China launches CBHD - HD DVD clone stands no chance against Blu-ray
By Dave Parrack
There was me thinking the high definition format war was well and truly over, with Blu-ray being declared the future format of choice as soon as HD DVD took a tumble earlier this year. But maybe not, as China is set to launch CBHD (China Blue High-definition Disc) later this year. The question I have: What is the point?
I know HD DVD had its fans, and some are still extolling the virtues of Toshiba’s format over Sony’s winning format. But I assumed that was purely because early adopters are reluctant to admit defeat. I didn’t think we’d see another clone launched in an effort to compete with the Blu-ray format which is gaining traction on a daily basis.
According to DigiTimes, Shanghai United Optical Disc has set up its first production line for CBHD, formerly known as CH DVD, with the first products set to roll off in the fourth quarter of 2008. The format will initially only serve the Chinese market, but if it were to prove successful, a worldwide strategy would be sure to follow. Not that it’s got any chance of course.
Even industry sources, including drive makers in Taiwan are doubting the format has any chance of competing against Blu-ray, which is the only format (apart from the already killed-off HD DVD) to have so far gained any kind of major support from movie studios.
This poor outlook for CBHD is despite production and licensing costs being much lower for the format than for Blu-ray. A production line for DVDs can reportedly be re-fitted to produce CBHD discs for just $800,000, compared to the $3 million needed for a Blu-ray production line.
Maybe I have a misguided or simplified view of all this, but surely it’s better for the consumer if there is just one dominant format? This means that buyers can be confident they aren’t sinking their money in to a format that is going to be dead in a few years time.
Let’s just declare Blu-ray the winner and move on to enjoying watching the high definition movies on our increasingly oversized televisions. Then prepare for the next battle which is surely going to be Blu-ray vs. digital downloads.
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Stumble It!
July 28th, 2008
China is a ‘command economy’.
They decided they want CBHD (or HD DVD China).
That’s the end of it.
July 28th, 2008
Blu ray may be the prevailing format but it is still a very flawed technology that needs several more years of development before it is ready for prime time. Perhaps the Chinese recognized this and are just appealing to what works and is cost eeffective in that market space.
July 28th, 2008
China cannot accept the technological subordination of the Chinese doodlebug to the white one, so will never give up the battle for standards supremacy.
Berry Nall,
formerly of APL
July 29th, 2008
What’s the point? Um.. Maybe because it’s the official national format… And not only is it WAY cheaper, faster, and easier to produce (because it’s much close to a DVD and therefore they can use existing production factories instead of paying to create all new Blu-Gay factories, etc…) but it just makes more sense. For a lot of reasons that made HD DVDs better… But consumers are stupid sheep, and they didn’t have a good enough ad campaign set, and they didn’t pay enough to have employees at stores know what they are talking about, or bump THEIR product… Or pay enough to have the stores themselves sell their products at the ends of isles… or at all… But what’s the point? Well… China has… what… a 3rd of the worlds population? The out number us by an UNGODLY number. If they all are buying an using this format which is much MUCH closer to HD DVD the Blu-Ray… That’s kind of actually Blu-Ray losing… Sorry Blu-Ray fan boy.
July 29th, 2008
That and alot of people will never give Sony any money ever again.
July 30th, 2008
China has 1/5th of the population, but yeah it’s still big. Unfortunately most of these live in poor conditions, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong are false ideals the country is showing off, especially around the times the Olympics roll around. Also the country pirates most of their media items, including DVDs of course. So this format will fail and we should not care about. Watch how it will be forgotten like the EVD (huh? what’s that? yeah - exactly) and they will start pumping out BluRay fakes instead. The main issue for the government is that they want to have an independent format, no matter how much money they need to throw at it. We should actually all hope they fail, a communist country providing us with cheap, unsafe products is dangerous. Too bad the multinationals love to get cheap products made for sale somewhere else, and few laws protect us from this happening.
However, Sony having a monopoly in the format is NOT exactly great. It means they control prices among other things. Naturally this isn’t as evil as Sony-haters make it out to be (I never had problems with my Sony machines, had them for decades and while they might be a little more pricey than other brands you really get good quality). The DVD format was a monopoly and that was good, cheap and we all pretty much love it.
July 30th, 2008
In short, CBHD is a format that the Government owns and controls and has economics for both discs and players that works in China.
CBHD has been made proprietary by the Chinese Government by using a different a Modulation scheme. These players are not HD DVD players. The Chinese Government has insisted that the players be made in China and that they are not available for export. The new modulation layer is their ultimate “region control.” It gives them the ability to block cultural pollution from entering the country. By the way, the Chinese Government has banned all game consoles, including the PS3. The reason the Chinese Government selected the CBHD format is because they want lower cost discs for their people. CBHD cost .15 USD and Blu-ray’s cost 2.00 USD to make. They need a disc cost structure that fights a .60 USD (street price) pirated DVD disc. Blu-ray can never do this because the manufacturing lines are so expensive, about $7 million USD to make 25,000 discs per day. CBHD’s can be made on existing lines for a 150,000 USD upgrade, not the 800,000 quoted above. This 800,000 dollar figure includes other equipment used for mastering which is needed for either a Blu-ray or CBHD manufacturing line so it does not reflect the true costs of the discs. This point was confused in the translation from Mandarin to English. The other reason the Chinese chose CBHD over Blu-ray is that the player costs are lower. This is because the optical disc drives are much cheeper has they take far less time to build. CBHD uses an advanced PRML and ECC methods to make the drives much more manufacturable (wider tolerances). Due to the laws of physics, CBHD drives will always be cheeper than Blu-ray drives.
January 30th, 2009
Right-this is primarily about “cultural contol” (eg, censorship). They will more effectively control the content.
January 30th, 2009
Right-this is primarily about “cultural control” (eg, censorship). They will more effectively control the content.