Tokyo (Japan) – The HD DVD is dead, but the DVD Forum apparently has not given up hope on the Chinese version of the format yet. Toshiba will chair the Steering Committee over the next two years.

The first documents released about the latest DVD Forum Steering Committee (SC) meeting indicate that all HD DVD topics were nixed from the agenda, however the committee is still spending time discussing the Chinese version, commonly referred to as CH-DVD. Few details about the state of the format have been made public at this time; the decisions chart of the 41st SC meeting, however, shows that new review and approval rules for modifications to the format have been approved.

While the change or creation of the specification will be the responsibility of the China High Definition DVD Industry Association (CHDA) and the Optical Memory National Engineering Research Center (OMNERC) at Tsinghua University, the DVD Forum will receive reports of changes and analyze potential impacts on other DVD Forum specifications. The review approval authority remains with the DVD Forum. It is expected that the format will use a codec (Advanced Audio Video Encoding Standard in Information Technology, AVS) that is owned by the Chinese government.

In a separate decision, Toshiba was confirmed to chair the Steering Committee from February 2008 to February 2010. The vice chairs are held by Sony as representative for the consumer electronics industry, Intel from the IT industry and Warner from the Content industry. Other SC members include Hitachi, IBM, ITRI, LG, Matsushita, Memory-Tech, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, NEC, Paramount, Pioneer, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Thomson and Walt Disney.