VHS to DVD to... EVD?
Filed under: New Releases, Tech Stuff
It wasn't long ago that DVDs were the new IT item with high-price discs and expensive players. Just like CDs, the movie counterparts caught on like wildfire. It wasn't long before we were arguing over the inevitable decline of the VHS and just how long they would stick around as video stores bought more DVDs and less tapes. Now, we've reported the death of the VHS, and the same video stores that have been decreasing videotape options for years are now cleaning the shelves and selling off the used, video dinosaurs.Yet technology never stops, and just as we get secure with DVD and HDVD, China's bringing out EVD, or Enhanced Versatile Disc. I can only hope that this latest VD version is backwards compatible, as Chinese electronics manufacturers plan to switch completely to EVD in one year -- by 2008. Their enhancement is said to come in the form of a crisper picture and larger capacity, but even more tempting to studios -- improved piracy features. Although plans are in the works to export EVD players overseas next year as well, US studios haven't jumped on board, yet. Right now, films already have the regular, the high-def and the PSP formats, so will the studios really be interested in another? I think it might come down to just how well the new format fares against piracy. It might never catch on here, but it if they do switch over in one year, I imagine it will be a wrench in the goodie-filled, alternate-version releases that we order from overseas.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-10-2006 @ 1:50PM
Michael said...
There is indeed currently a format war raging stateside, but the "HDVD" and "PSP" formats are regrettably not involved. UMD, Sony's more-or-less proprietary format for viewing on the PSP, is all but obsolete as far as video distribution goes, and I would hardly expect the factions currently entrenched in the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD battle for market share to toss out all their investment in the respective formats and embrace an undeniably inferior format such as EVD.
Producing EVDs for the Chinese and expanded Asian market exclusively, however, would work out great for the studios. Opposing dominant formats would prove extremely prohibitive in marketing discs from one region in another. The Region system on DVDs was intended to combat this, but if an China-based pirate wants to sell pirated DVDs abroad, all he has to do is set the region to 0. He can't sell us an EVD if we don't even have the player.
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12-10-2006 @ 5:01PM
chuck said...
red laser == cheap
standard in China == piracy
R.I.P. both HD-DVD & Blu-Ray!
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12-18-2006 @ 10:32AM
vhs to dvd said...
visit Convert VHS to DVD and transfer your home video tapes to dvd. You can get a pretty good conversion at a reasonable price from a lot of places. But what are most of these companies lacking? Care and attention to detail! Other ways you get totally amateurish product done with domestic equipment.
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