Funny bit of history for HD DVD fanboys

[JBlacklow]

"Why DVD would fail":

As the RCA brochure for the DVD system states, DVD will be "Revolutionary, entertainment excitement!" This is what the industry believes, and it is what the industry wants the consumer to believe. Belief and reality are two different things however. While many hope and pray that the DVD system will be an unqualified success, others see DVD as being a colossal failure and a system that will wreck companies and the consumer video market and take its place in history as the biggest failure of a product in the history of consumer electronics. It may even take several electronic companies down with it.

Why this belief? To answer that, we must take a brief look back at the history of consumer electronics and the people who buy them-- the average American.

RCA spent over $700 million dollars on its SelectaVision CED VideoDisc system, and it ultimately failed. CED had been predicted to be a $9 billion dollar business by 1990, but the system was discontinued in 1984, only 3 years after its introduction. From the beginning of its development in 1968, RCA spent millions on consumer polls to research how the consumer would react to a home videodisc system. Over 1 million people participated in the polls, some even getting to use the prototype VideoDisc products in their homes for limited trial periods. When all the data had been analyzed, it pointed to an unprecedented success on RCA's part and indicated that consumers would rush quickly to the VideoDisc. Even in a last minute market study, 2 months before the launch of CED in March of 1981, the research was encouraging. RCA was going to have a huge success on its hands. But it didn't turn out that way. Customers stayed away in droves. RCA had to quickly slash prices and introduce new models to entice people into stores. Of those that actually bought players and discs, 2/3 of them returned them within 30 days to exchange for a VCR. RCA sold less than 50,000 players the first year on the market and it worked out that RCA spent $2,000.00 in advertising per player sold. The reasons for the failure of the system, while claimed to be complex by some, are actually very simple. The VideoDisc system didn't record, you were forced to purchase your programming instead of renting and program selection was too small. Additionally, although this is claimed to be an insignificant factor, CED had an inferior picture to any then currently available home video system and the discs skipped.

These, I think, are some of the very same reasons that DVD is going to fail in the market.

And that's just the first couple paragraphs! Reading this is like reading posts from those rabidly anti-BD posters on other forums. You know, the ones that still hang around like those Japanese soldiers that never heard about the surrender in WWII.

[quexos]

That's why people should be careful about predictions.
Sometimes I feel that the big guys in those industries are disconnected from realities. I mean considering the possibilities of the VHS and Beta, how could they think their system could possibly take over ?

[Wingman1977]

[Marquoz]

Originally Posted by JBlacklow

"Why DVD would fail":

And that's just the first couple paragraphs! Reading this is like reading posts from those rabidly anti-BD posters on other forums. You know, the ones that still hang around like those Japanese soldiers that never heard about the surrender in WWII.

[Off Topic]

I LOVE the avatar! Daleks are the best thing to hit TV since colour!

[/Off Topic]

[tron3]

Ok, so the article beats a dead horse but it is still amusing. Plus I love nostalgia.

That video disc failed because it was a poorly built, poorly supported piece of junk. The author also presumed that DVD would skip and would fail due to lack of recording. He probably never knew DVD is a smaller disc! DVD had a rough start due to lack of recording but the VHS / DVD combo saved that aspect of it.

I read that many people didn't like the album sized discs of Laserdisc / Videodisc. The concept was good but the form factor needed a push. I remember my friend Dom playing playing one of those early laser formats for me. It was really something to watch a movie in his home WITHOUT commericials. Plus there were no reception issues. Sure, he had to flip the disc for me to finish the movie, but it was really impressive at the time.

[JBlacklow]

I think people are missing the idea. The post itself is from the at.video.laserdisc forum back in 1996. I just posted it because it's the exact same argument that HD DVD fanatics used during the format war and still use nowadays.

[thelaserdisc2000]

My family still has their CEDs and LDs. I have my CEDs and LDs of the original Star Wars trilogy. Help me get the original releases (ones without the special shit in them) and I'll sell my CED and LD versions.

[HeavyHitter]

Speaking of HD DVD fanboys, it sounds as if Josh Zyber is still living in 2006. I guess these people will never stop, will they?

http://hometheatermag.com/discplayers/808bd/

[EvolutionCherry]

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

+1