China CBHD Player User Reports！

[263629749]

About one week ago, Blu-ray High-Def products: CBHD, has officially hit the mainland market, CBHD was based on HDDVD format and was formerly named CHDVD.

In this report, the model of this CBHD player is TCL THBD-1008
Currently, three models are available in Chinese market, they are TCL THBD-1008, Shinco CBHD-9000 and THTF CBHD-0002.

This is the front view of the product TCL THBD-1008




Acessories of CBHD Player, including remote control, AV cable, Component cable and one HDMI cable.


general view


Red standby mode and blue playing mode, the same as Toshiba HDDVD player


When inserting a disc, a CBHD logo will illuminate automatically



back of the player


close up




remote control, layout litterally the same as toshiba HDDVD


Setup menu, you suprised? Almost the same as Toshiba HDDVD. just some translation work added.


resolution settings


audio settings


while playing, press Display button, we got this


demo disc screenshots




addtionally, we got 15 free CBHD discs alongwith this player
5 Warner titles: Blood Diamond, Aviator. Poseidon, Polar Express, Invasion
and 10 China local titles.

and Warner is expected to release 15 titles by June and 100 more by the end of this year.
-the end-

[PooperScooper]

About one week ago, Blu-ray High-Def products: CBHD, has officially hit the mainland market, CBHD was based on HDDVD format and was formerly named CHDVD.

I'm confused. Is it a blue laser player reading discs adhering to the HD-DVD format? Or is Blu-ray just used as a marketing thing for recognition?

larry

[ILJG]

The remote and on-screen menus are just like HD DVD's, as you pointed out.

Is this why Toshiba hasn't jumped into making BD players, yet? Because the hope is that the Chinese high def market will support CBHD? And does that mean China's currently having the same format war that already took place elsewhere, or is CBHD the only player?

[bt12483]

Originally Posted by PooperScooper

I'm confused. Is it a blue laser player reading discs adhering to the HD-DVD format? Or is Blu-ray just used as a marketing thing for recognition?

larry

AFAIK:
It was originally conceived as CHDVD. The Chinese variant of HD DVD. From the looks of it, Toshiba simply gave TCL the design for everything - the player, the remote, the interface, etc. It basically uses all of the same parts (though some of the chips may be different), since the codec support is different. It supports the Chinese codecs, since the Chinese don' want to license anyone else codecs. Their whole reason for making this format is to avoid paying royalties to anyone else, similar to their ECD (which pretty much failed).

When HD DVD died, they changed the name from CHDVD to CBHD, to try and capitalize on the "blu" marketing I suppose. The laser is the same as the HD DVD laser - they just retooled the name.

[ILJG]

Originally Posted by bt12483

AFAIK:
It was originally conceived as CHDVD. The Chinese variant of HD DVD. From the looks of it, Toshiba simply gave TCL the design for everything - the player, the remote, the interface, etc. It basically uses all of the same parts (though some of the chips may be different), since the codec support is different. It supports the Chinese codecs, since the Chinese don' want to license anyone else codecs. Their whole reason for making this format is to avoid paying royalties to anyone else, similar to their ECD (which pretty much failed).

When HD DVD died, they changed the name from CHDVD to CBHD, to try and capitalize on the "blu" marketing I suppose. The laser is the same as the HD DVD laser - they just retooled the name.

I just saw on Wikipedia that CBHD will use China's AVS codec, instead of AVC or VC1, so they don't have to pay a lot in royalties. It'll be interesting to see if/how CBHD holds up if Blu-Ray is used throughout the rest of the world. Does anyone know if this is the only official high def format in China?

[erick granato]

will it play hddvd's or bluray discs or both?

[ILJG]

Originally Posted by erick granato

will it play hddvd's or bluray discs or both?

I'm guessing it will play neither, it will play CBHDs.

[Ted_K]

Originally Posted by ILJG

I'm guessing it will play neither, it will play CBHDs.

And Warner is actually putting out titles for this??????

[bt12483]

Originally Posted by ILJG

I just saw on Wikipedia that CBHD will use China's AVS codec, instead of AVC or VC1, so they don't have to pay a lot in royalties. It'll be interesting to see if/how CBHD holds up if Blu-Ray is used throughout the rest of the world. Does anyone know if this is the only official high def format in China?

Bluray is out in China.

[PooperScooper]

Thanks, folks. I get picture now.

larry

[vamovie]

oh brother
here is another clueless
its just sounds like...first hddvd,second vmd and now cbhd........and all the three formats aimed on ....now us. sounds like very political to me

cbhd....does this format had any pc-roms or regular dvd-roms/burners are ok...?
i wonder

[peterho3]

Really hope China will come up with a universal player like LG and Samsung which plays all region BD/HDDVD/DVD and CBHD. It will have high demand worldwide and we don't have to worry about our HDDVD player dying one day. Also it gives us an option to access cheap CBHD disc from China. They are like $10 a piece and hopefully drop if the format success. All wishful thinking of course.

I know chance is slim but what I really want to know is whether it can playback existing HDDVD. Hollywood support is key and if CBHD player can access hundreds of HDDVD movies from day one will be an added bonus to its success. I think HDDVD never sold in China but only some pirate disc playback from PC.

[qz3fwd]

No ethetnet on the unit, or is that just a removable plug?
Can you post pics of the other players: Shinco CBHD-9000 and THTF CBHD-0002
How much are the discs? How much was the player?

My guess is only a very few titles and few players will be made avaliable to apply pressure to the BDA members to reduce prices on BD'ware in China region?

[263629749]

THTF CBHD-0002


Shinco CBHD-9000


player's price：not confirmed yet, but it's said around 2000¥ (RMB)
Disc's price：below 55¥ （RMB)

[ILJG]

So the player's about $293, I guess not too ridiculous for a new technology. But only $8 for a movie?!? Wow!!

[ScottHD]

HAHA those last two (Shinco CBHD-9000 and THTF CBHD-0002) look just like rebranded A-30 and A-35's.

[Quentin2]

I hope Toshiba's getting some return out of this, this format is using existing Toshiba technology right down to the remote controls.

It really surprises me that Warner would support this new format. Why make cheap discs that draw sales away from BD? Certainly worth keeping an eye on how this does in the Far East.

[gooki]

It really surprises me that Warner would support this new format. Why make cheap discs that draw sales away from BD? Certainly worth keeping an eye on how this does in the Far East.

Because it's for China only, and one presumes the studios are aware that BD pricing will not be accepted by the masses over there.

If they supported BD at those prices, everyone else would import from china rather that buy local.

It'll be interesting to see what language and subtitle options are available on the discs (both from western studios and local China ones).

[qz3fwd]

So are you trying to say that this was part of the BDA master plan all along, to have distinct formats between china and the rest of the world to keep prices up outside of the Chinese border?
Or some similar conspiracy theory.......

HeHe.

Can you pop the top off of the player and take some inside pics? Dedicated hardware board or quasi-pc like early HD-DVD players?
I imagine if it is hardware, the boards would have to have custom designs to support the specific chinese codec?

Just out of curousity, could you pop in a HD-DVD disc and see what happens?
Did they forget to implement the code to NOT read/playback HD-DVD spec'ed discs.
I'll send a test HD-DVD disc if needed.

[webphilosopher]

I'm betting that the drive is the same one used in the A3, A30, and A35. That means that replacement drives will be available for third generation HD DVD players for quite some time. I suspect that many other components are also interchangeable. That would amount to a weird roundabout continued hardware support for some HD DVD players.

[Jagt Mirage]

was in China a month ago. Saw a giant Pioneer BD Burner ad 2 floors long hanging off the front of an electronics mall in Guangzhou. Pretty sure it's BD as it had the BD logo on it. Only found one place that carried the discs although they didn't on display, asked for 100 RMB each (around 15 bucks). My brother in law who lives in Guangzhou says the BD players are about 2000-3000 RMB, (3-500 bucks). Pretty expensive, even for here.

[bitemymac]

does this mean we can soon expect a firmware hack to turn our old HD-DVD players into something more?... perhaps, media player over the LAN?

[Quentin2]

Excellent point on the drives, webphilosopher! No reason for the drives to be different from the A3x series even though chips on the mainboard, the PSU and firmware most definitely are. Nice, since the drive's a mechanical part prone to failure over the extended time that some of us will use HD DVD.

[263629749]

this is welcome screen

[263629749]

i'll post detailed intenal pics later
but personally speaking, this player cannot play HDDVD discs
at the hardware level, sure it can, but at the firmware level, it wouldn't recognize HDDVD...

[Quentin2]

Thanks for all this information, 263629749!

[larsl]

How about using the A30 firmware on this?
IF the only difference is the firmware it could work.

[Andris L]

Originally Posted by 263629749

addtionally, we got 15 free CBHD discs alongwith this player
5 Warner titles: Blood Diamond, Aviator. Poseidon, Polar Express, Invasion
and 10 China local titles.

Can you please confirm specs on these discs i.e. does they have English sound-track and whether there are forced Chinese subs?

[segaklon]

Cbhd-9100