Nearly 20 leading Chinese manufacturers will stop making DVD
players from 2008, replacing them with EVD (Enhanced Versatile
Disc) players, the next-generation players based on a Chinese
home-grown standard.
The companies involved, including Shinco, Amoi, Hisense and TCL,
will make a joint announcement of the ban next Wednesday, said
Zhang Baoquan, chairman of Antaeus Group and secretary-general of
the EVD Industry Alliance, which is dedicated to promoting the EVD
standard.
Ending production of DVD players and pumping up EVD production
will help the new standard succeed in the marketplace, Zhang
said.
All firms involved are members of the EVD Industry Alliance.
Antaeus is a real estate developer that has thrown its weight
behind EVD in recent years.
EVD will be competing with HD-DVD and Blue-ray standards as DVD
technology fades out.
Producing HD-DVD and Blue-ray products, mainly supported by
companies in the United States and Japan, would mean high copyright
fees for Chinese manufacturers.
The Chinese Government has been backing the EVD standard to try
and reduce the country's reliance on foreign technology. Chinese
DVD player manufacturers already pay a significant amount of
licensing fees to foreign patent holders each year.
EVD in the past year has lacked industry-wide support, with few
films being produced in the new standard.
Zhang revealed that Antaeus will announce next Wednesday a joint
venture with major TV and film distributors including Zoke Culture
Group and China International Television Corporation to enrich
EVD-based offerings.
Antaeus will have a controlling stake in the joint venture.
"We are seeking more support from publishers and distributors,
including those in Hollywood," Zhang said.
Most EVD players will be able to play DVD discs. But buyers of
the machines will most likely want to buy EVD formatted films to
take advantage of the new technology, Zhang said.
Chinese manufacturers will display more than 50 models of EVD
players next Wednesday, with an average selling price of 700 yuan
(US$89) per unit.
"That price is roughly the same as the average price of a DVD
player, which could spur the up take of EVD players in China,"
Zhang said.
The EVD Industry Alliance will soon offer a service that lets
owners of EVD players copy digital formats of films based on the
standard from a special vending machine. Consumers could put the
films on their portable hard disks under a "copy-as-you-pay" model
and play them on their EVD player.
Film production houses and distributors can share the revenues
from charging consumers for copying. An encryption technology could
limit play to one EVD player, which would help stop piracy.
Despite the Chinese Government's increasing crackdown, piracy
remains a headache for Hollywood film producers.
Zhang said the EVD Industry Alliance will have 800 franchised
outlets selling EVD discs by next Wednesday with hopes of raising
that number to 1,200 by the year's end. Gome, China's largest
consumer electronics retailer, also a member of the EVD Industry
Alliance, will open 150 special areas in its shops around the
country to sell EVD players.
(China Daily November 29, 2006)