[Speed Gibson,
Sunday October 16, 2005 at 4:27pm]
Dueling DVD's
In what Minneapolis Star Tribune writer Steve Alexander dubs A Clash of Titans, Sony is once again at odds with competitors, this time over high capacity DVD formats. Current DVD technology uses red lasers, but blue lasers (smaller bandwidth, higher energy) are now ready to boost DVD capacity to at least 30 GB, maybe as much as 100 GB. Current capacities are not enough for HD video movies and their multi-track high quality soundtracks.
Sony has lost two such battles before: Betamax and the current DVD standard. From what I can read, I think Sony may finally win this one, finally understanding its the market that ultimately counts.
Betamax was better technology, producing a slightly better image that VHS. But Sony kept it artificially expensive (like Apple and the Mac), and the market widely prefers moderately priced "pretty good" quality to high-priced perfection. MP3 is the ultimate illustration of this. Yes, true CD-quality is the best, but even 64 kbps MP3 is suprisingly and acceptably close to that CD quality. Hence, Napstar and MP3 disks take immediately hold.
Another more technical example is Ethernet. Fifteen years ago, IBM was obsessed with perfect "Token Ring" network cable, four wire, low resistance, low capacitance, double shielded cable with large dual-mode, gold-plated connectors. Ethernet was cheap, but topped out at 4 mbps, while their "token ring" cable and protocol could easily go 80 mbps. (Remember this is 1990.) But Ethernet was cheap, and cheap routers soon overcame the capacity issue. Token ring, both cable and protocol, is but a memory now.
Toshiba seems to be playing the fool in this duel. No, we will control the video. We will control the audio. If you insist on no copying, no ripping, no PC jukebox/home networking, etc., you do so at your peril. Remember that any video or audio image ultimately has to become analog in nature for our senses, at which point it can be recorded in any format. It won't be perfect quality, but it will do if the price is right.
Sony has lost two such battles before: Betamax and the current DVD standard. From what I can read, I think Sony may finally win this one, finally understanding its the market that ultimately counts.
Betamax was better technology, producing a slightly better image that VHS. But Sony kept it artificially expensive (like Apple and the Mac), and the market widely prefers moderately priced "pretty good" quality to high-priced perfection. MP3 is the ultimate illustration of this. Yes, true CD-quality is the best, but even 64 kbps MP3 is suprisingly and acceptably close to that CD quality. Hence, Napstar and MP3 disks take immediately hold.
Another more technical example is Ethernet. Fifteen years ago, IBM was obsessed with perfect "Token Ring" network cable, four wire, low resistance, low capacitance, double shielded cable with large dual-mode, gold-plated connectors. Ethernet was cheap, but topped out at 4 mbps, while their "token ring" cable and protocol could easily go 80 mbps. (Remember this is 1990.) But Ethernet was cheap, and cheap routers soon overcame the capacity issue. Token ring, both cable and protocol, is but a memory now.
Toshiba seems to be playing the fool in this duel. No, we will control the video. We will control the audio. If you insist on no copying, no ripping, no PC jukebox/home networking, etc., you do so at your peril. Remember that any video or audio image ultimately has to become analog in nature for our senses, at which point it can be recorded in any format. It won't be perfect quality, but it will do if the price is right.