Taiwan Joining Chinese Royalty-free Video Disk Effort

BeardStreet writes "In an attempt to stop the flow of royalties to the various DVD licensing bodies (e.g. DVD6C, MPEG-LA, etc.), 19 Taiwanese companies have come up with a royalty-free DVD format called EVD which is compatible with a similar effort going on in China, called AVD. Capacity is about 1 GB higher. Their goal is to avoid having to shell out US $15 to $20 per-player royalties. EVD/AVD players will still be able to play traditional DVD disks but will not have the official DVD logo on them, thus avoiding the licensing fees. It's a political issue as well, in that China needs to balance the flow of royalty money going out of their country, especially with DVD players falling rapidly in price."

Excellent - a trade war is just what we need...

[vkg]

Bunch of different, theoretically compatible standards - international patent law called into play, with those Damned Communists [google.com] trying to avoid paying their patent fees....

You know, if they keep this shit up, they might just distract the MPAA from the Internet long enough for me to finish building my archive :-)

not all movies

[tps12]

The following movies will not be released for EVD or AVD:

Elizabeth

The Last Emperor

The Madness of King George

Get it? Royalty-free? Get it?

I love it

[unicron]

And the fact that all DVD players sold in China come bundled with Episode 2 just goes to show you the level of dedication the Chinese market brings to the consumer. They go that extra mile you just don't see in larger American stores like BestBuy.

Re:Region free?

[RetroGeek]

Can the studios detect these players and make sure their disks won't play on them?

Probably.

But all you will need to make it work is a black marker.....

Re:Excellent - a trade war is just what we need...

[swordboy]

Yes - I can't wait for the various different recordable formats that come out for this new technology. Lesee:

- AVD+RW
- AVD-R
- AVD-RAM
- EVD+RW
- EVD-RAM
- EVD-R
- EVD+AVD+RAM
- Etc...

Wonderful!

Re:Only in China

[ReelOddeeo]

This format would only be used in China.

Quick! The MPAA needs to lobby Congress to make it illegal for China to do this!

Re:Even so...

[ReelOddeeo]

Basically, these will be considered controlled substances like drugs and whoever's trying to get ahold of one will be treated as a narcotics dealer/user.

I disagree.

Whoever's trying to get ahold of these will be considered terrorists. Get with the times.