CBHD Players Ship In China, Format War Begins
Posted by Mehar Gill on April 28, 2009
Filed Under: Blu-ray, Format War, HD DVD, Warner
Chinese manufacturer’s TCL and Shinco have officially launched the first set of CBHD players in China coincidentally starting a format war against rival Blu-ray.
Both Shinco and TCL state CBHD players will cost approximately 40% less than any Blu Ray player currently available on the Chinese market. The players will launch at a MSRP of 2,000 Yuan ($300) which both companies believe is a consumer oriented price.
Ironically, Warner Bros. was the first Hollywood studio to jump on board the CBHD bandwagon, titles such as the Harry Potter series, Blood Diamond, Golden Compass and Speed Racer will be available for a mere 50-70 Yuan (approx $7.25 to $10.15).
Shinco and TCL believe by the year’s end they will be able to sell over 10 million CBHD players to Chinese consumers, by 2011 the manufacturer’s expect to ship roughly 70 million players.
If your waiting for a international release of the format if it ever takes off in China don’t get your hopes up, CBHD was a government backed initiative to make home grown alternatives and reduce licensing fees and piracy as much as possible. If the player is ever released outside of China, we could see it move into neighboring nations.
If people really miss HD DVD that much, I doubt anyone could stop them from importing players and movies, just don’t expect backwards compatibility with your HD DVD collection.
[Via CDR Info]
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Great!………..let’s go back in time…….geniuses!?
Sounds more like a “format battle” instead of an all-out “format war” since the competition will only affect certain regions of the world. For those of us who are novices to all the different format acronyms, what does actually CBHD stand for?
@Moises O. – “what does CBHD actually stand for?”
China Blue High-Definition. (Thanks wikipedia!)
China, one of the last communist dictatorships. Not very surprising that they make idiotic moves out of sheer pride. Most of these people do not recieve any news except for the state propaganda. Of course they are clueless !!!
The prices sound pretty cheap but many Chinese manufacturers compromise heavily on quality.. people would need to be cautious if at all they think of importing one of these.. they may not be very cheap in the end.
Piracy around the world is simply out of control. However, pricing for electronics is also out of control. China’s effort to “try” to stop the piracy market is just something we need to wait to see what happens! Is there any video where we can see the difference in loading speed and stuff like that compared with the Blu-ray?
Hallelujah,
I am happy to hear about a new format that would rival Blu-Ray, I never
like the latter any way , to this date I haven’t jumped into the Blu-Ray camp .
Too bad that this CBHD will not enter the north America market I for one will be a
fan of this alternative format . Because Sony’s Blu-Ray is the ONLY hi-def format
available , Sony is not obligated to maintain optimum quality , they will dish it out
and the North American market will eat it up .