China CH-DVD - Is this something to be concerned about?

[sphdle1]

If China adopts CH-DVD which uses the 51GB disc and can play on regular hd-dvd players, will this somehow affect how high-def blu-ray is adopted world wide?

http://news.softpedia.com/news/HD-DV...or-65051.shtml

[atomik kinder]

This is from Sep 7, 2007. From other things that have been written. The Chinese version of HD DVD is not going to be compatible.

[andyparhelia]

Nah, won't affect blu-ray in the slightest.

Speaking to my chinese friends, they tell me that nobody buys legitimate media/software in china - piracy is rampant.

The CH-DVD format is perfect for the pirates - no region coding and no serious encryption on discs!

It's not a market where major hollywood studios have ever made serious money.

[Phane]

No... not in any way... for a few reasons

1) CH-DVD is strictly for China. Their movies are encoded with different copyright protection and codecs than HD-DVD. So regardless of whether the rest of the world goes Blu-ray or HD-DVD, studios will have to do a complete re-encode of their movies for CH-DVD.

2) The discs will probably be manufactured in chinese plants, regardless of whether they are Blu-ray or CH-DVD, so it won't effect demand on foreign plants.

3) 93% of movies sold in China were pirated in 2005 and I haven't heard of anything major changing in that market. That means that regardless of it's population of 1.3 billion, the profit margin is very very low in that market.

[McBain]

Originally Posted by sphdle1

If China adopts CH-DVD which uses the 51GB disc and can play on regular hd-dvd players, will this somehow affect how high-def blu-ray is adopted world wide?

http://news.softpedia.com/news/HD-DV...or-65051.shtml

Here's a rundown of CH-DVD:

http://www.emedialive.com/articles/r...leid=11631#iie

[clownface]

I don't like the sound of this, cheap HD DVD players from China? There are a billion Chinese!!! Scary!

[docjan_uk]

There are 1.4 billion of them, a billion are too poor to buy anything, the other 400 million aren't exactly HDTV rich.

[Neo65]

They use the AVS codec to avoid paying any royalties. Those players don't decode AVC, VC1 or MPEG2. If they are actually made into products.

[TruBlu2]

No--to the OP

[kjack]

This is just a group that wants to adopt the basics of HD DVD and add AVS audio/video codec support to it. It is not government mandated -- consumers will decide if the format is successful or not by deciding whether or not to buy it.

There's another group in China that wants to do the same using Blu-ray, and have joined the BDA to pursue either adopting Blu-ray as-is or with the addition of AVS codec.

Now for something funny. During a presentation I saw about a month ago, a major Chinese manufacturer was using the CHD-DVD term, but after I inquired further, I was told that it could be Blu-ray based. Turns out CHD-DVD has already become a generic term there that is technology independent. Sorta like some Chinese DVD player manufacturers adding the logo of one of their failed HDM formats just to sell more DVD players by riding on the name recognition by consumers.

[CptGreedle]

I also remember hearing the BD was getting its foot in China also. However that was many months ago, and I hear more about CH-DVD nowadays. Either way it won't matter. It is only there so people can pirate off of them.
By the time CH-DVD makes any kind of impact, Blu-ray will already have taken over in the states.

[mystiksuicide]

If anything it helps out Blu-Ray. The remaining studios know that as long as they're movies are on hd dvd the chance of being riped off increases from piracy especially from China.

Good luck to you Paramount and Universal.

[tron3]

Originally Posted by andyparhelia

...

Speaking to my chinese friends, they tell me that nobody buys legitimate media/software in china - piracy is rampant.

....

Any place which is not America is rampant with all kinds of piracy. Music, Video, clothing, name brands, etc.

The local governments can't enforce that which is not protected under their own laws. Besides, it generates income for their poor and gives them what they want for less.

I was in Incirlik AFB in Tukey in 2004. The "Alley" is about a 2 mile strip of local merchants. This one guy had a whole store of music CD's and video DVD's- ALL BOOTLEG. Not on the street with a box, but a store!

The whole frikken country looks the other way. Imagine how much better off we would be in America if we could stop the bootlegs. "Buy it, or be without." That's my motto.

[181]

I wrote a thread about this last month. Anyways here it is...

This thread is to provide you with a counter to the delusional CH DVD and HD DVD adoption in China.

CH DVD is a Chinese HD format which HD DVD supporters say will help the adoption of HD DVD in China since CH DVD is apparently compatible with HD DVD.

The BDA and even the HD DVD promotional group would most likely not support CH DVD because there is one slight problem...The BDA and the HD DVD promotional group are out for one thing, making money on production royalties for years to come. Here is an interesting quote from ch-dvds.com:

http://ch-dvds.com/index.htm (not sure if this is the official site)

The main motive of the Chinese standard CH-DVD is to avoid having to make royalty and copyright payments to foreign companies. Why should they make such payments? It totally makes sense, this makes much much cheaper for China and more expensive for rest of the world to invade the Chinese market.

So the HD DVD promotions group will not receive royalties for CH DVD discs and players created (which can apparently run HD DVD content) for 20% of the world population? Yeah right. The HD DVD camp wants money for production.

Another quote:

So far, not many companies are really making chips and systems with the Chinese standards. There are two reasons:

1. Chinese companies want to export their cheap products. There is no demand for the Chinese standard outside China.

2. There is no contents in the Chinese standard format.

It is obvious that CH DVD will remain in China alongside Blu-ray once they have no choice but to adopt the international standard (Blu-ray). Just more logic to fight against delusional HD DVD supporters.

[Sonny]

I would not worry about CH-DVD

[Tok]

Originally Posted by tron3

The whole frikken country looks the other way. Imagine how much better off we would be in America if we could stop the bootlegs. "Buy it, or be without." That's my motto.

Good point! Piracy in the US and other developed nations is very small compared to developing nations. Scary thing for manufacturers considering moving to China is that many of lines used legitimately during one period are used for bootlegging/pirating goods at another time.

Its just too bad that many of the content providers treat their customer base like they are all criminals. I don't mind paying a reasonable amount for a CD/DVD/BD, but a certain segment of the public is always looking for ways to cheat/beat the system and all legitimate users have to suffer due to the questionable practices of some.

I have no problem with content providers using copyprotection as long as it is transparent to me and it does not interfere with my privacy. What I do fear in the digital age is media being too well controlled by large corporations. I don't want someone to decide to disable my library unless I sign a new agreement that requires a service fee. We beat DIVX once before, but it is starting to come back in new forms. AppleTV's new rental model is DIVX without the disc. But what is to stop Apple if they decide with the record companies that all those songs purchased on iTunes are unplayable until they get paid again. These are dangerous times and consumers will have to be very diligent to ensure FAIR USE will always be part of the playing field.

[kenichicorp]

This will have no effect what so ever on BD.

China isn't the same market as the US for HD media.

[docjan_uk]

Originally Posted by CraigW

I have no problem with content providers using copyprotection as long as it is transparent to me and it does not interfere with my privacy. What I do fear in the digital age is media being too well controlled by large corporations. I don't want someone to decide to disable my library unless I sign a new agreement that requires a service fee. We beat DIVX once before, but it is starting to come back in new forms. AppleTV's new rental model is DIVX without the disc. But what is to stop Apple if they decide with the record companies that all those songs purchased on iTunes are unplayable until they get paid again. These are dangerous times and consumers will have to be very diligent to ensure FAIR USE will always be part of the playing field.

Not going to happen, A, lawsuits, B, Lawsuits, C, government will step in vis-a-vis EU stepping in over iTunes pricing in Europe etc etc.
Oh, and the backlash will make it not worth their while, they'll lose too much business.
Oh, and finally lawsuits.


Heh, imagine if you will them trying to charge twice for the same product, everyone will simply go and download the song/album for free instead.

I already "pirate" songs that I've paid for on iTunes so that I can load them up on the PS3.

[Scrapanatchi]

I'd say China Hd dvd is something good since it adds regions to the "regionfree" format

[ForceMd]

Originally Posted by docjan_uk

cut.....

.....I already "pirate" songs that I've paid for on iTunes so that I can load them up on the PS3.

And this is the reason why I believe the way that the industry protects their digital content is all wrong. As you have pointed out, it is pretty easy to get pirated, unrestricted music (and movies and software as well). So at the end of the day,the only people who suffer through the restrictions of 'content protection' are the loyal customers.

IMHO, I believe content protection should be handled totally different. I believe that digital media should be tagged to a purchasers account. In itunes for example, when you purchase music, the music will be tagged with a number that is linked to your account, but can only be hashed/verified by the itunes main website. This hash would not be used to track every move that the purchaser makes and where the purchaser uses the file or when it is being used, on the contrary, the files will be essentially unrestricted and unprotected. The user will be able to listen to the purchased music wherever they want on as many devices as they want. The number (tagged on the file) would ONLY be used to identify the files on the illegal file sharing/torrent protals. If a file with a hash linked to your account is spotted on the sharing/torrent site, then the copyright holder is free to press charges.

This would allow the purchaser to use the file unrestricted on any number of devices. It would also place the responsibility of how the files are handled with the purchaser. (Not many people would share files if they knew the file could be traced back to them). However, my pessimistic side says that big corporations would take advantage of this ability to trace files to a purchasers account.

What do you guys think? Too much power for big brother? Good if regulated by the Govt.?