Since hitting China’ high streets in April, the home-grown high-definition disc format CBHD is forging ahead of Blu-ray. So far, CBHD players are outselling Blu-ray players 3-to-1, according to Japanese broadcaster TV Tokyo reporting from the Shanghai branch of China’s largest consumer electronics retailer COME. At this flagship store, DVD players account for 60% of total sales, CBHD 30% and Blu-ray 10%.

China Blue High Definition was developed under the supervision of The Ministry of Industry & Information Technology (MIIT) and the Optical Memory National Engineering Research Center (OMNERC) at Tsinghua University, in cooperation with leading local Chinese CES manufacturers such as TCL, Shinco and TongFang. The CBHD format is essentially based on Toshiba’s ill-fated HD DVD.

Memory-Tech, a leading developer of HD DVD tools and the largest replicator of that format, is deeply involved in the manufacturing of CBHD discs through its Chinese affiliate Shanghai United Optical Disc, which it co-owns with domestic video publisher China Record Shanghai Corp. A Japanese executive at the company, quoted by TV Tokyo, said that he would hope the CBHD format could be exported to many developing countries where demand for DVD is still growing significantly.

DVD players built in China for the leading foreign brands trigger a royalty payment to overseas patent holders of some €15 per machine, a large portion of an already low unit market price. The first two models of the CBHD players, made by domestic consumer electronic vendors TCL and Shinco, sell for about yuan2,000 (€220), some 40% cheaper than the BD competition. The price of a CBHD disc is around yuan50 (€5.50), whereas a Blu-ray title can fetch up to €20. About 100 movie titles from Warner Home Entertainment ought to be on offer in the CBHD format by the end of the year.

As for the distinctive packaging, CBHD titles use the same black-coloured blu-ray-size plastic box designed by New Medium Enterprises for its short-lived HD-VMD format…

Watch the original (Japanese) TV Tokyo report: www.tv-tokyo.co.jp

Story filed 28.07.09