China to Develop Its Own DVD Format

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1191861' target='_blank'>http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1191861</a><br /><br /></div><i>"For the second time in two years, China has announced plans to develop its own next-generation DVD standard to break the monopoly of foreign companies and avoid paying heavy licensing fees. If successful, the move could add a new wrinkle to the battle between HD DVD and the competing Blu-ray Disc formats over which will become the dominant new DVD standard. The official Xinhua News Agency said the new standard will be based on but incompatible with HD DVD, which is being promoted by Toshiba Corp. and Universal Studios, as well as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., the leading suppliers of chips and software for most of the world's personal computers.</i>"<br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/china.gif" /> <br /><br />Now that china has become established in the global marketplace, they want a bigger piece of the pie, and more respect for their own IP. I doubt this move will have any serious impact on the two-horse HD DVD race, as China has yet to make inroads with their EVD disc format. They have been successful with producing hardware in the past decade, but they just don't have the experience or the business relationships to gain support for a third format.

[Felix Torres]

They have been successful with producing hardware in the past decade, but they just don't have the experience or the business relationships to gain support for a third format.

Many problems to deal with, here.
Chief among them is the matter of the file formats. A good portion of the costs associated with DVD players are the licensing for MPEG2 and the CSS system. To make a viable contender for non-domestic consumption they'll need to either license or recreate both a CODEC and a DRM solution. And while both MS and DiVX will happily license their solutions for less than the LA group charges for the MPEG stuff, it would not fit in with their nationalist agenda/license-free approach.
A local content solution is probably doable but they have a long road ahead and a lot of convincing to do if they hope to get western content-providers to support their spec.
Should still be interesting to see what they come up with and how it compares to Taiwan's FVD effort.