The new Chinese home-grown high-definition disc format CBHD can now be bought in the UK. Online import retailer GBAX is selling a CBHD player – the THBD1008 model – manufactured by Chinese electronics giant TCL.

Priced at £259.99 (€285), the new player comes complete with 14 hidef movies – six Hollywood blockbusters (The Aviator, Blood Diamond, The Invasion, The Island, Flood, Poseidon) and eight Chinese films, including two cartoons.

The player, which can also play DVD and MP3, comes 220/240-volts ready and with AV and HD cables.

Both CAV Warner and China Record have already released dozens of CBHD titles, and plan to top 100 releases this year. CBHD discs retail for approximately Rmb50 (€5).

Industry observers believe the player is likely to be attractive to consumers in the Chinese diaspora, as Chinese titles are available on CBHD, but not on Blu-ray disc.

The China High-Definition DVD Industry Association (CHDA) announced at a conference in September that the number of CBHD vendors is to increase from the current two companies to ten companies. It forecasts that sales of CBHD players should hit one million units by 2010, eventually reaching 10 million within three years. The association expect some 1,000 movie titles to be on offer in the CBHD format that year.

The association also unveiled a new-generation CBHD product supporting China's domestically-developed AVS coding standard and DKAA content-protection system.

Story filed 05.12.09