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May 1997, Week 4

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Subject:
From:
Leo Enticknap <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 28 May 1997 10:45:08 +0100
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On Tue, 27 May 1997 16:31:18 -0400 [log in to unmask] wrote:
 
> Why manufacture a movie on laserdisc for a
> few people *and* DVD for the masses when the quality is at least as good on
> DVD?  As a cinemaphile, why collect laserdiscs and not DVDs, when the DVD
> has more information (multiple aspect ratios, guided tours from the
> director, subtitling or dubbing, etc.) and as-good-or-better image quality?
 
All this depends on whether "the masses" actually go out and buy DVD players.  
The situation may be different in America, but when DVD players are launched 
here in August the prices being talked about are UK£700-1000.  Given that the 
people who are likely to want them are, by and large, the people who currently 
play laserdiscs and have invested in the kit, I rather suspect that the players 
will have to be a lot cheaper (a top-end laserdisc player sells for £600 and 
you can get a perfectly decent one for half that), or that the format will have 
to offer more than what are to my mind (with the exception of multiple aspect 
ratios) a few gimmick features.
 
If the situation is different in the US and the players are actually selling in 
significant numbers then, of course, none of this applies.  But, if the discs 
are sitting on video store shelves, the idea being to inspire confidence in 
consumers to go and buy the players, then I have ironic memories of DCCs, 
Betamax tapes and RCA Selectavision discs, exampes of which can now be seen in 
the Science Museum.
 
Basically, what I was trying to say was that, although laserdiscs have a small 
market, it is an established and, within its limits, economically viable one.  
From the point of view of the people who buy them - people who either care a 
lot about how they watch films, or are consumer technology enthusiasts, or both 
- any format which supercedes it is going to have to offer demonstrable 
improvements (a magneto-optical recordable disc of the sort that are already 
available as a computer data carrier, for example) if it is going to persuade 
people to part with their cash.
 
----------------------
Leo Enticknap
Univ. of Exeter, UK
[log in to unmask]
 
P.S. I heard rumours this week that Dolby are preparing to slash the price of 
their SR-D cinema digital sound reproducers; presumably in an attempt to 
vanquish Sony and DTS...
 
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