Laserdiscs soon to be obsolete?
crows...@delphi.com
rumored CD-sized laserdisc? I'm afraid to continue buying laserdiscs if they'll
soon go the way of Beta or audio vinyl. Are laserdiscs as we know them on the
way out?
royvdp
It was not my intention to make people afraid. Laserdisc is still the
best you can get, but keep in mind that laserdisc is in fact an old
technology (older than the audio-CD).
There will be something to replace Laserdisc (The hardware-manufacturers
must do SOMETHING to pull the money out of our pockets) only the question
is when!
The HD-CD is now in R&D-stage (expected in 2 years) and before there will
be a 'normal' priced player we will have to add another 2 years.
Then there will be the problem of software.
Before the number of HD-CD-titles will exceed the number of LD-titles
we will have to add another 2(?? even more!!!) years.
So it will take us beyond 2000 before this new Digital-video is able to
push LD of the market.
I believe that when that time comes there will be multinorm-multisystem
players to support all kinds of optical media.
That is all folks,
Roy van der Pijl
bill hemmings
-> From: crows...@delphi.com
-> Subject: Laserdiscs soon to be obsolete?
-> Date: Fri, 6 Jan 95 01:24:10 -0500
-> Organization: Delphi (in...@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)
-> Message-ID: <RG1bofi.c...@delphi.com>
-
-> What's this "digital videodisc" technology I keep hearing about?
-> Is this the rumored CD-sized laserdisc? I'm afraid to continue
-> buying laserdiscs if they'll soon go the way of Beta or audio
-> vinyl. Are laserdiscs as we know them on the way out?
-
Hardly. You can't get something for nothing. In order to make present
digital technology carry information at video rates, substantial
LOSSY compression must be used. What's lost is: 1) range of color tone
or density in the reproduction (example: obvious 'steps' in shadows);
and b) resolution.
Think about what you're saying. Laserdisks are at least 15 years old.
I got my first player about 1980, and had wanted one for several years
before that. I wanted QUALITY, partly to impress others.
Industry reports indicate a steadily growing market for them almost
every year since. Sure, some retailers "jumped" on the technology,
thinking it was or would be a 'mass market' revolution. It isn't,
and won't be. So the digital CD video market will continue to develop
and expand. Those retailers have held GREAT 'close-out' sales!
Laser discs sell to those wanting the HIGHEST possible picture/sound
quality AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE. If you wanna spend more, you COULD
do better. But Pioneer has shown an unusual faith in this medium,
which I suspect no American company would do. Dislodging THEM will
really take some commitment!
I'm sure there will be improvements, but the 'end' for NTSC based
machines is likely a long way (> 10 years) away. Now, when do the
Faroujda line-doubler patent(s) expire? Because THAT will no doubt
cause ANY replacement technology to stumble, by helping good old
NTSC at least LOOK like the proposed HDTV picture.
The public, I predict, will say "if we can't SEE the difference, why
should we PAY the difference?". NTSC isn't 'great', but it's worlds
better than it was 40 years ago!
Back to digital. It's no "improvement" to look like 1960's broadcast
video or video tape. Maybe it'll look as good a laser disc, but not
COST like laser disc, for quite a while. I don't lose sleep over it.
Grickel
and Time Warner, Toshiba, and Pioneer, on the other, are proposing 2 new
laser disc systems. The latter system should be on sale in 12-18 months.
I have been told that existing LD's are of higher quality. I doubt that
the market can support 2 (or 3) competing disk systems. If Pioneer pushes
the DVD system, sales for 12" LD's will definitely be hurt. Just make
sure the next time you buy preamps/processors you gets *lots* of inputs.
Joey Psycho
>crows...@delphi.com writes:
I suspect that the blue laser players will make the 12 inchers obsolete, BUT
these are still far enough away as to make me still by LDs. I hope that all
of my discs will not rot before the new format comes out =) BTW, if the new
5" do not offer 5.1 sound, I do not think that they will fare well IMHO.
_____________________________________________________________________________
@@@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@ @@@ @@@@@@@ @@@ @@@ @@@@@@ "You can't hug your
@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@@ @@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@ @@@ @@@@@@@@ kids with Nuclear
@@! @@@ !@@ @@! !@@ !@@ @@! @@@ @@! @@@ Arms, but you can
!@! @!@ !@! !@! @!! !@! !@! @!@ !@! @!@ really keep them
@!@@!@! !!@@!! !@!@! !@! @!@!@!@! @!@ !@! warm."
!!@!!! !!@!!! @!!! !!! !!!@!!!! !@! !!!
!!: !:! !!: :!! !!: !!! !!: !!! These views are
:!: !:! :!: :!: :!: !:! :!: !:! my own and not
:: :::: :: :: ::: ::: :: ::: ::::: :: necessarily those
: :: : : : :: :: : : : : : : : of the Air Force.
_____________________________________________________________________________
MGMax1919
It's something they haven't invented yet. Enough said.
mgma...@aol.com (Michael Gebert)
"There are millions to be made out here and the only competition is
idiots." --Herman Mankiewicz
David Smith
The proposed digital CD systems are going to have a hard time in the
marketplace. The reason is the entrenchment and market share that LD and
VHS presently have, coupled with the fact that the proposed new CD-based
systems do not present a clear advantage over LD or VHS for their
respective markets.
LD is presently the quality system. It has been supported by those who
care about quality. Digital CD systems will not be as good for some
time, let alone better. They use MPEG compression, which loses color
acuity, resolution, and presents a large number of motion artifacts.
Supporters of the LD system will not abandon it until something is
clearly better. Then, of course, they will abandon LD immediately, but
that is not expected for some time.
VHS is the mass-market system. With its present penetration, it is
unlikely that any new mass-market system will overtake it unless
significant price or other mass-market advantages appear. These are
also unlikely.
For those interested in the variety of product, it should be noted that a
large number of titles have been pressed onto LD or VHS in the last 15
years. Many of these titles will never again be pressed onto any format,
since they lost money on LD and VHS and with the profusion of cable
channels there will be little interest in new pressings. While we can
count on "Star Wars" being remastered and repressed every few years on
every medium (new and old), there are many thousands of VHS titles that
may never be repressed.
This is the situation with LP's today.
In summary, I do not look for current proposed systems to do that well in
the market or to replace current VHS and LD systems.
Bob Smith
rls...@netcom.com
crows...@delphi.com
Kong/Japanese (expensive!) import discs for the
quality, subtitles and letterboxing and i no longer feel like I'll have to worry
about a format change, at least not for awhile.
Marc Reasoner
in the losses described in this thread (e.g., loss of resolution,
various color-oriented attributes, etc). video and audio data don't
compress to the degree that ascii text data does, for example, though,
and technologies such as minidisc utilize forms of data *reduction* to,
for lack of a better phrase, reduce the volume of data processed, thereby
reducing the storage capacity requirements.
for you dos and unix hacks out there, pkzip and gzip are utilities that
use lzw data compression. they are 100% accurate. imagine if you
were to compress a binary program (with binary op codes and instructions),
only to have it uncompress with even 99% accuracy. the programs probably
wouldn't run. the net difference between data that is compressed, and
subsequently uncompressed, is zero.
there are burgeoning technologies that are still rather infantile (such
as mpeg compression/reduction) and they all have a long way to go. but make
no mistake about it - full-length, cd-sized *digital* movies will
be a reality within 5 years. and then they'll go even smaller after
that, perhaps silicon or ceramic-based.
/* begin philosophizing section */
the bottom line is, yes, our relatively
archaic ld's will be obsolete. but then so are horse-drawn carriages as
a primary form of mass transportation. as will cd's someday. and
broadcast television. our investment in ld's is *now* - not 5 years
from now. life is short - enjoy t2-lbx now, not later. besides, it
ain't lbx'd on vhs (or is it?).
/* end philosophizing section */
regards, marc.
--
marc reasoner <reas...@vortice.stortek.com>