Xref: utzoo comp.misc:6504 comp.os.misc:965 comp.arch:10533 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!crdgw1!passaret From: passaret@brahe.crd.ge.com ("Mr. Mike" Passaretti) Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.os.misc,comp.arch Subject: Re: TRON (message from the project leader) Message-ID: Date: 7 Jul 89 20:02:51 GMT References: <389@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu> <6340@pdn.paradyne.com> <2296@trantor.harris-atd.com> Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com Reply-To: Followup-To: comp.misc Distribution: na Organization: GE Corporate Research & Development Lines: 65 In-reply-to: chuck@melmac.harris-atd.com's message of 7 Jul 89 12:43:46 GMT | In article <2296@trantor.harris-atd.com> | chuck@melmac.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano) writes: | |In article <6340@pdn.paradyne.com> |> alan@oz.paradyne.com (Alan Lovejoy) writes: |> |>TRON's technical merits |>(or lack thereof) will simply be irrelevant. The first economically-viable |>infrastructure will always swamp any and all competition. | | [....], or Sony Betamax videotape systems, [....]. While all of | these systems were in place first as a "standard" and showed great promise, | they were all replaced by later, better technology. Being first is not | always a guarantee of success. Yeah, right. Tell that to all the TV studios and news teams who use Beta-Cam. Just because the average bozo off the street doesn't care if HIS video looks like it's been put through a meat grinder doesn't mean that it's "better technology". (I assume here, you're talking about the Vile Home System. If you're talking about some other 1/2" system, I'd be happy to discuss that too). [Enter blathering about video mode. If you don't care about that, skip to the bottom for a quick summation (cut to the chase)] Consumer electronics aren't the "real world", chum. If they were, nobody would buy Ikegami studio monitors at a couple grand apiece... After all, Sanyo moves a lot more of their 19" cable-ready jobs than Ikegami sells monitors, right? Come on, you might as well say that UNIX has been replaced by MS-DOS. (OK, so that's a little extreme, but you get the picture). To be fair, here, nobody has quad machines in their home, and damn few people have 3/4" decks, cause the market is cost AND performance driven. Those machines were first on the scene, but not too many people have ever seen one. I guess it all depends on how you define "swamp any and all competition." Better products for some uses came along, so people used them (Beta for instance). Most of the people I know in the field will agree, however, that NOTHING beats the video quality you can get out of a properly set up quad. The problem is it's too hard to find someone with the patience and skill to set one up. Enter 3/4" and 1/2" cassette formats. No muss, no fuss. Worse video, but more likely to stay consistent without major operator intervention. Cheaper too. One might note here, as well, that Harris was NOT the first company to produce commercial broadcast equipment, but they have been very prominent in that field of late. [End blathering about video mode.] Let's face it, ALL technology has a place, and if there is a niche somewhere that TRON fills, first in the field or not, it will survive. Now whether that niche exists or not, that's a different horse of another color (as my grandpappy used to say). - MM -- There is no god but |ARPA: passaretti@crd.ge.com Ollie, and Stanley |UUCP: {philabs,rochester,uunet}!steinmetz!crd!passaretti is his prophet. |WRPI: 30 years of Aggressive Radio(tm) 91.5 FM, Troy, NY --