EVD Community Sources: Forums, Press and Archives
Where EVD knowledge actually lives
Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD) never acquired a single official English handbook that collectors could treat as canonical. What survives is a scattered archive: English trade-press pieces from 2003-2006, Chinese encyclopaedia and FAQ pages, contemporary Sina and PjTime reporting, a thin set of enthusiast forum threads, and SEC exhibits from On2. This post maps those communities and documents by what they contribute, not as a raw link dump, but as a research map of who argued what, when, and with which technical claim.
English press spine
| Date | Outlet | Title / content |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Nov 2003 | EDN (Junko Yoshida) | “China unveils its own video format”: VP5/VP6, LSI DoMiNo, McIntyre quotes |
| 24 Nov 2003 | EE Times / EDN | “China’s EVD spec enters digital video fray”: codec options, AVS, “reincarnation of VCD” |
| Nov 2003 | CBS News (AP) | “China Declares War On DVDs”: Wang Jingchuan, ¥2,000, 25 patents |
| 25 Feb 2005 | The Register | “China favours EVD over DVD”: standard, 3C lawsuit |
| Nov 2006 | EE Times (Cai Yan) | “EVD backers try to reignite interest”: MPEG-2 MP@HL, sales, single chip vendor |
| 6 Dec 2006 | AP (Fox News, NBC) | “China tosses third competitor into DVD format war”: 54 players, ¥700, 2008 |
| Dec 2006 | TechRadar | “Chinese to challenge Blu-ray and HD DVD” |
| 2003-2009 | SEC EDGAR (On2) | Contract exhibits and arbitration disclosures |
Read as a sequence, the English arc moves from November 2003 launch coverage that foregrounded On2 VP5/VP6 and LSI Logic, through 2005 standard-and-lawsuit framing, into November-December 2006 relaunch coverage that named MPEG-2 MP@HL, roughly fifty-four players, and a roughly ¥700 price band. Those codec stories disagree across years and must stay side by side in technical posts; the press table is the citation spine, not a reconciled specification. On2’s SEC EDGAR trail is the primary Western document set for contract terms, arbitration dismissal and settlement language.
Chinese press and reference
| Source | Content |
|---|---|
| Chinese Wikipedia 增强型通用光盘 | Timeline 1999-2005, AACS, PC player, ST/NME/AVS deals |
| Baidu Baike evd | Dazhong experience hall, price history, HD-EVD 2008, alliance structure, HVD rivalry |
| c114 通信百科 EVD | EVD-8700 only model, nine-member alliance, royalty figures, Jindian Global |
| E-World FAQ “EVD科普知识问答” (siga.org.cn) | Brands on sale, prices, shareholders, HD claims |
| PjTime “何为EVD？EVD与HDTV的区别在那？” (2007) | Five software packages, EVD388/EVD8830, publishers, ExAC score |
| ZOL reprints and interviews | “何为EVD” (2009 reprint); Zhang Baoquan interview; “三大民族品牌高清碟机标准之争” |
| Sina (2005-2006) | ¥3-5 discs; five measures; crisis and relaunch cluster around Dec 2006 |
| PjTime / Nanfang Daily (Aug 2007) | “EVD 的梦该醒了” collapse piece |
| Yicai “EVD盟主倒了” | Shinco restructuring |
| big-bit 28615, 12870, 6138 | Alliance meeting; EVD camp contradictions |
| Huaqiang hqew 107924 | E-World backers, Hao Jie interview |
| gzhifi (2008) | “带你认识什么是高清EVD”: 14 first titles, “true HD” |
| Sohu 2019 retrospective | “十年风雨路，中国影碟机的辉煌和陨落” |
| Douban note 876697066 | Collection of EVD/HDV/HVD news reports |
Chinese Wikipedia and Baidu Baike are secondary synthesising pages: useful for chronology and for names of halls, alliances and HD-EVD 2008 branding, but they must be checked against Sina, PjTime, EE Times and SEC when dates or codec claims conflict. The E-World FAQ on siga.org.cn is the closest thing to a vendor self-description of brands, prices and HD claims. PjTime’s 2007 explainer remains the densest single Chinese technical overview for software packages, named models (EVD388, EVD8830), publishers and ExAC talking points. c114’s encyclopaedia entry preserves the early “EVD-8700 only model” retail note and alliance/royalty language that hardware posts rely on.
News clusters matter as clusters. Sina’s March 2005 ¥3-5 disc promise, October 2005 “five measures,” September 2006 crisis reporting and the December 2006 relaunch burst are contemporary temperature readings, not later nostalgia. Nanfang Daily via PjTime in August 2007 (“EVD 的梦该醒了”) and Yicai’s Shinco restructuring piece document collapse and corporate aftermath. big-bit alliance reports and the Huaqiang Hao Jie interview preserve internal-camp friction language, including the “Hao Jie incident” still listed as unresolved elsewhere. gzhifi’s 2008 “true HD” piece is the source for Jindian’s fourteen-title first release claim. Douban note 876697066 is a collector-assembled clipping file for EVD/HDV/HVD reporting rather than a primary newspaper.
Later reprints
CSDN (2009) and 中国视听网 (2010) reprints of E-World-related material keep FAQ language circulating after original pages move. Prefer the earliest live or archived copy you can find when wording conflicts. ZOL’s 2009 “何为EVD” reprint and standards-battle features likewise often echo PjTime and FAQ text; use them for discovery, then walk citations back.
Forums
| Forum | Thread | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 非常发烧网 (hifi168) | “EVD,大家听说过吗?有谁开始使用?” (19 Nov 2003) | Contemporary enthusiast reaction |
| 隔壁网 (gebi1) | “骗局还是谎言？揭露国产’高清’EVD！” | Critical thread; blocked to automated access; not read |
| DVD Talk | “Forward Versatile Disc (FVD)” | FVD/Sigma press-release discussion |
| PjTime forum | Linked from EVD articles | Not searched |
English enthusiast depth for EVD is thinner than for CVD or SVCD. hifi168’s 19 November 2003 thread catches Chinese enthusiast reaction within a day of the Great Hall launch. The gebi1 critical thread is logged as existing but unread because automated access was blocked. DVD Talk’s FVD thread is adjacent Taiwan-format discussion, not EVD primary evidence; it belongs on the related-formats shelf. PjTime’s own forum links from EVD articles remain unsearched and are a natural next pass for model and disc anecdotes.
Gaps still empty
Several high-value Chinese channels have not yet been searched for EVD material: Xianyu, Taobao, Baidu Tieba (影碟机吧, 高清播放机吧), Bilibili teardown videos, CNKI journal articles, CNIPA patents, archived evd.cn and jdglobal sites on the Internet Archive, AVSForum and CDFreaks threads. Those remain the places a named disc 版号, a board photograph of LSI Logic markings, or a surviving PC-player installer is most likely to surface.
Community source work for EVD is therefore unfinished by design. English trade press and On2 SEC filings preserve the Western launch and contract story; Chinese FAQ, encyclopaedia and Sina/PjTime reporting preserve retail, alliance and collapse language; forum threads preserve enthusiast suspicion and excitement; and the empty second-hand, Tieba, CNKI and Archive.org shelves are the next places catalogue and hardware posts should look before inventing titles or chip part numbers. Until those shelves are searched, cite the article, the FAQ or the SEC exhibit, and leave the gap visible.
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: