CBHD - China Blue HD

Let the format war begin....

I think it's great that China has come up with it's own HD format (based on HD DVD) and it's actually outselling Blu-ray. GBAX.com have the players in stock for £260 with 6 English language films.

So far Warner Bros, Universal Studios and National Geographic are the only major companies supporting the format. But the actual films themselves are about £5 - 7. Yes, 5 quid. I can't find anywhere importing the discs though at the moment.

Any members here live in China or near a big China Town? I'd like to hear from anyone who's actually seen one or anywhere selling the films. Apparently there's quite a selection of movies in English but I can't find any details.

Edit - The details on the GBAX site are a bit sparse and there's no pictures. I did find this thread over on the AVS Forum with lots of decent pictures of the THBD-1008 player.

 

Personally I think it's going to stay in china, its a cheaper alternative for BR in the big chinese market.
Big companies supporting it just want a slice of the Chinese market for themselfs but will keep supporting BR in the west.
I can't imagin this being a serious competitor for BR at this time.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it is HD DVD just ripped off :nod:

 

Did someone say VCD?

 

CBHD on Wikipedia.

I would never expect this to be a competitor to Blu-ray outside of China. But if I can wonder into Chinatown and find imported CBHD movies in English for 7 or 8 quid then that's not a bad thing.

Edit - Just checked Amazon.cn and they have the films and players on there. All the films are 51CNY which is £4.67 going by today's exchange rate.

 

Shockingly, it's a product of "government funded research" :lol:

 

From the Wikipedia article that's exactly what it sounds like, with just some different codecs and a new content navigation system (which is probably the exact same thing.)

Pretty blatant actually, I wonder if they paid Toshiba some hush money or just stole it.

 

I read that HD-DVD tech is easier to pirate, etc. than Blu-Ray.

That could be a reason why China is going with that.

MS had to do the same thing with Windows. You can basically get a legit copy from China for mere pennies and it will activate, etc. from MS. Or not require activation...

 

China, Gutting and re-branding technology? Nonsense! :110:

 

I hope this doesn't end up like EVD, which was a total waste of time and money in China.

 

I smelll shit.