The much loved video cassette recorder is going down into the technological dustbin
THE video cassette recorder (VCR) may
never achieve the historical status of the
steam engine, printing press or the PC,
but there is no denying that it is one of
the great inventions of the 20th century.
Since the VCR's introduction in 1975,
more than 520 million have been sold
worldwide.
But now a new home-entertainment
machine threatens to take the VCRs
place. Called a digital video disc player
(DVD), the latest black box functions like
a combination audio CD player and VCR,
it plays standard-sin CDs containing
high-resolution movies and digital
sound. Analysts, say that the new video
format has a bright future as a replacement for VCRs and videotapes - and as
the successor to CD-ROm drives that have
been spurring sales of home PCs. DVD
technology will be a key to the expanding multimedia world.
Major consumer-electronics companies will be unveiling DVD players in
Japan and North America in the next
few weeks. Initially, DVD players will sell
for at least US $500. Discs will cost us $30
to $50 each. The price of both the hardware and software will fall if and when
sales grow. DVD units will play only
fpovies at first - they won't be able to
record TV shows or anything else until
1998, when 'writable' (that is, recordable) discs hit the market. This defiLlency will save the VCR for a while.
Experts think recordable discs will find a
Wide audience, perhaps first with PC
owners, who will use them to store data
from the World Wide Web.
Digital DVD video discs offer some
powerful advantages over video tapes
and conventional CDS. As a medium for
playing movies, DVD discs are smaller
and easier to handle than tapes, and
offer nearly instant access to material.
As with audio CDs, users can fly over
(fast-forward) DVD video segments they do not like. First-
generation DVD discs will store
133 minutes of video on one
side. Over the next few years,
their capacity will double and
then quadruple. With more
space, content providers could
store multiple versions of the
same film on a disc.
Film studios are expected to
reap big profits from the new
format. DVD discs will be inexpensive to make, affording
movie makers the opportunity to
squeeze hefty margins out of new
and existing entertainment titles.
The replication cost for a DVD disc will be half the cost of producing a
videotape.
DVD will also enhance computer
applications. The discs store seven times
more data than existing CDs, and new
disc drives will read that information
faster. Pc makers are already thinking of
building DVD-ROm drives into some of
their computers; they are looking at DvD
as an alternative to the CD-ROMs. The
new format will bring Pcs in line with
where the broadcast industry is going,
that is, it will give them compatibility.
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