If you think Blu-ray and HD-DVD are the only two high-definition video disc formats out there, you've missed a big part of the story. The missing chunk is EVD, or "Extended Versatile Disc", and it's China's homegrown answer to those better known formats. EVD died a quiet death a couple of years ago when it was first commercially introduced. Now it's back with a vengeance.

Why is China picking a fight with the deep-pocketed Japanese and American backers of the two better-known formats? Well, its partially about national pride, but it's mostly about money. And he who holds the intellectual property collects the paycheck. For many current technologies, including Wi-Fi, CDMA mobile phone equipment and DVDs, foreigners collect the paycheck. That annoys the Chinese Government which wants Chinese companies collecting a piece of the action. It figures that a colossal domestic market (1.3 billion, you may have heard) gives it the muscle to do so.

This fight has flared around Wi-Fi (with the Chinese WAPI standard) and CDMA 2000 and WCDMA (with the Chinese TD-SCDMA) and now it's coming to a living room near you. The Associated Press writes:

The DVD format, known as EVD, is part of state-backed efforts to create standards for mobile phones and other products and reduce dependence on foreign know-how and possibly reap licensing fees if they are adopted abroad.

EVD, or Enhanced Versatile Disc, was first released in 2003, but an effort to promote it was dropped in 2004 after the players failed to catch on with consumers and producers squabbled over licensing fees.

Now, Chinese electronics makers have revived the campaign on a massive scale, saying they plan to switch completely to EVD by 2008 and stop producing DVD players. Electronics makers, film studios and retailers are promising to sell EVD discs and players.

The move also adds a new twist to the rivalry between the HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc's next-generation video standards being promoted by competing groups of US, Japanese and European companies.

Promoters of EVD say it provides crisper pictures and sound, bigger recording capacity and better anti-piracy features than standard DVD.

Zhang Baoquan, general secretary of the EVD Industry Alliance, a group promoting the alternative format, expressed confidence that sales in China's booming consumer electronics market will be strong enough to support producers after they stop making DVD players.

"By 2008, when EVD replaces DVD, there will be no major impact on Chinese manufacturers," he said at a news conference.

The Chinese have their work cut out for them. Both WAPI and TD-SCDMA have been problematic. WAPI was rejected by IEEE recently, and rumors of poor TD-SCDMA performance continue to swirl despite assurances from the Government that the technology is ready for commercialization. (There is speculation that the awarding of China's 3G licenses has been delayed to allow the technology to mature.)

EVD will face slightly different challenges. Even if the technology works great and is priced reasonably it will have an uphill climb. It's not just a question of how many Chinese households are ready to take advantage of High Definition, it also has to do with the economics of the Chinese content industry.

For HD-DVD and Blu-ray to succeed, movie studios need to support them. But even if the Government mandates EVD as the format for Chinese content, its success hinges upon China's movie pirates. Either the pirates will need to support EVD or they need to be stamped out so legitimate content can rule China's shelves.

If you had a bit of snicker at that last sentence, well, so did I. China is getting better at cracking down on pirate content, especially in the big cities, but it's not great by any stretch of the imagination. Trust me, you can have copy of Borat in Beijing for very little effort at all. The selection of pirate content in China dwarfs the selection of legitimate content, and is uncensored to boot.

The Government does claim that EVD is more secure than HD-DVD or Blu-ray, but I doubt it's anything that "DVD Jon" Johansen, the author of DVD-cracking DeCSS, couldn't hack his way through. If China's pirates start pumping out EVD-format movies, then perhaps the player will gain traction. But if the content that people want is being ripped from DVDs, HD-DVDs or Blu-ray disks, and pirates think it's easier to distribute in those formats or don't want to invest in EVD presses, then it's going to be hard to sell any EVD player that is not backward-compatible with DVD or multiformat with Blu-ray or HD-DVD.

Maybe the Government could capitalize purchase of new equipment by pirates?

No, I didn't think, either. In fact, although the encryption will probably last about a week, EVD may thwart China's movie pirates in another way: By giving the Government the incentive it needs to really crack down hard on them. After all, Chinese movie studios and television producers have never held much economic power. EVD, however, is a point of national pride, and China doesn't want another stinging like the one it took over WAPI.

If you live in China you may want to start stocking up on all those movies you've been meaning to watch.

Update: Chinese electronics retailer Suning has said it won't stock EVD, thanks very much, but prefers to stick with DVD. Uh oh. From China Tech News.