Despite the failure of HD DVD, China is moving ahead with its own version of the format. While the CBHD (China Blue High-definition Disc) promises lower manufacturing costs and royalty fees, Taiwan's drive manufacturers believe that it will have a hard time competing with Blu-ray Disc in the Chinese market.
Shanghai United Optical Disc has completed the establishment of its first production line for CBHD (China Blue High-definition Disc), China's self-developed high-definition optical disc format, and will start volume production in the fourth quarter of 2008 for the China market initially, according to Chinese-language online media outlet enorth.com.cn. However, Taiwan-based drive makers generally believe CBHD will find it difficult to compete with Blu-ray Disc (BD) in the China market, according to industry sources...China has pushed their own formats in the past and, despite their lower costs, they have not gone over very well with consumers. Needless to say, I'm not expecting CBHD to do any better. If you'd like to read more, head on over to DigiTimes.
...Royalty fees to produce licensed CBHD players will be about 55 yuan (US$8.10), much lower than BD licensing rates, the industry sources in Taiwan indicated. But members of the BD Association have reduced retail prices for their entry-level BD players in the North American market to about US$299 and prices may drop further meaning CBHD players will face challenging price competition when they are launched in the China market, the sources analyzed. In addition, CBHD has not won support from leading movie studios in Hollywood and this is expected to render the format at a significant disadvantage in competition with BD, the sources pointed out.