Yet Another DVD Format Launches

Just when you were sick of hearing about the high-definition format war and feeling pressured to buy new technology, along comes yet another DVD format to further muddy the waters. Last week Chinese electronics firms unveiled 54 prototype players for a new format called EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc).

The format boasts more efficient video compression than regular DVDs, better anti-piracy features, and could potentially store HD resolutions. Now, before you get too worked up about the idea, let me just say that this is a format specific to China, and most likely will remain that way.

Apparently licensing fees for the regular DVD format were quite prohibitive to Chinese distributors, so they were seeking their own format to save money. China plans to switch over to the EVD format completely by 2008, and will start exporting the players to other countries early next year, although no U.S. studios have announced plans to support it.

I guess the only effect it may have in North America (and New Zealand) is that it throws a bit of a monkeywrench into the foreign bootleg market. Will I have to buy an EVD player just so I can continue to get $2 DVDs from the Pacific Mall?

Source Film Junk