Audio Video News

Look out, Blu-ray. You've got a new competitor in the Chinese domestic market. And it's based, in part, on your old rival HD DVD.

CBHD is about to make its debut via Chinco and TCL, the latter being the Chinese brand that bought the RCA TV brand from Thomson. Warner has promised 100 disc titles.

The high-def disc format uses a blue laser to read a 30GB optical disc that's structured like a DVD. In that respect it resembles the vanquished HD DVD format. In fact, CBHD uses some HD DVD technology. But that does not include the audio and video codec, which will be the Chinese AVS format.

Why this, why now? China wants to build a high-def disc market without paying licensing fees for Blu-ray and its associated technologies. Avoiding those fees will enable Chinese manufacturers to offer players using homegrown ingredients for less than standard Blu-ray players would cost.

The new format is a China-only phenomenon. Whether either CBHD, or Blu-ray for that matter, will take off is uncertain. CBHD players will cost about $293, discs about $7-10. In China's wild west retail environment, cheaper bootleg software is likely.

China has also developed its own DRA audio codec for use on Blu-ray discs. Dolby has also been licensing its audio codecs to Chinese Blu-ray player manufacturers.

See story in DigitalTrends.