Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watcgl!imax!dave
From: dave@imax.com (Dave Martindale)
Subject: Re: Optical disk video recorders (was single frame VCRs)
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.185614.8769@imax.com>
Organization: Imax Systems Corporation, Oakville Canada
References: <3379@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU> <3382@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 90 18:56:14 GMT

In article <3382@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU> mark@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (Mark Goodwin) writes:
>Seen in "Computer Graphics World", Sept. 1990, page 113 :-
>
>Panasonic LQ-4000 is a **rewritable** optical disk recorder
>for S-VHS, NTSC and RGB, with standard RS-232C interface
>and built in video transcoders.

They had one of these at SIGGRAPH.  However, it was $35-40k to buy,
compared with the Sony write-once unit at $20k.  And the rewritable
medium is $1000, compared with $300 or $400 for the Sony's write-once.

So, you'd need to rewrite each disc several times before it saved you
any money on media at all, and you'd have to reuse a *lot* of discs
to make back the difference in purchase price.  Unless you are a production
studio that would use such a unit for single-frame recording before
transfer to tape, and use it heavily, it probably doesn't work out
to be cheaper within its lifetime.