China Releases its own Blue, Just not Blu-ray
China, where a peculiar mix of emerging capitalism and persistent communism reigns supreme, has officially released its long-anticipated version of blue ray technology that shuns the Blu-ray Disc standard accepted by the rest of the world — in favor of its own proprietary China Blue High-definition (CBHD) standard.
China's version of HD disc technology is based on its own Audio Video Standard (AVS) and copy-protection (DKAA) systems.
The China High-definition DVD industry Association began showing off the nation's new generation of blue ray HD products in Guangzhou, China, in mid-September by reportedly applauding the "general trend" of migrating from red ray to blue ray technology without acknowledging the widespread adoption of the Blu-ray Disc codec outside the country of 1.3 billion people, according to the government-run Xinhua News Agency.
The CBHD format is based on Toshiba's HD DVD format, which lost out to Sony's Blu-ray scheme throughout the rest of the world. And in a nation where piracy of bona fide products has long been a problem for outside content providers, China's CBHD standard for video discs is being protected against piracy using the same AACS protection methods used by the Blu-ray format.
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