🚀 go-pugleaf

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