Previous Format Wars

[almy]

I'm old enough to have participated (as a consumer/enthusiast) in two previous format wars. In the early '70s there was no home video other than ordinary TV (cable was still in it's infancy). You had two-channel stereos. The record industry decided we needed four channel sound aka quadraphonic. CBS/Columbia records and Sony had their SQ matrix system. RCA, Records, the Matsushita group promoted the CD4 discrete system. Different record companies sided with different systems, just as movie studios are doing now. Both systems eventually died and it remained a stereo world until audio-video surround sound. When the first laser videodisc player came out in the late '70s, it was a dog. It was a mechanical nightmare (mine went back for repair 4 times in the six months I had it) and there was a terribly large amount of flawed, defective discs sold - hence the term "laser rot". RCA countered with their CED disc system. It took the "needle in the groove" concept as far as it would ever go. The disc surface was so sensitive that you never saw it. The disc was either in the player or in a protective plastic hard case that was inserted into the machine. The picture quality was no better than VHS. It lasted less than two years. DiscoVision was taken over by Pioneer and the name was changed to LaserVision which became laserdisc. Although it was a niche market item, it did give us widescreen, surround sound and early DTS. In this case the better system won the war. Many feel that the opposite happened with Beta vs VHS, but it is a moot point because they both performed their functions as promised.

This long preamble is meant to point out that when neither competing systems is any good, they both die. In the videodisc war, the superior format won. It could, and eventually did, deliver quality and innovations that were welcomed by video lovers - much as BluRay is doing now. Engineers and designers have only scratched the surface of what they can do with 50 gigs - and Hitachi has a 200gig BD in the works. The head of Disney Home Video said this week that upcoming titles would have extras and features that would be impossible for HD to accomplish. Blu is the superior format..............IT WILL WIN.