“As I gently remove my hair from my head.” Yup, things just went from bad to worse as China announces what is likely to be seen as the Ralph Nader of DVD formats.

Hoping that the second time will be a charm, Chinese researchers have announced intentions to develop a new next-generation DVD format. The revelation comes two years after China announced similar plans, called enhanced versatile disc (EVD), whose resultant technology was deemed DOA even before it was released.

According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, the new format will be based on but incompatible with HD DVD, the next-generation standard created by Toshiba Latest News about Toshiba and now backed by Universal Studies along with Intel and Microsoft Latest News about Microsoft. While HD DVD players and media should hit the market before the end of this year, China’s new next-gen format will not see the light of day until 2008. [Read the rest]