Blu-ray may have won the high definition wars in the West, but a new contender is stepping up to the plate in China.
We're dealing with a Google-translated report from Sina.com, so it's tough to piece together a coherent narrative, but the facts are clear: Players of the so-called China Blue HD (CBHD) format will cost up to 2,000 yuan (roughly $300), with models available from TCM TCL and Shinco. The report mentions dual layer 15 GB programming for the format.
Content will come from China Record Corporation and, more importantly, Warner Bros., which plans to put out 100 movies on the format this year.
With survey data showing 27 million HDTV owners in China, and a projected 72 million by 2011, the market is ripe for high-definition content, but the article says the cost of Blu-ray is simply too high. CBHD is designed to be a cheaper alternative, and the format would reportedly come with lower royalties as well.
We'll see how it performs. The way the article describes how Blu-ray standards "dominate the political arena" in the US, Europe and Japan, it doesn't seem like there's any ambition to expand CBHD beyond China's borders. I think we can say that war has been fought to its bitter end in most of the world.
