ables@mcc-db.UUCP (King Ables) (07/18/85)
[Video Killed the Radio Star]
Does anybody know what's going on in the video laser disc arena?
I've been putting off buying a player to let the market stablize
(since the RCA Video disc [non-laser] flopped... but that was
because it was a bad idea to begin with). I see the current LDs
as good, but the public doesn't seem to be buying them up. I think
they're scared of what happened with RCA and don't understand that
this is a completly different kind of media. The RCA was very much
like a record album in that a "needle" made contact with the surface
of the disc and played. Hence it was suceptible to the same kinds
of problems as albums are when played over and over... skips, repeats,
etc.
Then they said "Oh, but you can't record on them." BIG DEAL. You can't
record on albums or Compact (Audio) Laser Discs either, but they're still
selling well. I just don't understand the public sometimes! :-)
Plus, I see people buying video tapes of movies for as much as $79.95
when a laser disk is $29.99 tops. And the video tape will degrade over
it's life with use, not to mention after 50 years of sitting on a shelf,
it'll just plain lose some of it's magnetization even without being played.
I went into a video store who usually has the most recent things and
saw their video laser discs were on sale for $19.99 (from 29.99).
When I asked what was up, they said they were getting out of laser
discs because they weren't selling enough of them. Just a week or
two ago they were telling me about this great new player that could
play video laser discs AND CDs (audio). 'Course, it costs more than
buying each player separately, but... They were planning to have it
in in a few weeks along with a shipment of all the newest players.
I just about decided that things finally looked good and figured to
buy when things came in.
Anyway, I really wanted to get one of these, but it does look as if they
haven't caught on (sob!). Their picture quality is fantastic (at least
as good as can be expected on our prehistoric TV format). Can anybody
give me any current/correct information about what's going on in the
world of LDs? Thanks.
-King
ARPA: ables@mcc
UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!mcc-db!ables