Taiwan To Produce ""Cheap"" DVD-Video Players

Taiwan is about to produce its first wholly, locally-made DVD-Video players and DVD-ROM drives. This is welcome news to studios that have seen the development as a substantial boost for the new format in Asian and international markets. The announcement from Taiwan was made by the government-owned Optoelectronics & Systems Laboratories, which will make the first drives and then transfer the technology to local electronics firms.Local PC manufacturers such as Acer have already started making key DVD components such as pick-up heads, spindle motors and chip sets. Cheaper DVD drives for players and PCs can only boost demand for DVD product around Asia. This development could be a crucial factor in establishing DVD as a mainstream product in markets like China. As well, the new players could signal the welcome shift from Video CD to DVD. VCD, which is largely the format that spawned the piracy problem throughout Asia, has an installed base in China alone of over 20 million players. But even though DVD player prices are expected to compete with low-cost VCD players, the growing demand for DVD product is unlikely to be met by the few manufacturers in China that will become DVD capable this year resulting in pirated material being sucked into the market from Hong Kong and Macau where sales of DVD manufacturing technology remain buoyant. Macau, a Portuguese colony will return to Chinese rule at the end of the year. That is good news to Hollywood, because Macau has been one of the worldís hotbeds for music and video piracy. Hope is that the Beijing Government will soon crack down on piracy. Of the VCDs available in the mainland, between 50 and 80 percent remain illegal copies and sell for far less than a single ticket to a Chinese movie theatre. Jack Valenti, the President of the Motion Picture Association of America, said upon returning from a recent U.S. Commerce Department-sponsored trip to China, ""The VCD problem is a bacillus, a cancer in the belly of our industry. In Beijing, it is painful to see what is available. It makes you want to throw up."" But Valenti was hopeful that the central and local government clampdowns imposed over the past three years in China would be stepped-up to reduce the numbers of pirates operating in mainland China. ""In December, there will be a change in government in Macau,"" said Valenti. ""Maybe the regulations will be applied more stringently.""Interestingly, in August Shanghai will be host to China Disc í99, an exhibition and seminar of CD and DVD manufacturing technology. It is expected that new anti-piracy measures will be discussed and reviewed at this conference. Shanghai is notable because the city is considering several measures to improve laws and regulations governing software and intellectual property rights in the city. The measures include using licensed operating systems, applications and special-purpose software; installing licensed software on computers for sale; forbidding Internet service providers from releasing, advertising, selling or providing pirated software; and prohibiting the production, supply and sale of pirated software on compact discs.