After a preliminary HD DVD format released by the Chinese DVD Forum, over 40 Chinese IC companies, hardware vendors, content providers, and retailers have formed an alliance to promote the national EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc) format. EVD is based on the standard red-laser technology; it adopts MPEG-2 Main-Profile at High-Level for video encoding and a proprietary audio technology for six-channel audio. The EVD alliance, led by China's largest consumer electronics retailer Gome, is expected to organize a major exhibition in early December and roll out value-line EVD players to compete with other optical disk formats.