News

posted on 20 March 2008 12:56

Leading Chinese optical disk vendors are trying to establish a new high-definition optical disk standard, nothwithstanding Toshiba's failure to establish HD-DVD.

Currently there is a DVD-like Chinese optical disk format called EVD (enhanced versatile disk.) Chinese vendors such as Antaeus Universal are trying to build on this to develop HD-EVD, a high-definition version which would support the 1080p standard.

This refers to 1080 lines of vertical resolution updated progressively (the 'p) in a single pass as opposed to 1080i which is interlaced and has every other line updated in a pass. You get a smoother and cleaner picture with 1080p. The standard assumes a 16:9 wide-aspect screen with a 1920 line horizontal resolution, meaning a screen with 1080 x 1920 pixels.

The EVD standard supports the definitely-not-high-definition 720p resolution level.

There is no US film studio support for HD-EVD, and now that the studios have settled on Blu-ray there appears to be little prospect of it unless it offers compelling advantages over Blu-ray.

Without Hollywood adoption providing content for HD-EVD there, logically, appears to be little prospect of optical disk and drive manufacturers outside China building HD-EVD product either.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}