Blu-ray Makes the Moves on China
July 8, 2008

Blu-ray has scored its first official testing center in China. CESI Technology, which just joined the Blu-ray Disc Association, will be in charge of the center in China.
The spin from the BDA camp is that CESI's commitment represents positive momentum for eventual Blu-ray format adoption in China. Thanks to the CESI's center, Blu-ray product development and retail roll-out should be sped up in the country.
Or according to Sumitaka Matsamura, chair of BDA's China Task Force, "The establishment of an official test center in China is critical to the acceptance of Blu-ray Disc in China."
CESI management is hopeful that the center will open up jobs for the country as well as create an effecient marketplace to produce Blu-ray products locally.
At the same time, the BDA announced that the Chinese-based digital audio encoding technology DigiRise is on track to be potentially incorporated into the Blu-ray format.
Not to pop the BDA's bubble, but it's hard to say if Blu-ray is the answer to jump-startng a legitimate home entertainment industry in China. For the most part, Chinese people still would rather watch pirated films than buy legal DVDs. So I'm not sure if these same people will suddenly turn around and buy Blu-rays. If awesome picture and sound is Blu-ray's selling point, the Chinese may not bite since they're still largely choosing to watch the typically lesser quality pirated films over DVD.

Posted by Susanne Ault on July 8, 2008 | Comments (0)