a year or so.
The reason is basically the greed of the major companies and a total misunderstanding and misreading of China.
It is beginning to get across to the world that Chinese manufacturers are sophisticated and quite smart at business. Or very, very smart.
They make more than 80 percent — some sources put it at 90 percent — of the world’s DVD players. They are not making much money from this process.
This is because Chinese makers must pay the patent licensing alliance of Hitachi, Matsushita, Toshiba, JVC, Mitsubishi and Time Warner about $5 for each DVD player produced. On a very tight costing this shrinks profit margins to invisibility. Indeed, many Chinese electronic makers got of this business because they were actually losing money.
In 2003 the Chinese decided enough was enough and it would have it own standard called EVD. First time around in 2004 it died the death. The problems were many. The manufacturers were not combined on this standard, Hollywood turned its face away and the machines were, in truth, not that flashy.
So China kept on making DVDs for very little money.
Last week, China’s EVD (enhanced versatile disc) Industry Alliance tried again but with government backing.
This time China will stop making DVD players from 2008. Instead they will make EVD players. 54 video players from 20 Chinese manufacturers were displayed at a Beijing art gallery last week. Film distributors displayed dozens of Chinese movies and a handful of foreign titles. This is serious stuff because it is backed by the government.
Zhang Baoquan, secretary-general of the EVD Industry Alliance said the EVD standard is one to which most of the intellectual property rights, includes sound, navigation systems and copyright protection technologies are held within China.
China’s Ministry of Information Industry has formally adopted EVD technology as the national standard for its electronics industry. Beijing E-World Technology, a company jointly funded by nine mainland electronics makers, now has an EVD standard and because the government is backing it that shuffling noise you hear is the manufacturers getting in line.
Leading Chinese disk player producers, including Bubukao, Changhong and Skyworth last week put on display more than 50 EVD models. The average price is $87.50 which is roughly the same as a DVD player but the manufacturer makes a profit.
It is claimed — and this is seriously important — that the image quality of an EVD player is five times clearer than that of a DVD player and the discs can store more data. This writer has now seen it play on a HD television display and, of course, the decision is subjective. I was watching Chinese movies. But I am happy to swear they are much better than DVD depending, as always, on the source material.
Further, on some machines you can play your existing DVD collection. The Japanese syndicate backed by Time Warner has seen the writing on the wall and the royalty on combined DVD players, while still being negotiated, will be much, much lower than $5.
In China, owners of EVD players and high-definition TV sets with USB interface will be able to copy movies at special EVD stations. It will cost RMB5-8 ($1) to copy a movie. Any bets on how long it will be before it spreads around the world?
If you can buy an EVD recorder player which is optimized for HD television — and that is the way we are all going — and runs on disks which hold more than the standard DVD (claims are five times as much but that is going too far. Over double is more like it.) and if that DVD player costs the same or less than DVD it is in with a strong chance.
And if China, and the government swears this is so, is not going to make any DVD players with effect from two years from now then DVD is going to die sooner than anyone thought. It will be replaced by EVD which is a technology owned and built by China.
A mini-revolution.
You read it here first.
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Stumble It!
December 9th, 2006
You’re full of crap if you think Hollywood is just going to go headlong into supporting EVD for the world’s most piracy condoning government, on this movie-to-EVD copying platform or any other form of EVD support for that matter, especially when the likes of DVD John could be an EVD John, possibly by a Chinese insider who hates the west.
Like the old joke that one copy of Windows serves all of China, the first dollar is paid by Mr. Chinese pirate to get the data in EVD format via the crack and a zillion burns back to unlimited plays on pirate EVD, giving all of China and beyond a cheap way to screw Hollywood worse than ever before. Hollywood just gets part of that first dollar, if anything.
Why the hell should Hollywood believe EVD DRM is secure when in a similar vein China has the nationalistic balls to claim WAPI WI-FI has superior security to 802.nn, yet won’t make the algorithms open to those in doubt?
Hollywood will, if they haven’t lost their minds, test anything EVD related in limited steps to allow for developments in the piracy and hacking world.
December 9th, 2006
I always feel encouraged when a comment starts by accusing me of being full of crap.
Plainly Phil is incensed on a subject about which he plainly knows little.
There is a belief among most Westerners who do not live, travel and know China that it is full of pirates copying Hollywood films.
The truth is the Chinese basically could not give a stuff about Hollywood films.
They, strange folk that they are, much prefer to watch Chinese films. Odd, I know but there it is.
Which makes the second paragraph totally irrelevant.
By and large Chinese do not buy Hollywood rip-offs. They think the films inferior.
Yes, Hollywood rip offs do exist. They are bought by the same tourists who buy rip-off Rolex watches and what have you.
Whether Hollywood like EVD or not is so irrelevant as to be, in a sense, farcical.
If the major manufacturers of DVD switch to EVD – and the Chinese government says it will not manufacture DVD players after 2008 – then Hollywood will immediately follow suit. At least 80 percent of the makers are Chinese.
Does China pirate things?
Sure. As do many Asian countries. The ancient cultures of all those countries have no concept of copyright. It is very new to them. But they are getting the hang of it.
An example. Go to China and make a copy of the Olympic 2008 t-shirt and see how long you retain your freedom.
Incidentally, EVD is not secure. And as far I know that has never been suggested. Perhaps Hollywood, in whom you have a touching faith, may suggest that it be incorporated.
Gareth Powell in Bangkok just up the road from Pan Thip Plaza. Now there you find copying on a grand scale. Hell, they even copy things that do not exist. I have a pair of Cartier socks.