Chinese HD format outsells Blu-ray 3 to 1

Sony's Blu-ray format is taking a pounding in China at the hands of the homegrown China Blue High Definition disc format.

cbhd

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Only a few months after a launch, CBHD accounts for 30 percent of disc players - with Blu-ray accounting for 10 percent and DVD the remaining 60 percent. A mistake in translation saw CBHD originally attributed a 3 percent market share lead over Blu-ray, according to Ars Technica.

CBHD has several significant advantages over Blu-ray in the Chinese market. Existing DVD production lines can be refitted to manufacture CBHD discs for just a quarter of the cost of a BD disc production line. As a result, CBHD discs retail for around US$7.40 in China, compared to US$29.60 for Blu-ray discs.

The format borrows technology from the HD DVD format, with a 30GB disc capacity, although it uses codecs owned by the Chinese government. It is backed by the Chinese government and industry, although Warner Brothers is the only movie studio currently releasing movies in the CBHD format.

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