China to Promote Own Alternative to DVDs, EVD

supermanksu writes "Seeking to compete on its own terms in the lucrative entertainment industry, China announced a government-funded project Tuesday to promote an alternative to DVDs and 'attack the market share' of the global video format." This has been an ongoing project.

Comments

Not good enough

[r_glen]

I don't think it's wise to force everyone into a new, irrelevant (unless you own an HDTV) format just to avoid paying American royalty fees. It took forever for people to fully embrace DVDs, even with all the benefits over VHS. This is not a great enough leap forward to be successful anywhere.

Also, the acronym EVD ("enhanced versatile disc") seems extremely contrived to sound just like 'DVD'.

Re:Not good enough

[SuuSt]

Wuh?!

"It took forever for people to fully embrace DVDs"

Were you not born until CD's had already replaced casset tapes? The DVD format was the most quickly adopted new media format ever. CD's were around since (I think) the late 1970's, relatively easy to get a hold of by the early-mid 80's, but not really fully adopted until the early 90's. That's around 15 years from invention to full adoption. It took DVD's something like 4 years to do that.

Then of course there were the superior formats that were never adopted (read: laserdisks).

Anybody old enough to know how long it took tapes to become common over LP's or eight tracks?

Re:Not good enough

[fishbonez]

The market in China is mostly VCDs with pirated DVDs being mostly for tourists and the high-end local consumers. It seems like they are positioning the EVD as a local alternative to DVDs. It'll probably replace VCDs as the local format of choice.

I suspect the EVD might actually be endorsed by the big US media companies. If the country responsible for a lot of piracy uses a peculiar local format, it essentially makes those discs region encoded. Of course the manufacturers in the US and Europe would also have to agree not to support the format for it to be effective at stemming piracy.

Licensing and market share

[Eberlin]

"It was developed by a company called Beijing E-World Technology Co. Ltd. using video-compression technologies licensed by On2 Technologies, an American company."

At quick glance, the license doesn't seem "open" which means you'll end up with another controlling factor one way or another...and someone will have to come up and battle with a different version of deCSS. If that is the case, it can't be good.

Secondly, DVD has a heck of a market share. I suppose if anything has a population to take a chunk out of market share, it would be China. However, from observation, it would be difficult to budge the hold that DVD currently has.

I'm thinking along the lines of Ogg Vorbis vs. MP3 -- with Ogg being free (though I'm not sure the EVD will be a free format) and MP3 having the market share. Ogg may have crept up in terms of getting hardware/software support, but it's still not dislodging the majority of MP3 users even though it's of a higher technical quality.

I suppose any disruptive technology to run interference on DVD would be a Good Thing(TM)

Ogg Theora!

[steveha]

My first thought was "I hope they are going to use Ogg Theora for this." Then in the article text it said that they have been "developed... using video-compression technologies licensed by On2 Technologies". Folks, Ogg Theora is based on the On2 compression technologies!

The Chinese market is huge. Many DVD players are made in China. It seems very likely to me that the EVD standard will at least carve out a niche for itself. Potentially, it will have sufficient impact that all future DVD players will be made EVD-compatible. It ought to just be a matter of putting some more stuff in the ROM of the DVD player. It this really is based on Ogg Theora, there will be no fees or royalties to pay.

Of course, the MPAA will probably drag their heels about releasing Hollywood movies in EVD format. But I would love it if there was a widespread standard based on Ogg Theora, so I could burn my own discs using nothing but free software and know that my friends have players that can watch the discs.

steveha

Re:ugh

[Strudelkugel]

Maybe I'm wearing a tin-foil hat, but I sure don't believe China wants open formats. They would rather dominate the market so that they can get all of the royalty fees from other nation's vendors.

Problem with the Chinese strategy is that they don't have any content. All the major content providers won't release their content in the China-Uber-Alles format if they can't control it. Seems to me China has to depend on indie films to carry this ball, but unlike OSS, it takes more than a few pizzas and caffeine to make a flick, unless the PRC is about to flood the world with Communist pr0n...

Bravo

[bigberk]

Only in Asian countries, where there is true technological freedom, can one hope to innovate to such a degree and blow open a new market. It is too bad that the US and EU, in their anti-innovation and pro-corporate protection mindset, is closed to new ideas.

Re:Predicting 0% marketshare for EVD

[SharpFang]

Time for you to find education - as opposed to propaganda.

I'm from "former eastern block" so I know how things are being managed in such places.

Those who refuse get a bullet in the head.

For refusing to get EVD? Are you really SO stupid that you believe that?

Things are very simple. People aren't -forced-. Things just get arranged in such a way, that if they want otherwise, it just doesn't pay - by far.
In communist countries, big monetary transactions are relatively scarce. You buy food, maybe clothes, maybe some small home equipment. People earn little, but these cost little too. No problem. But if you want luxury goods, they usually cost more than in the west. People just almost never can afford them. But there IS a "window" for them - special government coupons that allow you to purchase a luxury item from limited pool, for very decent price. You get those by communist means: "Everyone gets one", "Those who deserve get one" or by a bribe or friendship or such. The caveat is, the items are of exact specification. So an university may purchase in "internal export network" a CD drive for $50 or use a coupon for EVD for $10. A worker at a factory instead of getting a lousy $50 bonus for really superb job over several years, may get a coupon to buy a brand new, quite decent PC (conforming to government specs, from the pool) that will cost $80. Want to get DVD instead of the EVD inside? Pay $100 from your savings and enjoy! The system works quite well in promoting what the government wants. Of course, you have to be very lucky, or hard working... or have good contacts, to get such a coupon!

Re:ugh

[jandersen]

"Maybe I'm wearing a tin-foil hat, but I sure don't believe China wants open formats. They would rather dominate the market so that they can get all of the royalty fees from other nation's vendors."

Yes, you're wearing a tinfoil hat. But as we say - a thief believes every man steals. Being American, you are used to the fact that American companies and the American government want to dominate the world and rake in all the wealth they can get - that what capitalism is all about.

As for Chinese films - I have seen them, have you? Even the most terrible Chinese B-film (or perhaps that would be 'xia' rather than 'B') isn't worse than the corresponding American type of film.

China has produced some breathtakingly beautiful films, and the good news for us in The West is that we haven't seen it all before. Different culture, you see.