The Foundation of China High Definition DVD Industry Association (CHDA) has announced a new high definition DVD format, provisionally dubbed China High Definition DVD (CH-DVD).

The new format was developed by the Optical Memory National Engineering Research Centre, an optical disc lab at Tsinghua University, in collaboration with the DVD Forum, developers of the HD-DVD format.

Research institutes and manufacturing enterprises in China and abroad have also been involved in the development.

The physical format of CH-DVD is based on HD-DVD and will have similar storage specifications. But the new format includes Chinese-owned intellectual property such as advanced copy protection technology.

The CHDA has pledged to push the promotion of CH-DVD, and hopes to launch a CH-DVD player into the Chinese market in 2008.

The new format is supported by the Chinese government, and will pave the way for the localisation of blue-laser, high-definition DVD in China.

Many local content holders have confirmed support for CH-DVD and agreed to launch movie titles in the format.

China will start broadcasts of high definition TV programmes in the next year, creating another market for the new format.