China chooses consortium plan for Video CD
By Yoshiko Hara and Junko Yoshida
TOKYO - The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry
has tapped the Video CD Consortium to devise a
next-generation, higher-quality Video CD format. The
government's decision to back the plan by Matsushita,
Philips, Sony and Victor Co. of Japan (JVC) rather than
competing formats was made to fend off market confusion.
But it was done with the understanding the spec would fold in
aspects of the government's own format.
At least three incompatible formats have been duking it out
in China: China Video CD, pitched by C-Cube Microsystems
and its Chinese system OEMs; Super Video CD, developed by
the government with support from ESS Technology; and the
consortium's HQ-VCD.
The government is expected to announce as early as next
week an outline of the new format, which will basically merge
Super Video CD with HQ-VCD. Picture quality will be
MPEG-2 with variable-bit-rate compression, and playback
time will be about 50 minutes. Audio will have four channels.
The deal is a big win for the consortium, which came to the
table late. C-Cube has been involved for well over a year in
developing next-generation Video CD with Chinese OEMs,
software publishers and the government. The consortium's
negotiations stalled for months over royalty issues. But after
products using the C-Cube format appeared last month, the
government's attitude suddenly changed, according to a
source. A meeting late last month in Beijing resulted in a deal,
the source said. On July 4, the government announced in a
Shanghai newspaper that it was preparing a new format and
that manufacturers should make their products comply.
A C-Cube spokeswoman said last week the decision won't
exclude C-Cube from having a say in the final technical
details. "We are currently closely working with the Video CD
Consortium members and the [ministry]," she said. The Video
CD market hit 12 million units in China last year. But thus far
no royalties have been paid. The licensers expect that
through the collaboration in building the next generation
Video CD, they can establish a way to resolve the license
issue as well.
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