Chinese Audio/Video codec rises; Domestic rival to WMV-9 and MPEG-4 nears standardization

Taipei, Taiwan -- A Chinese audio/video codec is on the verge of becoming a national standard--a domestic rival to MPEG-4/H.264 and WMV-9 that backers say will save China-based manufacturers and consumers at least tens of millions of dollars in fees and royalties during the next few years.

Since mid-2002, the Audio Video Coding Standard (AVS) has been inching its way through a relatively open technical-development process. China's Ministry of Information Industry recently completed a one-year review and quietly approved AVS in December as a candidate for a national compression standard, passing it to the Standards Administration of China, which should formally OK it in the coming months.

That would mark a small victory for Chinese standards setters because the effort to craft the codec was largely transparent, with more than 130 domestic and foreign companies, as well as universities, taking part in the AVS Working Group.

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