Has Blu-Ray Lost the Battle?
We all thought the format war was over, after one company toppled the rest followed suite and HD-DVD was no more. Despite this it seems that not everything was as it seemed, in China the techincal bods have been hard at work undermining the Blu-Ray format.While many people saw HD streaming video straight to TV as the next technology, a new format, CBHD, has outsold Blu-Ray 3 to 1 in china.CBHD is a new format heavily based on HD-DVD, which has always been the better, higher density, cheaper format. CBHD has improved on this, and undercut the Blu-Ray prices.Currently Warner are the only studio officially backing CBHD, although with the Chinese Government and it’s 2 billion population supporting the new format, things could soon change. Chances are that this new format might soon take over the Blu-Ray format completely. Currently the CBHD format, outsells Blu-Ray three to one in China, and with the new government backing this is only set to increase.While Blu-Ray may be under threat from the new CBHD format, it has gained a strong foothold in the western world. This could protect it from being taken over by the CBHD format. This is still under dispute however, as most of the blu-ray sales are PS3 based.Only time will tell if the new cheaper CBHD format dominates the Blu-ray market, or if HD internet streaming will beat them all!