Video Discs

Quiet maneuvering over industry standards for a digital successor to the videocassette recorder erupted into open battle Friday as Sony Corp. and Philips made public their long-awaited video disc standard, only to have Toshiba Corp. brusquely assert that its own upcoming technology is better. The new technologies, expected to hit the market late next year, will offer high-quality home movies on digital discs similar to audio compact discs.

Sales of video game discs and consoles plummeted 22% last year, as consumers flocked to new digital devices and cut their spending, while publishers released fewer games. The drop was much sharper than 2011's 9% decline from 2010. Total spending in the U.S. on physical game products was $13.26 billion, according to NPD Group. The research firm did not estimate the annual total including other avenues for game spending, but did say that used games, rentals and digital formats accounted for about half of total spending in December.

In a development that could delay the introduction of a long-awaited consumer electronics technology, Philips Electronics and Sony Corp. on Friday broke ranks with a consortium of eight other electronics giants and announced they will begin licensing their patents for digital video disc systems on their own.

Traditional disc-based video games and game console sales slid 29% in June, continuing a decline for a seven straight month. U.S. players spent $699.8 million on game discs, consoles and peripherals in June, down from $989.5 million a year earlier, according to estimates released Thursday by NPD Group Inc. Top titles for the month included "Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes" from Warner Bros. Interactive and "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier," an adventure shooter game from Ubisoft Entertainment.

There are bitter and sweet ironies in the multimillion-dollar project that Hollywood filmmaker Robert Abel is directing in the back reaches of the empty and once elegant Ambassador Hotel grounds. The Ambassador is past tense. Abel's work is emphatically future. He has turned the leased Bungalow H into a central point for an international multimedia history project that began last July. Abel's year-old Synapse Technologies, Inc.

Firms Agree on Video Disc Standard: Three of Japan's top electronics makers--Matsushita Electric Industrial, Victor Co. of Japan and Sony--agreed to a common format for video compact discs, the companies said. Philips Electronics of the Netherlands has also agreed on the format for its discs. Video compact discs are a passive medium that store moving and still pictures as well as music and other sound. They are played on personal computers and game players.

Video technology has its odd ducks, and few are odder than the VCP. No, not VCR, but VC P --for videocassette player, rather than videocassette recorder. As a cheaper alternative to the VCR, the VCP's time would seem to have come and gone. After all, VCR prices have tumbled to the point where the smart shopper can find major-brand Beta models for around $180 and even basic VHS machines in the low $200-plus range.

Christmas and Hanukkah 1990 promise to be a video holiday. There already are one or more videocassette recorders-64 million machines-in nearly 70% of all homes in the United States and that number will jump this holiday season as both first-time video buyers and consumers looking for a second VCR or laser video disc players crowd home video stores. More and more Americans are considering a VCR a necessity.

Just as the arrival of videocassettes led consumers to dump their film projectors, so will the advent of digital video discs eventually drive the VCR onto the tech scrap heap. To speed your own conversion to digital, you can use your computer to turn personal VHS tapes into discs. The process is a lot like turning an LP or tape into a CD: First you "capture" the video digitally on your computer, then you burn the recording onto disc.

If you're thinking about buying a laser-disc player, keep something in mind: Finding stores that rent laser discs isn't easy. And the situation is not going to change any time soon, even though the laser market is growing. Laser is a buyer's market, dominated by film buffs and affluent fans who are into collecting movies, not renting them. According to David Del Grosso, marketing vice president for the distribution firm Image Entertainment, sales dwarf rentals by a 9-1 ratio.

Shoppers are buying an increasing amount of their music and movies via Web downloads. But video game sales remain firmly rooted in old-fashioned stores because many games require enormous software files that can take hours to download. That's now poised to change. One company, OnLive Inc., showcased one such effort at the Game Developer Conference on Tuesday night. The service promises to let players buy or rent the latest games and start playing within seconds on their television or computers.

Sony Corp. roiled the consumer electronics and video game industries Wednesday by pushing back the worldwide launch of its highly anticipated PlayStation 3 to November. The delay is more than just a bummer to video game enthusiasts; it virtually guarantees consumer confusion as Hollywood prepares to release the next generation of DVDs in competing and incompatible formats. Problems with PlayStation may also hamper Sony's ambitious corporate restructuring.

Siegfried's a big fat slob. How do I know it's Siegfried? Easy. His name is plastered across his dirty white T-shirt. Shoveling down his grub, he's in the kitchen with an overwrought Mimi, the scheming dwarf who's peeling potatoes at the table and piling on the guilt.

Just as the arrival of videocassettes led consumers to dump their film projectors, so will the advent of digital video discs eventually drive the VCR onto the tech scrap heap. To speed your own conversion to digital, you can use your computer to turn personal VHS tapes into discs. The process is a lot like turning an LP or tape into a CD: First you "capture" the video digitally on your computer, then you burn the recording onto disc.

The sun may have set on the heyday of the drive-in movie theater, but two new DVD collections lovingly re-create the innocent--and not so innocent--pleasures of the late-night double-feature picture show. Elite Entertainment's "Drive-In Discs" and Something Weird Video's "Drive-In Double Feature" offer everything from vintage driver-safety tips and intermission countdowns to tantalizing snack-bar come-ons. Oh yes, and movies too.

People ask when should they buy a DVD player. The answer is, "Last Christmas." The DVD really came of age about then, because displays of DVD discs became common in video and appliance stores throughout the country. DVD stands for "Digital Video Disc" although it's sometimes said to stand for "Digital Versatile Disc" because some of them can also be played on computers. They're small silvery discs the size of audio CDs that can contain an entire movie on one side.

What's the latest in the digital video disc wars? Some major technical changes and a change in initials that's liable to confuse consumers who are trying to keep up with all this. The digital video disc is a 5-inch, high-resolution, CD-like disc that will supposedly supplant the videotape sometime in the next decade. The first digital video disc (DVD) machine, priced at about $500, is due next year.

CD-Video isn't a mirage after all. For more than a year, technophiles and music fans have wondered what happened to this new format, which combines the sound of compact discs with the visuals of laser disc. CD-Video was announced with a big splash at the 1987 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. And CD-V discs were supposed to hit record stores that fall. It didn't happen. Finally, though, a trickle of CD-Vs from PolyGram and Warner Bros. made the stores in late June.

Laserdisc video, the movies-on-CD technology on which Image Entertainment built its business, seems to be going the way of eight-track tapes and 45 rpm records. So why is Martin Greenwald, Image's chairman and CEO, smiling? And why has the company's stock doubled in price over the past two months. Call it luck or savvy, but it looks as if Image this time has bet on the right technology.

In a development that could delay the introduction of a long-awaited consumer electronics technology, Philips Electronics and Sony Corp. on Friday broke ranks with a consortium of eight other electronics giants and announced they will begin licensing their patents for digital video disc systems on their own.