China's new home-brewed HD format

Philip Wong | Feb 03, 2009

"High Clear" or high definition? You decide.
(Credit: PjTime.com)

It seems China is branching into its own disc format yet again despite its earlier futile attempt with EVD or Enhanced Versatile Disc. As an alternative to Blu-ray, the Chinese Government and state-owned enterprises are proposing a proprietary red laser-based Next-generation Versatile Disc (NVD) standard. According to People's Daily Online, HD NVD can hold up to 12GB of data, which is equivalent to around 135 minutes of high-definition programs. For the record, the NVD's current capacity is less than two dual-layer DVDs combined and far from even coming close to a 50GB Blu-ray.

The push for NVD arises from the hefty royalty fee for manufacturing DVD and Blu-ray products. DVD alone has cost the Chinese vendors a staggering US$3 billion in royalties annually. While it makes perfect sense for the Chinese to maximize profit without such overheads, we reckon it will probably be a hardsell convincing overseas movie studios to embrace NVD wholeheartedly. For starters, we doubt Sony, which is behind Blu-ray, will be eager to release its feature films on a competing format. Let's not forget the rampaging piracy from bootleg DVDs to Nintendo Wii ripoffs.

A player from Jiuzhou High Definition is already available in China and is compatible with both NVDs and DVDs. We were unable to obtain information on overseas availability outside the country.

Via Engadget

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