Video disc players that can record
Laser videodiscs have been the home video of choice for discriminating viewers for nearly a decade. But experts said that laser video could never compete with the videocassette recorder (VCR) for two reasons:
Laser videodisc players cost too much ($1,000 and up) and they could not record.
Last year, Pioneer Electronics solved the first problem by offering a combination laser videodisc and audiodisc player at the suggested retail price of $600. That meant discount stores were selling the players for under $500. Some stores in Los Angeles and New York and a few-mail order houses were selling the combo-players for less than $400.
Consumers planning to pay more than $200 for an audio-only compact disc player decided during the Christmas holidays that the laser video-audio combination player was a better bargain-it not only played audio CDs but also CD-videos and the 8- and 12-inch laser videodiscs.
Surveys show that consumers who buy laser videodisc players purchase more than 50 videodiscs a year.
But what about that second reason VCRs would never give way to laser video-recordable laser videodisc and audiodisc players?
Pioneer has teamed up with Japan’s large communications firm, KDD, to develop a “rewritable” (that means recordable) laser viieodisc system for professional use. Video correspondents say that the initial prototype system makes it possible to record up to 30 minutes of video, with analog audio, on either side of a 12-inch disc. Horizontal resolution is an excellent 400 lines. Scientists are working to expand the recording time per disc side, as well as the image’s resolution.
The first professional recorders will retail for $21,000. Discs will cost $1,400 apiece. Experts in Japan predict that home models costing less than $3,000 will be available by the end of the decade, possibly by 1995.
When that happens, forget videotape. By the time the 21st Century gets here, videotape-all formats- will be a thing of the past. Recordable laser disc machines will be as common as VCRs and microwave ovens.
If you’re skeptical, remember that this columnist, a decade ago, wrote that laser audiodiscs (CDs) would sweep long-playing vinyl recording off the market by 1990. The same thing will happen with videotape when recordable laser machines hit the consumer market in five to 10 years.
There’s no reason to wait to enjoy the beauties of laser video, however. The restored version of “Lawrence of Arabia,” for example, is offered in a letter-box edition on both videotape and laser disc, but there the comparison ends. The videotape image is murky and difficult to watch (RCA/Columbia, $29.95).
That all changes when you watch that same image from a laser disc. It is infinitely clearer and sharper. The Criterion CAV edition is a marvelous home-video viewing experience-the 217-minute epic is spread out across the screen in grand fashion, capturing director David Lean’s original vision. It takes four discs (eight sides) to house the reconstructed version of this 1962 classic. Also included are rare production photographs and 41 chapter stops. Chapter stops make it possible for you to retrieve favorite scenes within seconds. The digital sound track does full justice to both the familiar music and the crisp dialogue.
No epic film looks better on a small TV screen than it does on a massive theater screen, but if you watch the letter-boxed laser-video edition of “Lawrence of Arabia” on a fairly large TV with good speakers, you will have a superb motion picture experience unique to the home environment-no extraneous noises, no sticky shoes from gum and spilled soft drinks, no stuffed noses from the theater’s close atmosphere, no back pains from broken seats. If you’re still a disbeliever, remember that those big-screen theater experiences of past decades are becoming a fading memory. All things considered, the home entertainment experience is not only becoming more enjoyable, but looking at the rising cost of tickets and parking, it’s also becoming more economical.
