STILL VIDEO--AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
The thing about video is that it moves, right? It’s full of action, right? Not always. Between August and October, Eastman Kodak will be bringing out several products designed to capture, store, display, print and transmit still video images.
What’s the use? Make that uses, says K. Bradley Paxton, general manager of Kodak’s electronic photography division: “We can identify diverse uses in training, education, identification, management of picture files (ranging from X-rays to real estate) and many others.”
The new Kodak still-video gizmos are almost as numerous as the applications. Among them:
--A still-video camera
--A tabletop video transfer stand that’ll copy prints and slides onto video floppy disks
--Two VCRs (one capable of handling up to 1,500 images “in an easily removable tray”
--A color video printer
--A two-way still-video transceiver (for communicating video images over phone lines)
--A 13-inch color monitor for still-image display.
Other companies have some still-video gear but no one’s launched such a wide-ranging array of products in this field. And there’s much that’s new about the Kodak system. Its heart is a 2-inch-by-2-inch floppy disc that will hold up to 50 images. Kodak says that about 40 electronics and photography companies have agreed on an industry standard for this disc. It will be called the SVF. If you’re really in the mood to memorize three more letters in the abbreviation-obsessed video field, SVF stands for Still Video Floppy.
WIPE OUT: As you may remember, Home Tech has been worrying itself sick over whether consumers should buy a VCR now, wait for the Super-VHS system coming this fall or even wait for further developments such as recordable/erasable videodisc.
The latter, it turns out, may be coming sooner than the 1990s date we predicted. This week, Billboard carried a report saying that Philips expects to launch a record/erase CD system in two to three years. “The breakthrough reportedly hinges on new compounds” developed by scientists at the company--presumably some of the same scientists who came up with yet another CD system, CD-Video, due for introduction this fall.
And, of course, record/erase videodisc can’t be far behind record/erase compact disc, since both are based on the same laser methodology, and the proposed recordable-CD system reportedly uses a single laser beam to perform its magic. So should the poor, confused, dollar-short consumer keep the old VCR until the record/erase videodisc becomes a reality?
OK, we’re going to stick our necks out here and recommend. . . .
Buy the Super-VHS system. One basis for the recommendation: Everyone seems to agree that this and any other recordable disc format will be limited in the number of times you can use a disc--as opposed to the almost limitless use of tapes. Of course, there are those who will argue that repeated tape usage leads to dropouts (streaks) anyway, so . . . But no time for that argument. We have other things to move on to.
WHAT? The people who put out Digital Audio magazine are going to bind a compact disc into every issue of their new publication, What CD?
What?
Why?
Who’s on first?
Yes, the publication really is called What CD?--don’t ask us why--and its issues really will include CDs. We almost said “free CDs,” but since the whole package will cost $9.95 for each bimonthly issue at the subscription price, maybe that wouldn’t be the best way to put it. Still, that’s not much for a CD and a magazine (one that will basically be a guide to CD releases).
What you’d expect is sampler discs--but the publishers say no: These will be various rock, jazz and classical CDs containing “full-length selections.” Information: (800) 227-5782.
THE SALE IS ON: Two new figures from those electronics-industry figure people at Link Resources:
--From its latest research, the New York survey company estimates that VCRs are now in about 56% of U.S. households, which translates to about 50 million households, and that about 15% of those homes have more than one VCR.
--At the video store, sales are becoming more important. In terms of total retail revenues, sales rose from 24% in 1985 to 39% in 1986. “It took major suppliers almost a decade to realize that consumers would purchase videocassettes as they do books and records,” explained Link’s David Rosen. “Now that supplier pricing reflects this insight, a major change is under way. Sell-through is rapidly becoming the tail wagging the prerecorded videocassette dog.”
The ultimate result? “The industry will increasingly resemble the packaged-goods business more than the motion-picture business,” said Rosen. Link estimates that sales will stabilize at 61% of combined sales-rental revenues around 1990, and that those revenues should be about $9.8 billion by then. They were $5.5 billion last year.
BETA NOT CRY: Latest sign that it’s a VHS world: RCA/Columbia Home Video has announced that it will “discontinue the Beta format on . . . the majority of its videocassette titles.” 1987 releases and current promotions are not affected. Some “selected” future releases will have Beta versions.
Of course, things aren’t going to be simple in VHS land. After the Super-VHS videocassette recorders make their way to stores in a month or two, how much longer until we see movies, etc. being released in that format . . . and how long, if ever, until we see VHS itself go the way of Beta?
GOOD SPORTS: Tennis videos, anyone? Morris Video has a couple of new ones in its July release schedule. “Maybe Wimbledon ’87 would have turned out differently for tennis superstar Boris Becker had he used “Rod Laver’s Tenniscize,” claims the Torrance company. Well . . . Anyway, the “revolutionary” new exercise program . . . is designed to give you smoother strokes, fancier footwork and maximum flex. The one-hour program costs $19.95 a tape.
The other Morris tennis tape costs $39.95. It’s just one hour too. What is this, some kind of racquet? A pause for all those hearty laughs and now . . . the reason: This one doesn’t just have one measly tennis star. Yes, “Championship Tennis” is hosted by one measly guy (well, not too measly), Australian Tony Roche, but he also brings along “his kangaroo pal Bazaroo” and 27--count ‘em--27 stars of the court. On second thought, you don’t have to count ‘em, ‘cause we aren’t going to list them all. But here are a few: Bjorn Borg, Martina Navratilova, Vitas Gerulaitis, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe.
