Video CDs to maintain edge over newcomer

WHILE there has been talk by consumer electronics manufacturers of short delays in China in the release of the new style digital video disc (DVD) player, the earlier generation video CD (VCD) player should continue to reign supreme for years to come.

At a retail price of 2,000 yuan (about HK$1,814) the VCD player will remain at least half the price of a DVD player. Indeed, the cost of an early edition of the DVD player in Japan is forecast to come in at HK$5,700.

About 85 per cent of the 8,000-10,000 movie and karaoke titles converted to the CD Rom-like VCD format already are in Chinese. The Hollywood movies available in China mostly have been pirated.

Alexandre Balkanski, the chief executive and founder of C-Cube Microsystems, a microchip maker with 80 per cent of the compression microchip market for VCD players and karaoke machines in China, says the VCD market will continue to boom.

'At the least, [VCD makers] will see their business double in the next year. Maybe it will go up by a factor of three or four. We estimate that as many as eight million VCD players could be sold in China this year,' he said.

Other estimates show seven million VCD sales in China next year and virtually no business for the DVD.

Even though the French-born Mr Balkanski has reason to be satisfied with his China business, it is under threat. The next stage of the game for C-Cube in China probably is going to be rougher than it has been over the past few years, thanks to new entrants to the market for production of the MPEG-1 (Motion Picture Expert Group) standard chips that are the brains of a VCD player.