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Blog CBHD Guides PC Playback
China Blue High-definition (CBHD): Not Blu-ray, and Almost No PC Tools

China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD) – often marketed as “China Blu-ray” or 中国蓝光高清光盘 – is not Blu-ray Disc. It is a China-only high-definition optical format derived from HD DVD, launched for the Chinese market after the global format war ended. If you came here looking for PC authoring or playback tools like the ones we list for CVD or AVCHD: the honest answer is that almost none exist in public form.

What CBHD actually is

CBHD started life as CH-DVD (China High-definition DVD), developed by Tsinghua University’s Optical Memory National Engineering Research Center (OMNERC) with the DVD Forum’s blessing to edit HD DVD specifications for China. It was renamed CBHD to stress the blue-violet laser – which is why English coverage often says “China Blu-ray” even though the format is not a Blu-ray Disc Association product.

  • Capacity: 15 GB single-layer / 30 GB dual-layer (same ballpark as HD DVD)
  • Physics: DVD-line-friendly; cheaper to tool up than Blu-ray for Chinese plants
  • Video: PRC-backed AVS (plus AVC / VC-1 as options on players)
  • Audio: Chinese DRA codec among others
  • Navigation: Chinese CETC system – not HD DVD Advanced Content (HDi)
  • Protection: Chinese DKAA, plus an AACS “CBHD” addendum for some titles (China-only licensing)

Despite the HD DVD DNA, finished CBHD discs are incompatible with HD DVD players and with Blu-ray players. It became its own proprietary China-market format.

Authoring: industrial only

There was never a consumer Windows toolchain comparable to DeVeDe, VCDEasy, Nero Vision, or TMPGEnc for CBHD. Commercial titles were authored in locked-down post houses:

  • CBC (CRC/BMB Audio Visual) – Memory-Tech + China Record Corp. joint venture for encode / author / localize
  • UOD (Shanghai United Optical Disc) – replication line partner
  • AACS LA’s CBHD Pre-recorded Book / addendum – licensed manufacturing path, not a downloadable app

Memory-Tech’s earlier HD DVD authoring work with Ulead was for HD DVD, not a free CBHD suite that escaped into the wild. Sonic Scenarist for HD-DVD (which we list under Free Downloads) authors HD DVD Advanced Content – not CBHD/CETC discs.

Playback: hardware, not PC software

Known retail CBHD players were few and China-market:

  • Shinco: CBHD-9100, CBHD-3800, HD-2100, HD-3700U
  • TCL: THBD-1008, THBD-1038

We have not found a public Windows (or Mac) application that mounts CBHD discs and plays them with menus the way PowerDVD / ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre did for HD DVD. Archive.org also has no meaningful CBHD player or authoring software packages to point at.

Loose AVS files are a different story: some AVS-capable Windows players/filters can decode demuxed AVS video. That is not the same as reading a CBHD disc volume, CETC navigation, or DKAA/AACS-protected titles.

How this relates to what we already host

  • Sonic Scenarist for HD-DVD, ArcSoft TMT, and PowerDVD HD DVD builds = HD DVD, not CBHD
  • China Video Disc (CVD) = CD-era cousin of SVCD – unrelated to CBHD
  • AVCHD / Blu-ray authoring rows = BDA-style Blu-ray / AVCHD on DVD media – also unrelated

If you meant mainland Blu-ray Disc (BDA)

Chinese retail Blu-ray Disc titles that follow the Blu-ray Disc Association format are ordinary Blu-ray. Authoring for those is the same global BD / AVCHD toolchain we already document (Scenarist BD-class suites, multiAVCHD, TMPGEnc Authoring Works, and so on). There is no separate “China Blu-ray authoring” product line for BDA discs.

Bottom line

CBHD is a short-lived, China-only HD DVD descendant with its own codecs, navigation, and protection. Support for hobbyists today is mostly historical knowledge plus surviving Shinco/TCL players – not a Free Downloads section full of PC tools. We keep this article under Support so the difference stays clear when someone searches for “China Blu-ray.”

Historical reference only. We do not host CBHD disc images, keys, or circumvention tools.

Blog CBHD Guides Open Questions
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CBHD Open Questions and Confirmed Facts

What the research passes treat as confirmed

After multiple independent compilation passes, the following statements are treated as established rather than speculative:

  • Professional CBHD authoring and professional CBHD verification existed (Memory-Tech/CBC/UOD production; DCA China HD verifier documentation).
  • UDF was used; CBHD had its own physical modulation (4-6 FSM replacing HD DVD 8-12 ETM).
  • Commercial CBHD players, proprietary optical pickups and CBHD-specific chipsets existed (Shinco and TCL production models; pickup and Novatek patents).
  • CBHD/BD optical compatibility was actively engineered (freeform objective-lens patent; multi-format pickup discussion).
  • Recordable CBHD was technically contemplated; commercial CBHD was primarily pressed/read-only (dye patent; AACS LA P/R categories; no shipped CBHD-R ecosystem found).
  • DKAA existed; AACS was used for international content; CETC navigation existed; AVS/DRA were part of the format.
  • CBHD was not normally compatible with HD DVD players.

Still unresolved – specifications and DRM

  1. Exact CBHD Book 2 and Book 3 specifications; complete CETC authoring specification.
  2. Complete DKAA specification, key architecture and key files. Expansions of the name disagree (“dual-key” vs “Data Key Authorization Access”); no pass cites a DKAA specification document; no DKAA patent numbers were located.
  3. GB/T, SJ/T or CY/T standard number for CBHD as a whole (AVS and DRA have numbers; the disc format does not in any pass).
  4. The actual FSM 4-6 patent (an OMNERC RLL patent exists but is not confirmed as commercial FSM).

Still unresolved – software and imaging

  1. Commercial authoring application names; encoder names and versions; CBHD muxer and premastering software (known to have lived at CBC; binaries not found).
  2. CBHD emulator; CBHD PC playback software (absence not fully proven).
  3. Firmware archive, firmware file formats and update history (THBD-1008 Spansion flash is a dump target only).
  4. An actual CBHD disc image; directory dumps; MediaInfo logs from real discs.
  5. Whether burned DVD/HD DVD-R media with a CBHD folder structure plays on real CBHD players (Gemini pipeline vs FSM physical argument).

Still unresolved – catalogue and hardware inventory

  1. Complete movie catalogue, catalogue numbers (ISRC/版号) and disc IDs.
  2. Complete player chipset inventory; service manuals; board photographs for every model; CBHD pickup part number.
  3. Commercial CBHD-R media and recorder.
  4. Any successful HD DVD → CBHD or CBHD → HD DVD conversion.
  5. Relationship between Shinco HD-3700 (HiFi demonstrator, July 2010) and HD-3700U (UTI hybrid player).
  6. Primary-source confirmation for TCL THBD-1038 feature set beyond secondary encyclopaedia entries.

Conflicts between passes that remain open

Topic Tension
PC HD DVD drives reading CBHD sectors Claimed workable vs FSM/channel hardware requirement; no published test
Home-burned DVD+R DL playback Gemini “works on HD-3700U/THBD-1008” vs no documented successful case elsewhere
Directory layout CBHD_TS/.AVS model vs EVOB/HD DVD Book 3 model
Early disc codecs “Exclusively AVS” vs early VC-1/AVC likely before Sep 2009
Region coding Undocumented / HD DVD-like free vs China-locked
Shinco monthly sales “Under 11,000” vs “on the order of 11,000” CHDA-sourced summaries
3:1 CBHD vs Blu-ray sales Single GOME store / promoter figure vs later CMM decline data

Highest-value next artefacts

  1. One inexpensive domestic CBHD disc plus sector image.
  2. Working Shinco CBHD-9100 and TCL THBD-1008 for behavioural comparison.
  3. Pickup label photos and Novatek/other chipset identification.
  4. NOR flash dump from THBD-1008 (and any Shinco dump).
  5. DCA Class A verifier with China HD configuration.
  6. CBC / Memory-Tech / UOD authoring or premaster samples.
  7. AACS CBHD Pre-recorded 0.90 book plus any DKAA fragment.
  8. std.samr.gov.cn / 新闻出版 search for CY/T CBHD documents.
  9. Full AVSForum master thread scrape while pages remain reachable.
  10. Wayback walks of shinco.com news/product trees and chdia.org.cn.

How to read the rest of this series against the open list

Format-at-a-glance and technical posts state physical parameters from the CHDA technical page with confidence. History and market posts carefully mark single-store sales myths. Codec posts separate what FFmpeg can decode from what DKAA still blocks. Hardware posts limit commercial models to the documented Shinco and TCL six, noting prototypes separately. Firmware and home-authoring posts present conflicting arguments side by side rather than picking a winner without evidence. Catalogue and buying posts refuse inflated 1,000-title claims and empty eBay searches as proof of total absence on Chinese C2C apps.

The open-question list is the research agenda. Confirmed items are the floor. Everything between-especially FSM vs burnable UDF, DKAA internals, and a real directory dump-decides whether CBHD reconstruction stays a literature project or becomes a playable archive.

Method notes for the next research cycle

Treat single-store sales myths, promoter-sourced 30/10/60 splits and alliance 1,000-title targets as claims with provenance, not as measurements. Treat CHDA physical parameters (0.204 μm pits, 0.40 μm track pitch, NA 0.65, 36.55 Mbps 1×, 28 Mbps max video) as higher-confidence because they come from the archived technical page. Treat Gemini-only pipelines and directory trees as hypotheses until a disc image confirms or falsifies them. Treat “no PC decoder found” as an open search, not a mathematical proof of absence.

When two passes conflict, publish both rows in the lab notebook rather than averaging them into a false consensus. FSM versus ATAPI sector-read, CBHD_TS versus EVOB, exclusive-AVS versus early-VC-1, and China-locked versus region-free are the four conflicts most likely to waste months if silently resolved the wrong way.

Success criteria for closing questions

  • Book 2/3: page images or PDFs with identifiable revision strings.
  • DKAA: patent numbers plus at least one key-file format description.
  • Authoring: named executable or installer from CBC/Memory-Tech with version.
  • Firmware: hashed NOR dump from THBD-1008 with readable strings list.
  • Disc image: full sector image plus UDF tree listing and MediaInfo.
  • Home burn: dated photo/video of a named burned disc playing on a named player model.
  • Catalogue: 版号 list or photographed spines covering >100 unique retail SKUs.
  • Pickup: part number photographed on a commercial Shinco or TCL mechanism.

Until those criteria trip, the series should keep hedging language. Confirmed facts in section one are the floor you can build tooling on; everything else is scaffolding. The corrected history-from 2005 WG-11 proposal through FSM/CETC/AVS engineering, Memory-Tech production, April 2009 launch, GBAX UK import, ~100-title plateau and 2011 collapse-is solid enough to motivate the hunt. The open list is what the hunt still owes the archive.

Hardware inventory gaps include service manuals for every commercial model, board photographs beyond the THBD-1008 excerpt, confirmation of THBD-1038 features from primary Chinese sources, and clarification whether Shinco’s HD-3700 HiFi demonstrator equals, variants, or differs from the HD-3700U UTI hybrid. Prototype photography of CBHD-9000 and Tongfang CBHD-0002 should stay labelled prototype, not quietly merged into the six-player commercial set.

Standards gaps include the missing whole-format GB/T or CY/T number, the true 4-6 FSM patent (as opposed to the nearby OMNERC RLL grant), and DKAA’s patent family. Software gaps include emulator existence, PC playback apps, and named muxer versions. Imaging gaps include any public sector dump. Compatibility gaps include any proven cross-flash and any proven burned-disc playback on named hardware. Closing any three of those clusters would materially change what “CBHD revival” can mean in practice.

Community-source gaps double as open questions: uncleared Tieba and Douban groups may hold directory screenshots; unrecovered GBAX product pages may hold UK bundle lists; unlocated BOC licensing pages may hold royalty schedules. The open list is therefore not only laboratory work-it is also archival web work against rotting 2009 HTML. Prioritise artefacts that unlock multiple questions at once: one disc image tests filesystem, codecs and DRM; one firmware dump tests CETC and key handling; one DCA verifier install tests Book 3 assumptions without needing the lost authoring GUI.

Ordering the hunt

If resources allow only three purchases, buy one domestic disc, one Shinco CBHD-9100, and one TCL THBD-1008. If resources allow only one engineering week, dump the THBD-1008 flash and photograph both pickups. If resources allow only web time, finish AVSForum page captures and std.samr.gov.cn searches for CY/T CBHD documents. Those three tracks-media, firmware, standards numbers-unlock the largest number of dependent questions on the unresolved list. Home-authoring experiments and cross-flash fantasies can wait until the floor artefacts exist.

Revisit this open list after each new artefact; strike items only when the success criteria above are met with citeable files.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon:

Blog CBHD Community Sources Guides
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CBHD Community Sources: Forums, Press and Reviews

Why forums and trade press matter more than product pages

Manufacturer support sites for 2009 CBHD players are mostly dead. The densest surviving primary material sits in 2009-2011 forum threads and Chinese/Japanese trade press. AVSForum pages returned HTTP 402 when fetched directly in one research pass, so details below combine search snippets with cited URLs that still resolve when logged-in browsers or archives cooperate.

Forum threads

Thread Date Unique content
AVSForum – Chinese CBHD player master thread (with pics) 2009-2010 TCL service-manual block diagram and chip IDs; A30/A35 comparison; import experience; Taobao disc prices; CHDA Guangzhou plans; Joyo-Amazon/Dangdang; GOME/Suning deals
AVSForum – China CBHD Player User Reports ~May 2009 THBD-1008 unboxing; Toshiba-like menu; three launch models with photos (THBD-1008, Shinco CBHD-9000, THTF CBHD-0002); bundle list
AVSForum – China turns HDDVD into CBHD 2008 Early marketing; firmware debate; Richard Paul’s physical-incapability view
AVSForum – China officially released CBHD players 22 Apr 2009 Translation of Sina Tech launch article
LDDb – CBHD: The forgotten Blu-Ray competitor – Owner experience with Shinco HD-3700U, quirks, directory behaviour
LDDb – second CBHD thread – Sampler bundles, sourcing, trading
What Hi-Fi – Can I play Chinese CBHD in HD DVD player 16 Oct 2009 Confirms incompatibility
DVD Talk – Will China’s HD DVD format work in domestic players 2008 Compatibility debate
Reddit r/HDDVD – HD DVD Emulator Firmware – HD DVD firmware context (not CBHD dumps)

Key URLs (avsforum.com threads 1150473, 1149496, 1059383, 1141114; forum.lddb.com topics 10789 and 11813; forums.whathifi.com thread 35580; forum.dvdtalk.com thread 525341).

Reviews and Chinese trade press

  • PConline Shinco CBHD-9100 review, 5 Jul 2009 – five pages, 54 photos, spec table (Sina mirror 4 Jul 2009).
  • 电脑报 2009 No. 30 – hands-on; USB 1080p and subtitles; ¥2,999 (sciencenet repost).
  • itavcn CBHD-9100 spec page, May 2009.
  • ZOL THBD-1008 menu/interface reviews, Jun 2009; CBHD-9100 price page ¥2,580.
  • Sina Tech TCL CBHD test (1 Jun 2009); industrialisation piece naming three format changes and FSM “to add Chinese patents” (3 Apr 2009).
  • Yesky CBHD-3800 parameters, ¥2,980.
  • pjtime buyer’s guide, CBHD-9100 review, THBD-1008 coverage, market comparisons, Dec 2009 price cuts, Jan 2010 CBHD vs BD, 2 Jul 2010 3D launch, 16 Jun 2011 CMM data (4.2% blue-laser share).
  • av269 15 Jan 2010 – 150 vs 1,800 titles; 50,000 players; regional prices.
  • Tencent Tech 5 Jul 2010 – one 3D title; ~100 titles; TCL exit.
  • cnBeta Warner support (Mar 2009); ~80 CAV Warner titles and ¥28 discs (2010).
  • eetrend Apr 2010 – Suning sales; National Geographic set.
  • big-bit / fx361 / CCCME / Chinatimes – Warner plans, 30/10/60 sales claim, 中录 exclusivity note, 3D push, launch plans.
  • Sina News Dec 2011 – Shinco blue-disc investment “met a cold market.”

International press and blogs

  • Nikkei xTECH (4 Aug 2009) – price economics (¥55 vs ¥175 BD vs ¥60 pirated BD).
  • Diamond Online – retail observation (writer never saw physical CBHD software shops).
  • ITmedia field report (Oct 2009) – Suning visit; Slumdog Millionaire as CBHD-only vs HD DVD.
  • ASCII retrospective (2013) – format gone; author estimated ~25 dedicated titles across EVD/CBHD experiments.
  • New Atlas, CDRInfo (launch, AACS, CHDA structure, HD DVD China logo), Gizmodo (modulation comment), Tom’s Hardware, Sound & Vision, The Guardian (31 Jul 2008), What Hi-Fi (CBHD-3D/HiFi), DFC Intelligence (28 Jul 2008, ~$8 royalty), See You Next Wednesday (28 May 2009 hack hopes), diit.cz (European import), dvd-and-beyond (Warner/CAV Warner).
  • Gigazine (27 Oct 2009) – TCL internals as Toshiba HD DVD hardware.

Video

YouTube clip titled along the lines of “After many years, finally CBHD Chinese Blue High …” (video id VzRO4VhM1Bw) is cited in secondary research. Bilibili searches for CBHD teardowns in one pass returned only an unrelated Shinco VCD changer video.

Manufacturer and alliance URLs to archive-hunt

  • shinco.com historical news_id pages 312, 361, 367 (Warner support, Universal support, product launch) – paste into Wayback.
  • chdia.org.cn (e.g. /dongtai002.html) – alliance site, likely offline.
  • tcl.com 2009-2010 product captures; current manual downloaders unlikely to list THBD-1008.
  • Memory-Tech 20090323 and 20090430 CBHD announcements.
  • AACS Spec CBHD Prerecorded 0.90 (7 Oct 2008) PDF cited by ja.wikipedia.

Not yet searched or found empty

Baidu Tieba (CBHD吧, 蓝光吧, 新科吧), Chiphell, hifidiy, 影音极客, hifi.com.cn, AV前线, Zhihu, Douban groups, Doom9, videohelp, Myce/CDFreaks, AV Watch, Phile-web, Reddit beyond r/HDDVD, Youku, Xigua, Douyin and Weibo remain lightly touched or empty in the passes. Empty search results are not proof of absence-especially on Tieba and Douban.

For reconstruction work, prioritise: AVSForum master thread page 5 (TCL 维修手册 excerpts), LDDb HD-3700U owner posts, PConline/ZOL photo reviews, Memory-Tech press releases, and Wayback walks of shinco.com/chdia.org.cn. Those sources carry chip IDs, bundle lists, menu trees and pricing that product databases dropped years ago.

How to work the archive without the live web

Start with PConline’s five-page CBHD-9100 review and ZOL’s THBD-1008 hands-on pieces for UI photography and measured behaviour. Add pjtime’s 2009-2011 market series for price cuts, 3D launch notes and the June 2011 CMM statistic that blue-laser players were only 4.2 percent of 2010 disc-player unit sales. Tencent’s 5 July 2010 article pins TCL’s exit, the ~100-title plateau and the single 3D title. av269’s 15 January 2010 Guangzhou comparison supplies the 150-versus-1,800 title claim and the ~50,000 player estimate.

Japanese and English field reporting fills gaps Chinese marketing omitted: ITmedia’s Suning visit, Nikkei xTECH price economics, Diamond Online’s observation that software was online-only for one writer, Gigazine on TCL’s Toshiba internals, ASCII’s 2013 retrospective, and diit.cz on European arrival. CDRInfo’s cluster on CHDA structure, the HD DVD China logo and AACS mentions remains useful for standards chronology.

Forum triage order

  1. AVSForum master thread-especially page 5 service-manual excerpts.
  2. AVSForum User Reports-unboxing, CBHD-9000/CBHD-0002 photos, bundles.
  3. LDDb CBHD threads-HD-3700U quirks and trading.
  4. What Hi-Fi and DVD Talk-compatibility negatives.
  5. 2008 “China turns HDDVD into CBHD” thread-firmware debate context.

Manufacturer URLs to feed into Wayback include shinco.com news_id 312, 361 and 367, chdia.org.cn dynamic pages, Memory-Tech’s March/April 2009 announcements, and the AACS CBHD Pre-recorded 0.90 PDF cited by Japanese Wikipedia. Empty results on Tieba, Chiphell, Doom9 and Bilibili teardowns are unfinished searches, not closed cases. Budget time for logged-in AVSForum browsing because anonymous fetches returned HTTP 402 in one research pass.

Additional press anchors worth downloading before links rot further: cnBeta Warner-support and industrialisation interviews with Tian Yujing; big-bit pieces on Warner’s 100-title plan and the August 2009 sales-lead claim; Chinatimes launch planning; Sina’s December 2011 Shinco “cold market” post-mortem; What Hi-Fi’s CBHD-3D/HiFi coverage; DFC Intelligence’s 28 July 2008 royalty note; See You Next Wednesday’s May 2009 hack-hope blog; New Atlas and Tom’s Hardware launch notices. Each supplies a dated claim you can cross-check against CMM and Tencent later data.

Video remains thin: one YouTube clip is cited; Bilibili teardown searches misfired on unrelated Shinco VCD changers. Offering rewards in preservation Discord/QQ groups for phone video of menu trees and disc loads may outperform web search. When AVSForum returns payment walls, use search-engine caches and the Wayback Machine on thread URLs ending in page-4 and page-5.

pjtime’s Shinco brand news index still lists the 3 March 2010 CBHD-3800/HD-2100 article; av-china.com and Headphone Club covered HiFi/3D launch events in July and September 2010; CCCME summarised the 3D patent-pool working group. Launch reporting from a&s, Hualu and hxzg.net on 22 April 2009 still anchors the commercial start date. Cross-linking those URLs in a private archive before they disappear is itself preservation work. When citing forums, capture page numbers because AVSForum rewrites paths between forum and threads forms.

Building a personal source packet

Download and hash PConline’s CBHD-9100 review pages, ZOL’s THBD-1008 articles, the Sina Tech 3 April 2009 industrialisation piece on FSM patents, Memory-Tech’s two 2009 PDFs or HTML announcements, DFC Intelligence’s royalty note, and Tencent’s July 2010 market post-mortem. Store AVSForum thread IDs 1150473, 1149496, 1059383 and 1141114 with page snapshots. Keep LDDb topic 10789 and 11813. Add the AACS CBHD Pre-recorded 0.90 filename to the packet even if the PDF must be retrieved later from AACS LA or archives. That packet lets future researchers work offline when forums paywall or domains expire.

Pair each downloaded article with its access date and final URL redirect. Link rot is already visible across pjtime, big-bit and older Sina mobile mirrors.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon:

Blog Buying & Sourcing CBHD Guides
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Where to Buy CBHD Players and Discs

Current stockist status

No research pass found a reliable current commercial stockist of CBHD players or discs, or any live indexed listing. Searches covered eBay, Worthpoint, Kongfz, Xianyu, Taobao, Yahoo Auctions Japan, Mercari, Ruten, Carousell and Discogs (on the order of 32 queries in one pass). Chinese C2C platforms block most search indexing, so “not found” is not proof nothing is listed-Xianyu and Kongfz must be searched by hand in their apps. The Shinco CBHD-9100 is listed as discontinued in Chinese product databases. Manufacturing ended quietly around 2010-2011 without an official sunset announcement; sourcing means niche archival markets.

Platform-by-platform results

Marketplace Result Notes
eBay (all regions) Nothing CBHD Ordinary Shinco DVD players only (e.g. DVD-860, DVD-1000); GBAX-era imports exceptionally rare
Worthpoint Nothing “CBHD” returned unrelated acronym uses
Kongfz 孔夫子 Nothing indexed Important for discs; search in app/site
Xianyu 闲鱼 Nothing indexed Primary source for players/discs per field knowledge; search manually
Taobao / Tmall Nothing indexed Sold discs in-life (some under $5); search manually
Zhuanzhuan / Pinduoduo / JD Nothing indexed Manual search
Douban Nothing indexed Item pages and trade groups are catalogue sources
Dangdang / Joyo-Amazon Legacy only Sold discs in 2009; use Wayback
Yahoo JP / Mercari / Hard Off Nothing Japanese hits were articles only
Ruten / Shopee TW / Carousell HK Nothing HK saw only very limited imports
AliExpress / Amazon Nothing found –
Discogs No CBHD releases China Record label pages only
LDDb forums Active trading threads Collector trading

Historical retail geography

Mainland China: GOME and Suning (sales deals August 2009), Dazhong, plus online Joyo-Amazon, Dangdang and Taobao. Hong Kong: very limited imports. United Kingdom: GBAX imported the TCL THBD-1008 in October 2009 at £259.99 with 14 discs, and briefly imported small shipments of players and Warner discs into Europe. The GBAX product page, photos, manual, packaging and customer discussion may survive in web archives and are a preservation lead. Grey-market auction listings appeared occasionally during the format’s life.

Historical price benchmarks

Item Price When / source
Shinco CBHD-9100 ¥2,580 with 15 discs Jul 2009, PConline/ZOL
Shinco CBHD-9100 ¥2,999 2009, 电脑报 No. 30
Shinco CBHD-9100 import about $300 Oct 2009, AVSForum
CBHD players, Guangzhou ¥1,599-2,500 Jan 2010, av269
Shinco CBHD-3800 ¥2,980 guide Yesky
TCL THBD-1008 ~¥1,999 Apr 2009
TCL THBD-1008 UK £259.99 Oct 2009, GBAX
CBHD discs ¥50-70 launch; ¥55 typical 2009
CBHD discs ¥28-55 Jan 2010 Guangzhou
CBHD discs Taobao under $5 AVSForum era

Search terms

Use on Xianyu, Taobao, Kongfz, Ruten, Yahoo Auctions and eBay:

  • Simplified Chinese: CBHD, 中国蓝光, 中国蓝光高清, CBHD光盘, CBHD碟, CBHD影碟机, 蓝光高清视盘机, 高清光盘, 中国蓝光 二手, 新科CBHD-9100, 新科9100, 新科3800, 新科 HD-3700U, TCL THBD-1008, THBD1008, THBD-1038.
  • Traditional Chinese: 中國藍光, 中國藍光高清.
  • Japanese: CBHD ディスク, 中国版HD DVD, 中国ブルーハイディフィニション.
  • English: CBHD player, CBHD disc, China Blue High Definition, Shinco CBHD-9100, TCL THBD-1008.

Buying recommendations

  1. Search Xianyu and Kongfz by hand for 中国蓝光, CBHD, 新科 9100 and THBD-1008; set saved-search alerts. A buying proxy such as Superbuy can handle Xianyu purchases.
  2. Expect nothing on eBay or in Japan for finished CBHD goods.
  3. Collector route order: Chinese second-hand market → Japanese/Asian auction market → eBay/import sellers → collector forums → other Chinese used-goods platforms.
  4. Check LDDb forum trading threads and HD DVD preservation communities.
  5. Before buying repair donors, photograph the pickup label of a known CBHD unit.
  6. Ask sellers for photos of 说明书 and 保修卡-boxed units often still include printed manuals absent from the web.

Disambiguation tip: eBay “Shinco” hits are almost always standard DVD players. Confirm CBHD model numbers (CBHD-9100, CBHD-3800, HD-2100, HD-3700U, THBD-1008, THBD-1038) and look for bundled CBHD discs or the blue CBHD logo on the fascia before paying collector prices.

Why indexed search fails on Chinese C2C

Xianyu (goofish.com), Kongfz, Taobao and Zhuanzhuan often hide listings from external crawlers. Claude pass 2’s “nothing indexed” results across roughly thirty-two queries therefore mean “nothing visible to automated search,” not “zero units exist in drawers in Changzhou or Shanghai.” Manual app search with the Chinese strings listed above, saved alerts and buying proxies such as Superbuy remain the practical path. Japanese marketplaces returned articles rather than goods; Hong Kong saw only very limited imports historically; eBay currently shows ordinary Shinco DVD players that are not CBHD-capable.

Historical retail geography still guides where stock might surface: GOME, Suning and Dazhong stores once carried Shinco decks; Joyo-Amazon and Dangdang category pages from 2009 survive in Wayback and can yield title lists even when buy buttons are dead. GBAX’s UK THBD-1008 page at £259.99 with fourteen discs is a preservation lead for packaging photography and manuals if archive captures remain.

Price memory for negotiation

Knowing that a CBHD-9100 launched near ¥2,580 with fifteen discs, reviewed at ¥2,999, imported near $300, and later sold near ¥1,599 helps collectors judge modern asks. Discs that were ¥55 in 2009 and ¥28 online by 2010 should not be priced like rare Blu-ray steelbooks without provenance. Conversely, complete boxed players with manuals and unopened sampler discs are scarcer than bare decks and justify premiums-especially THBD-1008 units tied to the only documented overseas retail push.

Disambiguation remains critical: confirm model numbers CBHD-9100, CBHD-3800, HD-2100, HD-3700U, THBD-1008 or THBD-1038; look for the blue CBHD logo; ask for photos of disc bundles and 说明书. LDDb trading threads and HD DVD preservation groups occasionally move hardware when public marketplaces look empty. Photograph pickup labels on any working unit before buying “compatible” donors for repair.

Search-term hygiene: English “CBHD” collides with unrelated acronyms on Worthpoint; pair it with Shinco or TCL model numbers. Japanese queries such as 中国版HD DVD find articles more often than auctions. Traditional Chinese 中國藍光 helps on Ruten and Hong Kong boards even though historical imports were sparse. Always exclude generic “Shinco DVD” hits that lack CBHD badging.

Collector route reminder: Chinese second-hand apps first, then broader Asian auctions, then eBay/import sellers, then specialist forums. Expect long dry spells. When a unit appears, verify power-on, disc load, HDMI output and whether bundled discs are present-players without discs still play USB files on the 9100/3700U but lose catalogue value. For repair-only purchases, budget that pickup and firmware may not transfer from Toshiba donors without FSM-capable channel hardware.

Discogs currently lists China Record Corporation label pages without CBHD release entries-useful for publisher context, useless as a stockist. AliExpress and Amazon returned nothing in the passes. Naver, Coupang, Shopee SG/MY and Lazada were named in the brief but not searched in depth; they remain secondary checks after Xianyu and Kongfz. Grey-market auction appearances during 2009-2010 prove overseas trickle existed; they do not guarantee modern eBay depth. Patience and Chinese-language queries outperform English-only shopping.

What “nothing found” actually means

Across eBay regions the pass found ordinary Shinco DVD-860 and DVD-1000 class players, not CBHD machines-useful negative evidence that Western marketplaces currently mislabel or simply lack the format. Worthpoint’s unrelated CBHD acronym hits warn against keyword-only alerts. Japanese hard-off and Mercari emptiness matches the format’s China-primary distribution. Hong Kong Carousell emptiness matches ChatGPT pass 1’s “very limited imports” note. The positive lead list is short on purpose: Xianyu, Kongfz, LDDb trading threads, and occasional preservation-group offers. Set alerts, check weekly, and treat dry months as normal rather than proof the last player was destroyed.

When a listing appears, ask for power-on video, close-ups of the model badge, HDMI output to a TV, and photos of any bundled discs and printed manuals. For THBD-1008 specifically, ask whether the UK GBAX accessory set (PSU, AV cable, HDMI cable, fourteen movies) is complete. Incomplete bundles still matter; document missing discs so catalogue workers know which titles remain orphaned.

Historical online shops Joyo-Amazon and Dangdang matter less as buy buttons and more as Wayback category captures that still list title names, prices and cover art for catalogue building. Taobao sold discs under five dollars during the format era; modern Taobao searches must be manual inside the app. Keep a running shortlist of rejected false positives-generic Shinco DVD decks-so future searchers do not re-check the same eBay item numbers.

Save search alert screenshots so later researchers know which queries were already exhausted.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon:

Blog CBHD Disc Catalogue Guides
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CBHD Disc Catalogue: Titles, Bundles and Prices

How large was the catalogue?

No complete catalogue, ISRC list or 版号 list was found. Contemporary claims mix plans, production counts and cumulative totals and should not be treated as a verified catalogue. Selected claims:

Date Claim Source type
Mar 2009 Warner plans 100 titles in 2009 CAV Warner MD 方东林 / big-bit
Mar 2009 CBC: 5 Chinese titles done, 20+ in production Memory-Tech
Apr 2009 25 titles ordered from Warner China and CRC Memory-Tech
Aug 2009 Warner + China Record to release 200 within the year 北京商报
21 Dec 2009 100 titles reached ja.wikipedia
Jan 2010 150 CBHD vs 1,800 BD titles; ~50,000 players sold av269 Guangzhou
Jan 2010 Hongyi: 10 in run, 35 in production, 120 planned for 2010 Press
2010 CAV Warner ~80 released, 200+ planned cnBeta
Mid-2010 ~100 titles; one 3D title Tencent

Assessment: 100+ titles is plausible and contemporaneously claimed; 1,000 released titles is not established; “only a few hundred titles ever existed” is also not established. Build the catalogue title by title. By mid-2009 only Warner’s library and Chinese titles were officially available; other majors had not yet committed catalogues.

Confirmed and reported titles

Record each disc as commercial standalone, bundle-only, demonstration or promotional. Technical profiles such as “1080p AVS, DRA 5.1” appear in one secondary pass and are not verified by MediaInfo across the set; early 2009 discs likely used VC-1/AVC.

  • CAV Warner launch / retail: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone; Chamber of Secrets; further Potter entries advertised through Half-Blood Prince; Blood Diamond (血钻); The Golden Compass; Speed Racer; The Aviator (飞行者); Poseidon (海神号); The Polar Express (极地特快); The Invasion (致命入侵); Batman Begins; Superman Returns; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; The Ant Bully; Scooby-Doo (sampler).
  • Bundle / multi-channel evidence: The Island (逃出克隆岛); The Warlords (投名状); Flood (水啸雾都).
  • Taobao / street mentions: Transporter 3; Lord of War (under $5).
  • Notable non-HD-DVD title: Slumdog Millionaire (ITmedia, Oct 2009)-example of a CBHD title never released on HD DVD.
  • Chinese specials: Song Zuying Jasmine (茉莉花) concert; Monkey King sample; 60th National Day military parade; National Geographic 5-disc set (eetrend, Apr 2010); one unnamed CBHD-3D title (Tencent, Jul 2010); Guangzhou Asian Games ceremonies planned in 3D; China Record music documentaries as CBHD-HiFi collector editions (24-bit/192 kHz LPCM).

CBHD was not simply a reissue service for dead HD DVD titles. No pass identified specific HD DVD-only reissues beyond Warner catalogue titles that had also existed on HD DVD.

Player bundles

Sampler bundles were non-standardised by batch, factory and model-5-disc or 10-disc sets in keep cases or paper/multi-disc sleeves.

Bundle Size Known contents
Shinco CBHD-9100 launch 15 (not sold separately) The Warlords, The Island, Flood + 12 others
TCL THBD-1008 China 15 Blood Diamond, The Aviator, Poseidon, Polar Express, The Invasion + 10 Chinese
TCL THBD-1008 UK (GBAX) 14 Aviator, Blood Diamond, Invasion, Island, Flood, Poseidon + 8 Chinese
Shinco 9100 import Oct 2009 25 Includes The Island
ja.wikipedia note 16 –
Suning Shanghai Apr 2010 10 –
Factory sampler sets 5 or 10 Harry Potter 1-2, Polar Express, Ant Bully, Scooby-Doo among reported

Disc prices

  • Launch: ¥50-70 ($7.25-$10.15).
  • Nikkei xTECH (4 Aug 2009): ¥55 CBHD vs ¥175 Blu-ray vs ¥60 pirated BD.
  • Later: ¥25-30; ¥28 online by 2010; ¥28-55 in Guangzhou, Jan 2010.
  • Taobao: Transporter 3 and Lord of War under $5.

Studios and publishers

Documented supporters: Warner Bros. (CAV Warner), Universal, National Geographic, Paramount, Celestial Pictures, BBC/Discovery, China Record Corporation, China Film Audio-Visual Press, Hongyi and other domestic studios. Universal and National Geographic announced support at the September 2009 Guangzhou conference. Eetrend (April 2010) lists Warner, Universal, Paramount, Fox and National Geographic content. Support announcements do not equal verified release catalogues-separate the two in any database. November 2009 reporting claimed every CBHD disc so far was issued by 中录.

Building the catalogue responsibly means photographing keep-cases, recording 版号 when printed, noting bundle vs retail SKUs, and refusing to inflate totals from alliance “1,000 titles in 2010” targets that never materialised.

How to build the database without inventing titles

Every catalogue row should carry evidence tags: launch announcement, retail keep-case photograph, bundle-only, sampler sleeve, Taobao listing screenshot, or press mention only. Warner’s March 2009 announcement named Harry Potter, The Golden Compass, Speed Racer and Blood Diamond among launch titles at ¥50-70. Bundle photography and AVSForum unboxings extend the list with The Aviator, Poseidon, The Polar Express, The Invasion, The Island, Flood and The Warlords. Taobao-era mentions add Transporter 3 and Lord of War at under five dollars. ITmedia’s October 2009 field report uses Slumdog Millionaire as an example of a CBHD title that never appeared on HD DVD-proof the format was not solely a dump of dead Western HD DVD SKUs.

Technical columns for “1080p AVS, DRA 5.1, dual-layer 30 GB” appear in one secondary pass for several Warner keep-cases and should be marked unverified until MediaInfo or bitstream logs exist. Claude pass 1 notes early 2009 discs likely used VC-1 or AVC because AVS encoders were missing at China Record. Sampler packs may mix single-layer 15 GB children’s titles (The Ant Bully, Scooby-Doo in Gemini’s notes) with dual-layer features.

Publishers versus announcements

CAV Warner and 中录 dominate verified early output; fx361 claimed in November 2009 that every CBHD disc so far was issued by 中录. Universal, National Geographic, Paramount, Celestial Pictures and BBC/Discovery announced support around the September 2009 Guangzhou conference, yet substantial released catalogues for those brands are not established. Hongyi announced ten titles in a production run, thirty-five in production and 120 planned for 2010-plans, not a finished filmography. China Film Audio-Visual Press and China Record music documentaries (including CBHD-HiFi editions) belong in separate product-type fields from feature films.

Bundle heterogeneity matters for collectors: Shinco launch 15-disc packs, UK GBAX 14-disc THBD-1008 packs, October 2009 25-disc import packs, Suning 10-disc promotions and factory 5/10-disc samplers are different SKUs. Price history from ¥50-70 to ¥28 online and street undercutting by BD-9 piracy frames why catalogue growth stalled even when alliance slides still promised 1,000 titles.

National Geographic’s five-disc set (eetrend, April 2010), Song Zuying’s Jasmine concert, the Monkey King sample, the 60th National Day military parade disc and the unnamed CBHD-3D title show that non-theatrical product types matter. CBHD-HiFi music documentaries from China Record using 24-bit/192 kHz LPCM belong in an audio-product table, not mixed blindly with feature SKUs. Planned Guangzhou Asian Games 3D ceremonies may never have shipped; keep them in a “planned” status field.

Cumulative claims to reject as verified totals: 1,000 titles released in 2010; “only a few hundred ever existed” as a hard ceiling; Warner’s 100-title plan as proof of 100 finished SKUs. Accept as working estimates: about 100 titles by late 2009/mid-2010; about 150 in one January 2010 Guangzhou report; CAV Warner near 80 released with more planned per cnBeta. Build upward from photographed and cited titles instead of downward from alliance slides.

Potter entries through Half-Blood Prince appear as advertised rather than equally well evidenced; catalogue rows should distinguish launch announcement, advertised, and bundle photographed. Batman Begins, Superman Returns and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sit in Chinese distribution reports for 2009. Eight or ten unnamed Chinese titles in TCL bundles remain anonymous until spines are photographed. Twelve unnamed titles in the Shinco fifteen-disc launch pack similarly await identification. Anonymous bundle slots are catalogue debt, not proof those slots were blank.

Evidence discipline for collectors

Photograph both keep-case spines and disc labels; Chinese 版号 strings often appear only on packaging. Note whether a disc came from a player carton or a retail shelf. Record layer count if printed. Separate demonstration and promotional discs from commercial features. When Gemini lists AVS and DRA 5.1 for a title, copy that claim into a “reported profile” field rather than a “verified bitstream” field. When Claude notes early VC-1/AVC likelihood, keep a “codec uncertainty” flag on all pre-September 2009 release dates. Catalogue work is cumulative: each photographed spine reduces reliance on alliance press maths.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon:

Blog CBHD Guides Home Authoring
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Home Authoring and CBHD Reconstruction

Positions across the research passes

Home authoring is the most contested chapter in the CBHD record. Passes disagree on whether a disc burned on ordinary DVD media can play in a CBHD player. Summary:

Pass Position
ChatGPT pass 1 No end user could author CBHD with typical DVD tools; ordinary PC DVD/Blu-ray burners cannot produce CBHD discs.
Claude pass 1/2 No documented home method. Theoretical route blocked by FSM: no consumer burner writes FSM. Whether players read DVD-R with a CBHD folder structure is untested.
ChatGPT pass 2 Separates three projects (CBHD-like disc, playable CBHD image, physical CBHD); physical CBHD needs FSM mastering.
Gemini Practical pipeline: AVS via libxavs, LPCM/AC3, MPEG-2 TS mux, CBHD_TS tree, UDF 2.50 ISO burned with ImgBurn to DVD+R DL, claimed playable on Shinco HD-3700U or TCL THBD-1008.

Gemini presents the pipeline as working, citing LDDb threads, What Hi-Fi, Wikipedia and general burning guides. Claude and ChatGPT passes found no documented case of a burned disc playing in a CBHD player and argue DVD burners write EFM+, not 4-6 FSM. Directory models also diverge (CBHD_TS vs EVOB/HD DVD Book 3).

Gemini pipeline (as stated)

Step 1 – encode strict AVS (GB/T 20090.2) elementary video with FFmpeg linked to libxavs, example constraints: ~15 Mbps average, maxrate 18M, closed GOP N=12 for 23.976 fps, Jizhun Base Profile Level 6.1, yuv420p. Commercial averages 12-18 Mbps sit under the CHDA 28 Mbps video ceiling.

Step 2 – audio: DRA via the Tsinghua thesis encoder if available; otherwise 16/24-bit LPCM or stereo/5.1 AC3/DTS for legacy decoder paths.

Step 3 – mux to MPEG-2 Transport Stream and lay out:

VOLUME_ROOT/
├── CBHD_TS/
│   ├── CBHD_TS.IFO
│   ├── CBHD_TS.BUP
│   ├── ITEM_001.AVS
│   ├── ITEM_001.MAP
│   └── MENU_01.AVS
└── ADV_OBJ/
    └── CETC_NAV.DAT

Primary folder CBHD_TS (or HVDVD_TS on early CH-DVD transition discs) at volume root. CBHD_TS.IFO holds stream map, sector pointers, resolution and audio assignments; without it, players such as the HD-3700U may fall back to browsing an unparsed file structure.

Step 4 – build UDF 2.50 (or 2.01 with Unicode) ISO, uppercase ASCII volume label, burn at low speed to dual-layer DVD+R. Gemini states the pickup then reads the 0.6 mm layer, recognises UDF, finds CBHD_TS and plays through onboard AVS decode. HD DVD-R blanks are also listed among usable media in that account.

Directory model comparison

Model Top-level Containers
Gemini CBHD_TS/, ADV_OBJ/ MPEG-2 TS/PS; .AVS, .MAP, .IFO/.BUP, CETC_NAV.DAT
HD DVD-derived HVDVD_TS/, ADV_OBJ/ EVOB / EVO (MPEG-PS)
Unknown Requires real disc image –

Claude theoretical route (untested)

Encode with libxavs or AVC; audio AC-3 or thesis DRA; mux to EVO/program stream in HD DVD Standard Content style; build UDF 2.5 image. Blocker: pressed CBHD uses FSM and no consumer burner writes FSM. Whether players accept DVD-R media carrying a CBHD folder structure-analogous to HD DVD’s “3× DVD” method-is untested. That route would also need DKAA or an unencrypted mode players accept. The only documented realistic home-content route on original hardware remains USB file playback on the CBHD-9100 (1080p files, TS/MP4, external subtitles), with HD-3700U adding AVI and network shares.

Three projects that must not be conflated

Project Goal Difficulty
A. CBHD-like video disc UDF + compatible streams + simple navigation Approachable once logical format is recovered
B. Playable CBHD image Structure accepted by a real CBHD player Hard (CETC + Book 2/3 details)
C. Physical CBHD Data on CBHD physical media 405 nm, NA 0.65, FSM, channel coding, replication

VCD became accessible because its physical layer was standard CD. CBHD kept UDF, but its physical layer is not ordinary DVD burning.

Recordable CBHD (CBHD-R)

Patent CN101712809A describes an organic dye and recordable CBHD medium while calling commercial CBHD read-only replicated media. An AACS LA order form lists CBHD (China) Pre-recorded (P) and Recordable (R) options. Conclusion: recordable CBHD was technically contemplated; no evidence shows commercial CBHD-R discs, burners, recorders or consumer authoring chains shipped.

Reconstruction roadmap

  1. Known-good CBHD disc → sector image → UDF analysis → identify video-system files.
  2. Compare against DCA Book 3 assumptions → identify CBHD-specific extensions.
  3. Reconstruct unencrypted/non-protected test material.

Recommended order: obtain an inexpensive domestic disc; obtain two players (Shinco CBHD-9100 and TCL THBD-1008); identify optical chipset (Novatek parts, pickup, servo DSP, RF amp); dump firmware; make a physical-sector image (ordinary PC drives may not suffice); compare with HD DVD; identify an unencrypted or legally accessible sample; locate the DCA verifier; recover CBC/Memory-Tech authoring software; only then attempt home authoring. Before buying repair donors, photograph the pickup label. Untapped sources for disc-structure clues include the full AVSForum master thread and Wayback captures of Joyo-Amazon and Dangdang category pages.

Until a photographed successful burn-to-player test is published, treat Gemini’s DVD+R DL pipeline as an unverified recipe and treat FSM mastering as required for true physical CBHD.

Keeping the disagreement visible

Readers should leave this chapter knowing the research record does not agree. Gemini publishes a full command-line pipeline culminating in an ImgBurn UDF 2.50 burn to DVD+R Dual Layer and asserts playback on Shinco HD-3700U or TCL THBD-1008. Claude and ChatGPT passes found no documented successful burn-to-player case and emphasise that consumer burners write EFM+, not 4-6 FSM. Gemini’s cited sources for the pipeline are LDDb forum threads, What Hi-Fi, Wikipedia and general Chinese burning guides-not a photographed verification on calibrated hardware in the compilation passes.

Directory hypotheses also disagree. Gemini’s CBHD_TS with ITEM_001.AVS, MAP files and CETC_NAV.DAT differs from ChatGPT pass 2’s EVOB and HD DVD Book 3 model informed by DCA documentation. Claude presumed EVO containers from HD DVD lineage. None of the passes cites a directory dump of a real pressed CBHD disc. Home authors who pick one tree without imaging a commercial disc are guessing.

USB first, pressed media later

The only documented realistic home-content route on original hardware is file playback: CBHD-9100 USB for 1080p, TS and MP4 with external subtitles; HD-3700U USB AVI and Ethernet shares. Those paths exercise SoC decoders without claiming FSM authorship. They are the correct first experiment for anyone who owns a player and wants to see AVS on period silicon.

Recordable CBHD media remains a paper trail only: patent CN101712809A for dyes; AACS LA order-form categories for Recordable CBHD; zero evidence of shipped CBHD-R discs, burners or recorders. Listing HD DVD-R among Gemini’s usable blanks does not create a commercial CBHD-R ecosystem. Project C-physical CBHD-still demands 405 nm mastering, NA 0.65 optics, FSM channel encoding and replication know-how of the Memory-Tech/UOD class.

Reconstruction roadmap order from ChatGPT pass 2: obtain a cheap domestic disc; obtain CBHD-9100 and THBD-1008 players; identify chipsets; dump firmware; make a sector image; compare with HD DVD; find an unencrypted sample; locate the DCA verifier; recover CBC/Memory-Tech software; only then attempt home authoring. Skipping to step ten is how myths about burned DVD-9 CBHD discs spread.

Encoding constraints listed for hardware compatibility-closed GOP near twelve frames at 23.976 fps, Jizhun Base Profile Level 6.1, averages of 12-18 Mbps under a 28 Mbps ceiling-remain useful even if the burn step fails. They describe what commercial players’ ASICs expected. Falling back to LPCM or AC-3 when DRA encoders are unavailable matches player backward-compatibility lists. Multiplexing to MPEG-2 TS is consistent with one directory model; EVO/program stream muxing is consistent with another. Researchers should archive both experiment branches with clear labels rather than deleting the “failed” tree.

Project A (CBHD-like disc), Project B (player-accepted image) and Project C (physical FSM CBHD) must stay separated in grant proposals and lab reports. Conflating them produces blog posts that claim “CBHD authoring works” when only Project A file layouts were demonstrated-or when only USB file playback was tested. VCD’s accessibility came from CD physicality; CBHD kept UDF but not consumer-writable physics.

If a researcher follows Gemini’s ImgBurn steps and a player rejects the disc, record the exact on-screen error, whether the volume mounted as data, and whether CBHD_TS.IFO was present. If the player plays the disc, publish model number, firmware if shown, media type (DVD+R DL versus HD DVD-R), and a short video. Either outcome closes more science than another undocumented recipe. Until then, treat burned-media playback as unresolved per the open-questions list.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon:

Blog CBHD Guides Professional Authoring
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Professional CBHD Authoring and Verification

Authoring existed-consumers never saw the tools

All research passes agree that no consumer-level CBHD authoring package-the equivalent of DVD Architect, Adobe Encore or a “Sonic Scenarist CBHD”-was ever released publicly. The sharper distinction matters: “there was no CBHD authoring software” is false; “there was no publicly available consumer CBHD authoring package” appears to be true. A professional authoring system existed inside the Memory-Tech / China Record joint ventures. Its software stack has not surfaced in any source found. Searches for Sonic Scenarist HD branded for CBHD and for Chinese tools from OMNERC, 中录 or 清华同方 returned empty.

Memory-Tech, CBC and UOD

Memory-Tech (Japan), the largest HD DVD replicator, developed the complete CBHD production process and planted it in China:

  • Shanghai United Optical Disc Co., Ltd. (UOD, 上海联合光盘) – Memory-Tech’s Shanghai joint venture with China Record Shanghai. Opened the first CBHD line in July 2008. In April 2009 it was described as the only Chinese company with the technology and equipment to produce CBHD discs.
  • CBC – CRC/BMB Audio Visual Co., Ltd. – established jointly by Memory-Tech and China Record Corporation specifically for CBHD editing, encoding and authoring. By March 2009 CBC had completed five Chinese CBHD movie titles with more than twenty in production.

On 23 March 2009 Memory-Tech announced an integrated CBHD production system for China covering editing through mass production. April 2009 announcements described the chain as editing → encoding → authoring → disc production → release; several dozen titles were in preparation at the 22 April launch, and orders for 25 titles had been received from Warner China and CRC. One pass frames this as a government-backed Shanghai facility for “compiling and authoring,” implying a closed workflow on proprietary software with special encoders for AVS/AVC/VC-1 and encryption. Commercial authoring was tightly controlled by the Memory-Tech/CRC joint venture.

Likely production chain

  1. Source material
  2. Encoding / editing at CBC
  3. CBHD authoring at CBC
  4. Premastering
  5. Replication at UOD
  6. Released CBHD disc

Technology flowed Memory-Tech → CBC authoring/encoding → UOD replication. That yields three archives to search for lost authoring software: Memory-Tech, CBC (CRC/BMB) and UOD. Memory-Tech’s March and April 2009 CBHD press releases (memory-tech.co.jp news pages for 23 Mar and 30 Apr 2009) remain primary documents.

What professional authoring had to produce

Beyond elementary AVS or Western video and DRA/Dolby/LPCM audio, a commercial CBHD title needed:

  • Correct UDF volume layout (exact version and identifiers still under investigation).
  • Application structures accepted by CETC navigation-menus, dual highlight regions, preview audio, multi-angle, multi-audio, subtitles.
  • Either DKAA packaging for domestic titles or AACS packaging for international titles.
  • Premasters compatible with 4-6 FSM channel encoding and blue-laser replication-not DVD EFM+ burners.

Early 2009 production faced an encoder gap: China Record did not have an AVS encoder in April 2009, so early discs likely used VC-1 or AVC. AVS + DKAA “new generation” discs were unveiled in September 2009. Professional houses therefore switched profiles mid-life of the format; any recovered toolset may have versioned templates for both generations.

The DCA verifier as specification oracle

The Digital Content Association (DCA) still documents a CBHD-capable verification product:

  • Class A verification system includes a UDF Verifier that validates Book 2 file-system structures for Blu-ray ROM and CBHD media.
  • Video System Verifier supports China HD video content, validating against HD DVD Book 3 1.x specification with supplemental information.
  • Supported items: EVOB, HDi content, Full Trust, Restricted Mode, UDF images, replica discs and raw video-system files.

This implies CBHD did not invent every logical structure from scratch. It reused HD DVD Book 3 assumptions with Chinese supplemental information-consistent with “HD DVD physical architecture + modified Chinese physical channel + modified application/navigation layer + Chinese codecs/DRM.” Locating the DCA verifier executable and its China HD configuration files is a priority research target: it can score candidate images even when original authoring GUIs are lost.

Where the tools might still hide

  1. Memory-Tech internal archives and retired replication-line PCs.
  2. CBC / CRC-BMB editing suites and employee-retained ISOs.
  3. UOD plant engineering stores (premaster formats, job tickets, verifier reports).
  4. CHDA / CHDIA member FTP drops and Wayback captures of chdia.org.cn.
  5. AACS LA CBHD pre-recorded book (v0.90, 7 Oct 2008) for international-title protection parameters.
  6. DCA installer media and licence dongles among former QC houses.

Sonic Scenarist HD remains a search keyword because HD DVD professionals already knew it; absence of public CBHD plugins does not prove Memory-Tech never ran a private branch. Chinese-named muxers and “compiling” tools may never have used the English word authoring in filenames.

Professional vs home: the bright line

Professional production ends in FSM-mastered, replicated discs from UOD. Home experiments that burn UDF trees to DVD+R DL (discussed in the home-authoring post) are a different project even when they reuse AVS encoders. Confusing the two produces false claims that “CBHD authoring is solved” because someone encoded AVS with libxavs. Professional CBHD meant CBC’s closed stack plus Memory-Tech’s channel and replication know-how. Recovery work should prioritise those companies’ artefacts and the DCA verifier over modern DVD authoring suites.

Until those artefacts surface, the verifiable statements are: professional authoring existed; consumer packages did not ship; CBC completed titles before launch; UOD pressed them; DCA still describes how to validate China HD structures against HD DVD Book 3 plus supplements. That is enough to aim archival searches and not enough to press a new commercial CBHD title tomorrow.

Timeline of the professional stack

July 2008: Shanghai United Optical Disc opened the first CBHD production line. March 2009: CBC reported five Chinese titles completed and more than twenty in production; Memory-Tech announced an integrated editing-to-mass-production system on 23 March. Early March 2009: Warner announced support through CAV Warner with launch titles priced ¥50-70. April 2009: Memory-Tech described orders for twenty-five titles from Warner China and CRC and several dozen titles in preparation for the 22 April commercial launch. That sequence shows authoring capacity existed before retail players filled GOME shelves-content was not an afterthought bolted on after hardware shipped.

ChatGPT pass 1 characterises the Shanghai facility as government-backed “compiling and authoring,” implying proprietary encoders for AVS, AVC and VC-1 plus encryption stages. Gemini describes commercial authoring as tightly controlled by the Memory-Tech and China Record joint venture. Neither description names a Windows installer the public could buy. Searches for Sonic Scenarist HD CBHD plugins and for OMNERC, 中录 or 清华同方 consumer tools returned empty in Claude pass 2.

What verification implies about logical structure

DCA’s China HD configuration validating against HD DVD Book 3 1.x with supplemental information-including EVOB, HDi content, Full Trust and Restricted Mode-means professional QC houses treated CBHD as an HD DVD application descendant with Chinese deltas rather than a wholly alien book set. That is encouraging for reconstruction: recover the supplements, and large parts of Book 3 tooling may still apply. It also explains why directory hypotheses swing between CBHD_TS trees and HVDVD_TS/EVOB layouts-both families could appear depending on generation and tool chain.

Primary documents to retrieve next: Memory-Tech’s 23 March and 30 April 2009 press releases; any CBC rate cards or job tickets; UOD replication order forms; DCA verifier installers; AACS CBHD Pre-recorded Book 0.90 for international titles; CHDA 2009 format document referenced for mandatory AVS and DKAA. Those artefacts, not Adobe Encore templates, define professional CBHD.

Early production also faced the AVS encoder gap at China Record in April 2009, so professional houses likely authored VC-1 or AVC titles first and switched to AVS plus DKAA after the September 2009 “new generation” unveil. Any recovered toolset may therefore contain dual templates. QC houses using DCA’s China HD mode would have validated both generations against Book 3 supplements. Hunting for a single “CBHD Scenarist” filename understates how fragmented the private toolchain probably was across encoding, muxing, CETC menu building, DKAA/AACS packaging and premaster hand-off to UOD.

Memory-Tech’s role as the largest former HD DVD replicator explains why CBHD replication appeared quickly after Toshiba exited HD DVD: the company already knew 0.6 mm blue-laser manufacturing and could retarget channel coding and application finishing for Chinese partners. UOD as the April 2009 sole Chinese presser concentrates archaeological risk-and opportunity-in one plant lineage.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon:

Blog CBHD Firmware & Drives Guides
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CBHD Firmware, Cross-Flashing and Drive Compatibility

What nobody has documented

No research pass found a documented, successful firmware cross-flash in either direction-HD DVD → CBHD or CBHD → HD DVD-or any region/DRM hack, ripping report, directory dump or MediaInfo log from a CBHD disc. No public consumer firmware updates or hacks were released to cross-convert between HD DVD and CBHD. What exists is speculation from 2008-2009 and three different technical arguments that only partly agree.

Contemporary speculation (2008-2009)

  • AVSForum thread “Latest news – China turns HDDVD into CBHD” (2008): early debate over whether HD DVD drive firmware could handle CBHD modulation. Richard Paul argued HD DVD players are physically incapable.
  • See You Next Wednesday blog (28 May 2009): Western hopes for an HD DVD → CBHD firmware hack.
  • Gizmodo (2008): CH-DVD player essentially an HD DVD player “whose laser is set at a different modulation”; manufacturing could share processors and optical pickups.
  • AVSForum master thread: an HD-XA2 owner promised to test HD DVD discs in a CBHD player in a store; no follow-up result found.
  • What Hi-Fi forum (16 Oct 2009): confirms CBHD discs will not play in HD DVD players because of AVS/DRA and new copy protection.

Argument 1 – modulation and channel hardware

A firmware change could potentially alter codec support, navigation, DRM, file-system interpretation and software decoding. It cannot make a pickup/servo/channel decoder support a different modulation system unless the signal-processing hardware already supports that mode. The Novatek NT90912 explicitly lists FSM alongside ETM/EFM/EFM+. Patents CN201549222U and CN102682801B show optical systems engineered around CBHD’s specific requirements, including BD vs CBHD NA differences.

Scenario Assessment
Ordinary Toshiba/Onkyo/Microsoft HD DVD player → CBHD by firmware No evidence of successful conversion
HD DVD firmware conversion in general Potentially possible only on hardware already containing CBHD channel support
Later Chinese universal optical drive (Novatek FSM-capable) Much more plausible because chips existed that supported CBHD

Argument 2 – SoC decoders and firmware structure

Another pass treats late HD DVD and CBHD optical pickups as functionally interchangeable (405 nm diode, same focal lengths, tracking servos and RF stages for 0.6 mm substrates) but calls cross-flashing an HD DVD player into a CBHD player architecturally impossible at the SoC level:

  • Hardware ASIC decoders: Toshiba HD DVD players used Broadcom (e.g. BCM7411) or NEC SoCs with hard-wired logic for MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264 video and Dolby Digital, DTS and E-AC3 audio; they had no programmable microcode capable of AVS or DRA decoding.
  • Firmware structure: A CBHD disc in an HD DVD player mounts only as a raw ISO/data disc; the player cannot find HVDVD_TS execution scripts or AACS certificates and reports unrecognised media.
  • Bricking risk: Flashing a Toshiba HD DVD player’s EEPROM with a dumped Shinco or TCL firmware binary will permanently brick it-memory maps, GPIO, display drivers and front-panel microcontrollers share no register alignment across manufacturers.

Source tension: the claim that a CBHD disc mounts as a data disc in an HD DVD player, and the claim that HD DVD PC drives read CBHD sectors, conflict with the modulation argument and with findings that HD DVD players cannot read CBHD because of FSM. Also, the TCL THBD-1008 is built on a Toshiba HD-A30 board with an NEC EMMA3 SoC, which softens a pure “no shared hardware” story for at least one commercial CBHD model.

Argument 3 – shared Toshiba platform

Because the THBD-1008 reuses a Toshiba HD-A30 motherboard with changed firmware and power supply, a theoretical route exists: changing modulation/demodulation in the front-end channel IC or firmware, plus the navigation layer, might make an HD DVD drive read CBHD. Nobody has shown this. Drive firmware would still have to handle FSM 4-6 instead of ETM 8-12. Shinco’s CBHD-9100 is only “likely” HD-A35-derived in forum discussion, not confirmed by a service manual dump.

Firmware archive leads

No CBHD firmware files, update discs (升级光盘/固件) or dumps were found. Explicit dump target: TCL THBD-1008 Spansion S29GL256N 32 MB NOR flash. Recommended dump motivation: CETC parser, file-system parser, codec libraries, DRM implementation, hardware register definitions and strings naming internal file structures.

HD DVD firmware resources useful for comparison (not CBHD): hddvd-revived firmware catalogue; hd-dvd.org firmware page; Internet Archive “HD-DVD Firmware Update Archive: Toshiba”; AVForums European Toshiba firmware threads; Reddit r/HDDVD “HD DVD Emulator Firmware.” Generic cross-flashing material (LG/Renesas tutorials, MakeMKV UHD drive flashing, DVDFab, LTO autoloader guides) teaches technique without supplying CBHD binaries.

Optical compatibility is not firmware compatibility

Patent CN102682801B (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, priority 17 March 2011) describes a freeform objective lens focusing 405 nm for both BD (NA 0.85) and CBHD (NA 0.65). Patent CN201549222U discusses pickups that must handle incompatible CBHD and Blu-ray geometries. These documents show optical engineers treated format coexistence as a lens and pickup problem. Firmware alone does not invent NA 0.65 behaviour on an NA 0.85 head, and does not invent FSM demodulation on an ETM-only channel ASIC.

Donor strategy for repair therefore separates layers: Toshiba HD-A30/A35 family parts may supply PSUs, loaders and possibly boards for THBD-1008 / CBHD-9100 lineage machines; pickups should be matched by photographing labels on a real CBHD unit before buying; firmware should not be expected to cross-flash. PHR-803T-family HD DVD pickups are plausible candidates only after label comparison.

Working conclusions

  1. No successful consumer cross-flash is on record.
  2. FSM channel support is the hard gate for reading pressed CBHD.
  3. AVS/DRA ASIC absence blocks many HD DVD SoCs even if sectors somehow appeared.
  4. THBD-1008’s Toshiba motherboard makes it the most interesting firmware-comparison target, not a proven flash candidate.
  5. Novatek FSM-capable front ends are the more plausible base for any future universal drive work.
  6. Dumping CBHD firmware is higher value than hunting mythical HD DVD→CBHD update discs.

Forum hopes from 2009 assumed China had merely re-skinned HD DVD. The engineering record-FSM, CETC, DKAA/AACS split, AVS/DRA-says otherwise. Cross-flashing remains a research question with negative empirical results so far, not a weekend project with a USB-TTL cable.

How the three arguments interact

Argument 1 (modulation hardware) blocks any plan that treats firmware as omnipotent: without FSM in the servo/channel ASIC, a flashed EEPROM cannot invent a demodulator. Argument 2 (SoC codecs) blocks plans that assume AVS/DRA can run on Broadcom/NEC HD DVD silicon that only hard-wires MPEG-2/VC-1/H.264 and Dolby/DTS/E-AC3. Argument 3 (shared Toshiba platform) keeps a narrow door open for the THBD-1008 specifically, because that machine already pairs a Toshiba-derived board with CBHD firmware-but the door opens onto front-end channel work, not a consumer update disc.

Pickups may be the least of the problems if Gemini’s interchangeability claim holds for late 0.6 mm blue-laser heads. Even then, channel coding and navigation diverge. Patents CN201549222U and CN102682801B further show that CBHD versus Blu-ray optics needed deliberate lens and pickup engineering; they do not license wishful HD DVD→CBHD flashes.

What a responsible dump campaign looks like

  1. Acquire a working TCL THBD-1008 and photograph the Spansion package before desoldering or clip-reading.
  2. Acquire a Shinco CBHD-9100 for comparison strings and loader behaviour.
  3. Store raw dumps hashed; do not redistribute decrypted movie keys if present.
  4. String-search for CETC, CBHD_TS, HVDVD_TS, DKAA, AVS, DRA, FSM and UDF identifiers.
  5. Diff against public Toshiba HD-A30 firmware only as a map, never as a write source.
  6. Document Novatek or other front-end part numbers from board photos before scavenging donors.

No pass found 升级光盘, vendor update download pages or Taobao firmware sellers for CBHD models. Generic LG/Renesas or MakeMKV UHD flashing tutorials teach electrical practice only. The archival outcome to seek is understanding-parsers, register maps, file-structure names-not a mythical “enable CBHD” checkbox on a Western HD DVD player.

Store-test anecdotes remain incomplete: an HD-XA2 owner promised to try HD DVD discs in a CBHD deck and never reported back; What Hi-Fi readers were told CBHD discs would not play in HD DVD players because of codecs and copy protection. Those fragments align with commercial incompatibility even where hardware DNA is shared.

Even shared Toshiba DNA on the THBD-1008 does not license casual EEPROM swaps. Memory maps, GPIO wiring, display controllers and front-panel microcontrollers differ enough across manufacturers that flashing Shinco binaries onto Toshiba-derived boards-or the reverse-is described as a permanent brick risk. Read-only dumps remain the productive path; write experiments belong last, after string analysis and channel chip identification.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon:

Blog CBHD Guides PC Playback
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CBHD on the PC: Playback Realities

Dedicated hardware first

Research passes found player software support outside dedicated CBHD hardware virtually nonexistent for ordinary consumers. Standard PC players-PowerDVD, VLC and contemporaries-did not support pressed CBHD discs. No Windows or Mac drivers or public PC CBHD decoder catalogues turned up. PowerDVD 7.x and early 8.x, WinDVD and TotalMedia Theatre handled HD DVD and AACS, not DKAA or FSM discs. Home playback of commercial CBHD software required Shinco or TCL players running their Linux-based firmware.

That historical finding has a careful caveat: one pass warns that “there were no PC decoders” has not been proven as an absolute. CBHD PC playback software and a CBHD emulator remain unresolved research targets rather than confirmed absences. Until such software surfaces, the practical statement stands: living-room and study use meant owning a CBHD deck.

Conflicting claims about PC drives reading sectors

One research pass states that computer HD DVD drives-Xbox 360 External HD DVD Drive, LG GGW-H20L, Toshiba SD-H4532-work at the SCSI/ATAPI command layer and, connected to a modern computer, can read raw sectors of a physical CBHD disc without firmware modification, passing encrypted or unencrypted AVS/DRA data to the operating system. Tools such as MakeMKV or specialised drive utilities could then extract streams, with FFmpeg (libxavs builds) decoding AVS video.

Other passes contradict the easy-read story. CBHD’s 4-6 FSM modulation differs from HD DVD’s 8-12 ETM. HD DVD players do not play CBHD. A drive needs FSM-capable channel hardware such as the Novatek NT90912 if the front-end must demodulate the CBHD channel correctly. No pass cites a controlled test of an HD DVD PC drive against a real CBHD disc. Treat sector-read claims as hypotheses until someone publishes a dump log.

What a successful PC read would still leave undone

  1. UDF parse and CBHD-specific directory conventions.
  2. CETC navigation interpretation.
  3. DKAA or AACS decryption.
  4. AVS and DRA demux/decode.
  5. Playlist and menu behaviour matching living-room players.

Sector access is only the first gate. Even if an HD DVD PC drive returned bytes, those bytes are not a finished movie file.

Playing material after rip or decrypt

Once elementary streams are available outside DRM:

  • AVS video decode: FFmpeg cavs (Jizhun profile) into mpv, MPC-HC via LAV Filters, probably VLC.
  • AVS transcode: FFmpeg with libxavs.
  • DRA audio: Tsinghua thesis codec (tianyigeng/DRA-Audio-System) or conversion; commercial Synopsys/Tensilica DRA IP exists in silicon, not as desktop apps.
  • DKAA: no decryption software found.
  • AACS international titles: standard AACS research path applies.

Mainline FFmpeg still lacks DRA. AVS+ (broadcast profile) support was only proposed in a 2026 RFC and is not merged. Confusion with FFmpeg’s unrelated game-format avs decoder remains a documentation trap.

USB and network as the documented “PC content” route

Original hardware already offered file-based playback that does not require burning CBHD discs:

  • Shinco CBHD-9100: front USB plays TS and MP4 files and 1080p video; loads external subtitles. Documented as the only realistic home-content route on original hardware in one pass.
  • Shinco HD-3700U: AVI from USB flash drives; Ethernet network playback from remote media servers and shares per factory manual.

Those paths use the player’s SoC decoders on ordinary files. They do not prove that a DVD burner can produce a pressed-compatible CBHD volume. For archivists who own a working deck, USB/network ingest is the low-friction way to watch modern encodes on period silicon without solving FSM mastering.

Emulation and firmware as PC-adjacent work

Dumping player firmware is a PC task even when playback stays on hardware. The TCL THBD-1008 stores firmware in a Spansion S29GL256N 32 MB NOR flash-an explicit dump target. Firmware may contain CETC parsers, file-system parsers, codec libraries, DRM implementation, hardware register definitions and strings naming internal file structures. No CBHD firmware files, update discs (升级光盘/固件) or public dumps were found in the passes.

HD DVD firmware archives (hddvd-revived catalogue, hd-dvd.org, Internet Archive Toshiba update sets, AVForums European Toshiba dumps, Reddit r/HDDVD emulator threads) are useful comparison material because the THBD-1008 reuses Toshiba HD-A30 lineage boards. They are not CBHD firmware. Generic drive cross-flash tutorials (LG/Renesas, MakeMKV UHD flashing, DVDFab guides) likewise transfer technique, not CBHD bitstreams.

Practical workflow sketch for researchers

  1. Obtain a commercial CBHD disc and at least one working player (ideally Shinco CBHD-9100 and TCL THBD-1008).
  2. Photograph optical pickup labels before scavenging donors.
  3. Attempt sector imaging with candidate blue-laser drives; record whether FSM hardware is present (e.g. Novatek NT90912 lineage).
  4. If bytes emerge, parse UDF and compare directory trees against CBHD_TS / HVDVD_TS / ADV_OBJ hypotheses and against DCA Book 3 assumptions.
  5. Separate AACS titles from DKAA titles before attempting decrypt.
  6. Decode AVS with cavs; route DRA through the thesis codec.
  7. Use USB file playback on the 9100/3700U for non-disc test encodes.

Until a published drive test resolves the FSM read conflict, do not plan a preservation pipeline that assumes any Xbox 360 or LG HD DVD drive will image CBHD. Plan for the possibility that only FSM-aware Chinese combo mechanisms or instrumented player dumps will yield clean sector images.

Summary table

Question Status
Retail PC CBHD player software Not found; absence not fully proven
PowerDVD / WinDVD / TMT CBHD support No
HD DVD PC drive reads CBHD sectors Claimed by one pass; contradicted by FSM analysis; untested
AVS decode after decrypt Yes via FFmpeg cavs
DRA decode Thesis codec / conversion only
DKAA decrypt on PC None found
USB file playback on hardware Documented on CBHD-9100 and HD-3700U

PC work on CBHD is therefore mostly imaging, firmware analysis and post-decrypt transcoding-not dropping a disc into a Windows tray and pressing Play.

Why living-room software never appeared

CBHD launched into a China-first retail strategy with Shinco and TCL Linux players as the intended clients. CHDA did not need a PowerDVD SKU to sell bundles at GOME. International PC decoder vendors already carried HD DVD and Blu-ray roadmaps; adding DKAA, CETC and FSM-aware drive support for a format with tens of thousands of players was unattractive. The result is an archival gap: ripped AVS may play in mpv today, but the path from pressed disc to remux still crosses undocumented DRM and possibly undocumented channel hardware.

Gemini’s claim that unmodified Xbox 360 External HD DVD, LG GGW-H20L or Toshiba SD-H4532 drives can pull raw CBHD sectors must be tested publicly before pipelines depend on it. Claude and ChatGPT passes insist FSM demodulation is a hardware property of chips such as Novatek NT90912. If those passes are right, PC imaging requires FSM-aware fronts. If Gemini is right, ordinary HD DVD ATAPI drives already return useful bytes and the remaining work is UDF, CETC and DRM. Until a hex dump and drive model are published together, preserve both hypotheses in lab notes.

Player USB paths as controlled experiments

When researchers encode AVS with libxavs and copy TS/MP4 files to USB for the CBHD-9100, they test SoC decode without claiming to have authored a CBHD disc. The HD-3700U’s Ethernet share playback similarly exercises network stacks documented in its factory manual. Those experiments are valuable and should not be conflated with ImgBurn-to-DVD+R claims about CBHD_TS trees. Keep lab logs explicit about which gate was tested: file decode, UDF parse, navigation accept, or pressed-media channel read.

Firmware on the bench

Dumping the THBD-1008 Spansion S29GL256N yields a 32 MB artefact that may contain CETC parsers, filesystem parsers, codec libraries, DRM code and hardware register strings. No public dump is known. Comparative HD DVD firmware sets from hddvd-revived, hd-dvd.org, Internet Archive Toshiba archives and AVForums European threads help map Toshiba-lineage structures on the THBD-1008 board but must not be flashed onto CBHD units casually-GPIO and memory maps differ enough that cross-flashing is described as a brick risk. Treat firmware work as read-only analysis until write procedures are understood.

Recommended lab notebook columns: disc title and whether domestic/international; player model; drive model and chipset markings; imaging tool and sense data; UDF volume identifiers; top-level directories observed; encryption indicators; elementary codec FourCCs after demux; player USB file tests as a separate row. That discipline prevents one successful USB playback from being misread as proof that DVD+R authoring works.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon:

Blog CBHD Guides Player Hardware
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CBHD Player Hardware: Shinco and TCL

Two makers, six production models

Standalone CBHD players were made by Shinco (Jiangsu Shinco Electronic Group, 新科) and TCL. Six production models are normally documented. The hardware record also needs prototype and pre-production categories rather than a flat list of six. Memory-Tech’s March 2009 announcement said TCL, Shinco and Tsinghua Tongfang all had player products in development; Tongfang did not confirm a retail release.

Model Maker Class Price notes
CBHD-9100 Shinco Flagship / launch ¥2,580 with 15 discs; reviewed at ¥2,999; ¥1,599 by Jan 2010
CBHD-3800 Shinco Slim / mid-range ¥2,980 list (Yesky); ~¥1,800 in one secondary account
HD-2100 Shinco Wall-mount / entry compact ~¥1,200 (secondary); Yesky “暂无”
HD-3700U Shinco Hybrid satellite STB / player ~¥1,500
THBD-1008 TCL Launch model ~¥1,999; £259.99 UK
THBD-1038 TCL Second generation ~¥1,600 (secondary)

Typical features across the set: HDMI up to 1080p, multi-channel or stereo audio outputs, USB media playback, Linux-based firmware. Price and class figures for CBHD-3800, HD-2100, HD-3700U and THBD-1038 differ between primary Chinese list prices and secondary summaries; both are retained below where they conflict.

Shinco CBHD-9100

First model, spring 2009, best-documented unit. Shinco designed its own loader/mechanism without Toshiba kits, saying it cost less than Toshiba’s design. An AVSForum thread describes it as “likely” derived from the Toshiba HD-A35 (unconfirmed). Specs include AC 100-240 V, 42 W; 430 × 330 × 58 mm; 3.105 kg; video decode AVS-Video, VC-1, MPEG-4, AVC, JPEG; outputs 1080p/i, 720p, 480p via HDMI, component, S-video, composite; audio AVS-Audio, LPCM, DRA, Dolby AC-3 with coaxial and 5.1 analogue; disc compatibility CBHD, DVD, DVD±R/RW, VCD, CD, MP3, JPEG; front USB for TS/MP4/1080p files and external subtitles; CETC navigation; proprietary 4-6 modulation coding. Gemini adds brushed aluminium chassis and HDMI 1.3.

Launch package bundled 15 CBHD discs not sold separately, including The Warlords (投名状), The Island (逃出克隆岛) and Flood (水啸雾都). An importer reported 25 free discs in October 2009; ja.wikipedia records a 16-disc bundle; Suning Shanghai gave 10 free discs in April 2010. PConline published a 5-page review with 54 photos (5 July 2009). 电脑报 2009 No. 30 tested it on a TCL 46-inch TV over component, including USB 1080p and subtitle loading. Shinco built 2,000 units before Chinese New Year 2009. Officially on sale 22 May 2009 with Warner and China Record discs per PConline (31 May 2009).

Shinco CBHD-3800, HD-2100 and HD-3700U

CBHD-3800: slim/ultra-thin mid-range announced early 2010 / launched around December 2009 with HD-2100, forming a high/mid/low line with the 9100 (pjtime). Yesky guide price ¥2,980 with USB and HDMI. Secondary description: standard chassis, HDMI, composite/component, USB, about ¥1,800.

HD-2100: wall-mount (挂壁型) player launched with the 3800; secondary account calls it entry-level compact with basic HDMI/composite at about ¥1,200; Claude pass found no price.

HD-3700U: hybrid home-entertainment gateway. Rear UTI (Universal Terminal Interface) port-Chinese broadcast equivalent of CableCARD-accepted satellite or digital-cable modules. Custom media processor decoded AVS, DRA, MPEG-2, DVD-Video, EVD, HVD, SVCD, VCD, SACD and AVI from USB; about ¥1,500. Reported quirks: pause on native CBHD dropped frame sync (first-generation CETC bug), forcing hard stop and re-seek (~0.5 s skip); DVDs/VCDs/USB AVI paused normally. DRA bitstream over HDMI often failed to lock on Western AV receivers because descriptors did not identify DRA. Factory manual documented Ethernet network playback from remote shares. Relationship of a separately named Shinco HD-3700 CBHD-HiFi demonstrator (July 2010 Shanghai launch) to the HD-3700U is not established.

TCL THBD-1008 and THBD-1038

THBD-1008 launched April 2009. Documented chips: NEC EMMA3 with VR5701C 64-bit MIPS CPU; Anchor Bay ABT1018 (1080i→1080p); Silicon Image Sil9134CTU HDMI 1.3a transmitter; Spansion S29GL256N 32 MB NOR flash. Video: VC-1, H.264, MPEG-4, MPEG-2; 1080p/24. Audio: Dolby Digital, Digital Plus, TrueHD, PCM. Outputs: HDMI, component, composite, 2.0 analogue, optical. Under 40 W; 430 × 320 × 54 mm; ~3.165 kg. Plays CBHD and DVD. China bundle 15 discs; UK package 14. Setup menu “almost the same as Toshiba HD DVD.”

AVSForum material quoting TCL’s maintenance manual states it “is based on HD-A30, and the motherboard is no doubt from Toshiba,” with firmware and 220 V PSU changes. Internal photos raised A30 vs A35 confusion: one shot lacked analogue 5.1 (A30-like) while a motherboard photo showed 5.1 (A35-like)-possibly a reference photo. ZOL’s June 2009 review tested an ordinary commercial CBHD movie that loaded quickly and played continuously at 1080p. GBAX imported it to the UK in October 2009 at about £259.99 with fourteen movies-the first CBHD player sold overseas. TCL stopped selling CBHD players around late 2009. pjtime (17 Oct 2009) adds output modes through 1080p, programme playing time ≥135 minutes at 1080p, JPEG to 1920×1080, standby under 1 W.

THBD-1038: listed by Wikipedia/secondary sources as second generation with network integration, updated CETC engine and lower power at about ¥1,600; no primary Chinese source found in the dedicated 2026 pass.

Chipsets, optics and donors

Hardware chain: 405 nm laser → optical pickup → RF amplifier → servo DSP → modulation/channel decoder → system processor. CBHD needs dedicated FSM support at the servo/channel stage. Novatek NT90912 (FSM/ETM/EFM+/EFM) and NT90902 RF amp (~60 MHz) appear in patent CN102157185A. Chinese pickup patent CN101556807B and multi-format pickup CN201549222U, plus BD/CBHD freeform lens CN102682801B, document optical engineering. Toshiba HD DVD players used Broadcom (e.g. BCM7411) or NEC SoCs with hard-wired MPEG-2/VC-1/H.264 and Dolby/DTS/E-AC3 decoding.

Because THBD-1008 is HD-A30-derived and CBHD-9100 is reportedly HD-A35-derived, Toshiba HD-A30/A35 (and HD-A2/A3 family) are plausible donors for PSUs, loaders and possibly mainboard parts. No source names the CBHD pickup part number; Toshiba PHR-803T is the documented HD DVD pickup used in Xbox 360 HD DVD drives-plausible but unconfirmed for CBHD. Drive firmware would differ even with the same pickup because the channel must handle FSM 4-6 rather than ETM 8-12. Beyond AVSForum TCL service-manual excerpts, no downloadable 维修手册, Spansion dumps or Taobao CBHD-specific parts shops were found.

Prototypes and extensions

Shinco CBHD-9000 appears in May 2009 AVSForum user reports among launch models with photographs (possibly a pre-production designation). Tsinghua Tongfang CBHD-0002 was shown in 2008 and photographed in 2009 without confirmed retail. CBHD-3D and CBHD-HiFi products launched in 2010; one 3D title existed by July 2010; model numbers for the 3D player were not found. No evidence of CBHD products from Amoi, Skyworth, Changhong, Hisense, Malata or Giec; no PC drives or laptops found. Haier and BBK were alliance members. Pjtime’s 2010 index notes incompatibility problems between brands because production standards were not unified. Tencent (5 Jul 2010): about 4,000 blue-laser players a month in Beijing, of which about 150 were CBHD-almost all Shinco.

Manuals, websites and where documentation hides

No complete user manual, service manual or schematic for any CBHD player was found online in the dedicated 2026 search pass. Queries included CBHD-9100 and THBD-1008 说明书 / 维修手册 / 电路图 strings plus Toshiba HD-A30 manual searches. The highest-value surviving technical fragment remains AVSForum master-thread page 5, where a member posted TCL THBD-1008 maintenance-manual excerpts: a block diagram and a labelled motherboard photo with chip identities.

Wayback Machine captures of shinco.com (news pages on Warner support, Universal support and product launch, plus neighbouring product and service scripts), tcl.com product trees from 2009-2010, and chdia.org.cn are the next places to look. Toshiba HD-A30 owner and service manuals remain platform references because the THBD-1008 setup menu is almost the same as Toshiba HD DVD. Chinese repair libraries returned no CBHD hits in that pass but still deserve model-number retries. Second-hand boxed units on Xianyu and Kongfz often include printed manuals and warranty cards-ask sellers for photos before purchase.

Retail behaviour around the decks

ITmedia’s October 2009 Suning visit found a lone CBHD-9100 among many DVD players and one Sony Blu-ray unit. By April 2010 Suning Shanghai sold more than one hundred Shinco units a month with ten free discs. Shinco’s December 2009 New Year promotion pushed an entry-level player at ¥1,500 with ten to twenty-five free titles plus the 60th National Day parade disc. Marketing general manager 李正洋 said in 2010 that Shinco aimed for about 2,000 retail points through GOME and Suning. TCL had already exited CBHD sales by late 2009 per Tencent’s July 2010 survey. Baidu Baike notes Shinco claimed independent development of front-end servo and back-end decoding-consistent with the story that the 9100 loader was not a Toshiba kit.

Donor strategy in one paragraph: prefer Toshiba HD-A30 and HD-A35 family parts for THBD-1008 and possibly CBHD-9100 mechanical and electrical donors; photograph CBHD pickup labels before buying PHR-803T-class substitutes; expect firmware to differ even if optics look similar; budget trial-and-error; do not expect a cross-flash to invent FSM support. A modern preservation front-end may ultimately favour Novatek FSM-capable Chinese combo mechanisms over hoping an unmodified Western HD DVD drive will suffice.

Further reading on historic video formats

If you want to learn more about historic video formats, get The History of Physical Video Formats from the Frontier by Stephen Driver on Amazon: