After a couple of years in oblivion, Chinese manufactures are retaking their effort to push their own DVD format known as EVD. First released in November 2003, the Enhanced Versatile Disc is making a comeback after some licensing problems. This move adds yet another possible competitor in the format war, even more so when you consider that China nowadays has the muscle to push anything they set their mind to.
Zhang Baoquan, general secretary of the EVD Industry Alliance, a group promoting the alternative format, expressed confidence that sales in China's booming consumer electronics market will be strong enough to support producers after they stop making DVD players. Chinese companies produce 80 percent of the world's DVD players under their own brand names and for foreign electronics companies or retailers. But manufacturers complain that fees paid to foreign owners of technology cut into profits in a highly competitive industry.
According to the EVD Industry Alliance, the EVD offers better video quality than DVDs. At $87 per player if it lives up to all they are claiming, it could become a good alternative. Could this be the end of the DVD?