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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