From PRNewswire:

CHINA TO DEVELOP OWN DVD FORMAT

BEIJING – A government-affiliated research body announced here Tuesday that it will develop China’s own DVD format in order to break the monopoly of foreign companies in DVD manufacturing. Lu Da, deputy director of the National Disc Engineering Center, said that the new Chinese DVD format will be based on the prevailing format of HD-DVD but incompatible with the HD-DVD systems. The Chinese format will produce higher definition, better sound and improved copyright protection, Lu said. The new format is scheduled to enter the market before 2008.

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Somehow I think this is more about keeping foreign content out of their citizens’ hands. If they have players that play the national format and not HD-DVD or BD, it is harder to import foreign content to pollute their minds… Plus it builds a insular economy to support native companies – shades of SECAM. Of course, you know the same factories will churn out HD-DVD and/or BD machines for export.

I signed up for PRNewswire today and found this press release from last week…
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