UHF 56 - Video Revolution

The Video Revolution

Television has been about the same for a long, long time. But we are on the edge of a revolution that could change TV, and its relationship to the way we live. We examine the issues.

(Reprinted from issue 56 of UHF Magazine. To purchase the issue, click here. Or click here to subscribe to UHF)

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The video world is not exactly standing still, at least notif you believe the press releases. You've got your DVD, you've got your Divx, you've got your digital broadcasts, you've got your HDTV, you've got your wireless cable. At the same time, much of the new technology seems to be in a holding pattern. Let's survey some current questions about high end video.

The DVD revolution
     After a false start it's really here. Video stores actually have a choice of films, video clubs have them for rent, and the machines themselves have become nearly as affordable as VCR's. Full steam ahead? Not quite.
     Even if your local store has a lot of DVD's, look through them and a pattern will emerge. Aside from a few bombs there are no new films. We explained the reason in UHF No. 55: the digital DVD makes an excellent master disc, from which pirates could run off VHS copies for other parts of the world, while the same film is still playing there in first-run cinemas. Until a film has completed its cinema existence in Kosovo and Afghanistan, you won't be able to get it on DVD.
     While you're riffling through the collection, note the prices. Then check the prices of the same movies on videocassette. Half? A third? That price spread is killing the market. What do these people think they're doing?
     Among themselves, of course, they must talk about charging "all that the market will bear." But it isn't bearing it. The same can be said of widescreen VHS cassettes, some of which carry a 40% surcharge. Why? Transferring a film to letterbox format requires less work, not more.
     If DVD is to fulfill its promise, the bean counters are going to have to go back to their textbooks. The first year textbooks.

The Divx alternative
     This is another mystery that seems to suggest they do lobotomies at the economics schools whose graduates fill the decision-making posts in so many large corporations. No one outside the companies actively marketing this ill-conceived pay-per-view disc system think it will succeed. Everyone we've talked to gives it six months. We ourselves think they won't sell ten of them (they'll "ship" thousands, of course, but that figure doesn't represent consumer sales). The spectre of Divx is putting the brakes on DVD, yet it is universally thought that the money to be spent on promoting Divx will be wasted, down to the last dime. Why are they going ahead with it?

NOTE: Other topics dealt with in this article (available in the full print edition of UHF No. 56:

Dolby vs DTS
The HDTV revolution
Alternatives to HDTV
Digital video from space
Line doublers
Display devices
The future

Would you like to read the full text, with illustrations, of The Video Revolution? Click here to order the print edition of UHF No. 56.

FULL TEXT: Roksan Caspian, Totem Forest, State of the Art
PARTIAL TEXT: Power & Current, SimAudio Moon I-5, Myryad MI 120, Vecteur Club 10, NVA AP10, Four Phono Stages, Five Cables.

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The video world is not exactly standing still, at least notif you believe the press releases. You've got your DVD, you've got your Divx, you've got your digital broadcasts, you've got your HDTV, you've got your wireless cable. At the same time, much of the new technology seems to be in a holding pattern. Let's survey some current questions about high end video.

The DVD revolution
     After a false start it's really here. Video stores actually have a choice of films, video clubs have them for rent, and the machines themselves have become nearly as affordable as VCR's. Full steam ahead? Not quite.
     Even if your local store has a lot of DVD's, look through them and a pattern will emerge. Aside from a few bombs there are no new films. We explained the reason in UHF No. 55: the digital DVD makes an excellent master disc, from which pirates could run off VHS copies for other parts of the world, while the same film is still playing there in first-run cinemas. Until a film has completed its cinema existence in Kosovo and Afghanistan, you won't be able to get it on DVD.
     While you're riffling through the collection, note the prices. Then check the prices of the same movies on videocassette. Half? A third? That price spread is killing the market. What do these people think they're doing?
     Among themselves, of course, they must talk about charging "all that the market will bear." But it isn't bearing it. The same can be said of widescreen VHS cassettes, some of which carry a 40% surcharge. Why? Transferring a film to letterbox format requires less work, not more.
     If DVD is to fulfill its promise, the bean counters are going to have to go back to their textbooks. The first year textbooks.

The Divx alternative
     This is another mystery that seems to suggest they do lobotomies at the economics schools whose graduates fill the decision-making posts in so many large corporations. No one outside the companies actively marketing this ill-conceived pay-per-view disc system think it will succeed. Everyone we've talked to gives it six months. We ourselves think they won't sell ten of them (they'll "ship" thousands, of course, but that figure doesn't represent consumer sales). The spectre of Divx is putting the brakes on DVD, yet it is universally thought that the money to be spent on promoting Divx will be wasted, down to the last dime. Why are they going ahead with it?

NOTE: Other topics dealt with in this article (available in the full print edition of UHF No. 56:

Dolby vs DTS
The HDTV revolution
Alternatives to HDTV
Digital video from space
Line doublers
Display devices
The future

Would you like to read the full text, with illustrations, of The Video Revolution? Click here to order the print edition of UHF No. 56.