Laser Disc Gaining as Favored Format

The first two months of 1990 have found the laser video disc continuing to make good on its 1989 gains. The predictions that video disc will replace videocassette as the consumer format of choice in the 1990s are looking better all the time.

Recent events:

* The simultaneous release this month of big pictures “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Lethal Weapon 2” and “The Karate Kid III” on both videotape and video disc. Previously, video disc debuts usually followed videocassettes by a month or two. Early February also saw the video disc version of “Batman.” This software explosion may encourage more people to invest in the newer, less expensive video disc/compact disc/CD-V combination players.

* Panasonic, the second-largest supplier of VCRs, has decided to get into the video disc-machine market. The company displayed two models at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January, and those models may be available to the U.S. public as early as June.

* Also demonstrated at the Winter CES was the prototype of a video-disc recorder, the first of many that various manufacturers around the world are developing. One of these may be marketed as early as fall of 1991.