Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!ucsdhub!celit!billd From: billd@fps.com (Bill Davidson) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: I don't need HDTV! Message-ID: <7460@celit.fps.com> Date: 21 Mar 90 19:07:04 GMT References: <8Zx8Ip200ioEMMrHEF@andrew.cmu.edu> <132618@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <2694@sactoh0.UUCP> <1990Mar13.023805.24765@athena.mit.edu> <1990Mar15.090214.9871@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu> <7322@celit.fps.co <7438@celit Organization: FPS Computing Inc., San Diego CA Lines: 40 In article <29574@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@pepsi.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) writes: >Sorry, dude. VHS is far below the resolution of NTSC, yet look at >its popularity. VHS is far below the resolution of Laserdiscs, >yet look at their relative market share. It's a matter of marketing. If HDTV is a good product and it's marketed well, it will kill NTSC. Laserdiscs were not marketed well the first time around. Also, they got killed by those stupid RCA videodiscs which were much cheaper. They are doing better now since the RCA discs died and they are concentrating on appealing to audio- videophiles. The prices are now down to the consumer market and the market appears to be growing. Also, VHS is NTSC (or PAL or SECAM for you Europeans). It is just not that great of a recording system. Another thing that the public doesn't like about laserdiscs is that you can't record. I know a lot of people who are waiting for writeable laserdiscs. It's sad when I burst their bubble and tell them that it's not too likely to happen for quite a while since the only writable laser discs that we can make right now (or expect to for the near future) are not up to the task of showing feature-length movies due to being digital, low capacity and slow (digital, high capacity and fast could do it but I think that that's quite aways off from now). >A public which shuns Laserdiscs can not be expected to go whole >hog on HDTV. Don't assume that everyone is a rich yuppie like yourself. They're not exactly shunning them. They are selling pretty well in San Diego from what I can tell. More and more stores are selling them. The prices are getting decently low on the low end players and we even have a few places that rent discs (and at prices which are comparable to VHS rentals). I'm also not a rich yuppie. I wish I was. I just spend an inordinate amount of my income on quality A/V. I don't go out to shows and concerts much as a result. The yuppies around here own condos and houses. I don't and probably won't for quite a while. As I've said before, it will take time for HDTV to break the market. I suspect at least 10 years from introduction to the point where it dominates the market (an HDTV standard that can be generally agreed on does not exist yet; Japanese HDTV notwithstanding). --Bill