Who will receive the DVDs?

Every two years, all the leading audio and video manufacturers bring the best they have to Berlin to Europe's largest consumer electronics show, IFA. Having been there, it’s easy to understand how the home entertainment industry lives and where it’s heading. Kommersant correspondent Igor Pichugin, who recently returned from IFA'99, testifies: the industry lives in the same way - the struggle for sound and image quality and, ultimately, for consumer wallets. Only this struggle is taking place at a new technological level.

Do you fondly remember your grandfather’s old radio, on which you played “Merry Fellows” records as a child? And you still watch “Rubin” at the dacha with a convex screen like a fish eye? If so, you will be very uncomfortable in your apartment in the coming years as consumer electronics change radically. Plasma TVs, DVD players (digital video disc players), CD recorders and Web-TV terminals based on digital television technologies - this is what will work in our homes in a couple of years.

Plasma Breakthrough
Just four years ago, at the IFA`95 exhibition, there was nothing like this. At that time, there was just talk about the need to develop a unified standard for the digital video disc DVD, and plasma panels existed only in prototypes. Now both plasma TVs and DVD players are ready-made commercial products. The EISA Association, which awards the Product of the Year award, which includes three dozen European audio and video magazines, even had to open new categories. And the 42-inch Philips model was recognized as the best plasma TV of 1999/2000.
A plasma panel is ideal for the role of a home TV: excellent image quality, huge screen sizes (Korean LG Electronics exhibited a 60-inch plasma panel in Berlin - a world record for today), fits perfectly into the interior (panel thickness - no more than 10 cm) . However, it is still far from being a mass product - prices for plasma TVs start at $8 thousand. Nevertheless, people who are not strapped for money can already surprise their friends with a flat-screen TV that provides an image of extraordinary quality.
A DVD player that provides cinematic picture and sound quality is a more democratic product, but it is premature to say that it has already won over the masses. For now, this is a “niche” product: DVDs are bought mainly by those who have set themselves the goal of acquiring a home theater. In this case, the best result is achieved if the DVD player is paired with a widescreen TV (with cinematic screen proportions of 16:9). Statistics show that half of those who buy a DVD player already have a "wide" TV.
In theory, the digital video standard DVD should eventually replace the old, familiar analogue VHS. However, despite the advent of DVD, the tape VCR market continues to grow and this growth will continue for at least another two to three years. Manufacturers are trying to maintain consumer interest in film VCRs and are carrying out “rejuvenating” procedures with the VHS standard, introducing into it some features inherent in the digital world.
Everyone will confirm that, for example, searching for the desired fragment on a videotape is a torment that takes a lot of time and nerves. One of the functions of new video recorders is a library of recordings located in the internal memory of the device. The library contains a list of recordings on cassettes, the name, recording date and duration of each fragment; empty areas on the tape are also taken into account. Using the remote control, the bank of recordings is displayed on the TV screen; its capacity is enough for 150 cassettes. Philips calls this function tape manager, Hitachi calls it tape navigator, and Panasonic calls it tape library.
At the same time, video cassette recorders have ceased to be exclusively a home device. Samsung Electronics' new take on VHS is a car video cassette recorder that is particularly resistant to shock, dust and moisture. For example, you are driving to a resort by car, and your children are watching cartoons in the back seat - it’s convenient. The same Samsung presented a “worldwide” video recorder - capable of working with recordings and televisions (video cameras) of any type (NTSC, PAL, SECAM). A conventional multi-system video recorder cannot, for example, play a recording made in SECAM on an NTSC TV. And in Japan or the USA, finding a TV that works not only in NTSC is not an easy task.
But perhaps the most radical operation on VHS was carried out by Panasonic: the Japanese converted the old analog standard to a new digital one. A prototype of the D-VHS (digital VHS) film video recorder could be seen at IFA`99. The device is capable of receiving and recording both digital broadcasts of satellite and cable television broadcasts, as well as regular TV. The Japanese also provided compatibility with VHS. The new digital video cassette has a simply gigantic capacity (44 GB is an order of magnitude greater than the capacity of a DVD!): even in the high-definition television system, which Japan, the USA and Western Europe are going to switch to in the next five years, this is 3.5 hours of excellent quality video. By the way, a DVD can only hold a 20-minute video of the same quality.

New competitor to cassette recorders
A notable event in the field of sound reproduction was the appearance of a CD player with the ability to record to disc. The CD appeared as a musical medium back in the early 80s, but no one was in a hurry to adapt it for recording at home. It was believed that no one needed a CD recorder (Japanese manufacturers especially insisted on this): firstly, there are a huge number of discs with recordings for every taste on sale, and secondly, for dubbing there is another digital standard - MiniDisc, developed by Sony . The Japanese were keen on producing mini-disc devices (Sony actively promoted MD at IFA'99), but the Europeans were cool towards them.
But in 1997, Philips launched a CD recorder on the market (the first CD recorder was presented at IFA`97), and it turned out that the demand for it in Europe was much higher than for MD. Consumers have decided that the disc recording function will not be superfluous in their audio systems. Manufacturers are euphoric, because CDs are currently the most popular audio media: over 800 million CD players have already been sold in the world and their fleet is growing by 50 million every year. Manufacturers consider all owners of CD players to be potential buyers of recorders.
Another very pleasant circumstance also warms the soul of producers: it was expected that the consumer would, on average, buy 10-15 blank discs for recording per year, but appetites turned out to be higher - 60 discs. Meanwhile, you can also do a good business on blank disks. Therefore, the CD-R market is now on the rise: at IFA`99, all European manufacturers announced the release of their own models of CD recorders, and Philips, not without coquetry, complained that it simply did not have time to satisfy the demand for CD recorders (they cost $300, by the way). 500).

Chip instead of disk
However, who can be surprised now by magnetic tapes or laser discs, even improved ones? Another thing is the semiconductor chip. To reproduce the information stored on it, no moving mechanisms are required, and the main advantages of such a medium are its miniature size and reliability.
Semiconductor memory is already used in MP3 players that can store and play music files that are distributed over the Internet. The market fate of players was not easy: leading record companies, fighting music piracy on the Internet, tried to block these devices from entering the market. But everything worked out. Now a way has already been found to eliminate pirates from this business, and mp3 players are quickly gaining popularity. The already mentioned EISA association singled out mp3 players in a separate category and recognized one of the Samsung models as the best mp3 player of 1999/2000.
And Sony proved to IFA visitors that semiconductor memory can store not only music, but also videos, photographs, maps for car navigation and other information. The Japanese company actively advertised the Memory stick chip it developed and showed what various devices based on it could look like. It must be admitted that Sony managed to impress: both with the miniature and unusual shapes of its prototypes, and with the demonstration of two robotic dogs with “brains” on a Memory stick. One persistently chased the ball as soon as it came into her field of vision, and the other expressed wild delight when she was stroked on the head.

TV + computer
But perhaps the most striking sign of the current digital era is the appearance of televisions with a computer keyboard and the Internet on the screen. Hidden somewhere nearby is a set-top box that turns an ordinary TV into a multifunctional home terminal. Discussions about the integration of television, telecommunications and computer technology have been going on for a long time, and now manufacturers have finally moved from words to action. At IFA, multifunctional terminals were shown by Philips, Thomson, Loewe, Grundig, etc. However, to understand what interactive television is, you don’t have to go to IFA.
From September 15, the Moscow corporation RICOR begins sales of its own complexes. The terminal she developed works on the same principles as similar devices from Western companies shown at IFA. The terminal connects to a TV and telephone line and, in fact, is a multimedia computer: with a processor at the Pentium 300 level, a built-in modem, a TV tuner, a 4.3 GB hard drive, a CD-ROM player and a special power supply. You can use it to make a call: dial the number on the television remote control and watch the dialing process on the TV screen. Plus answering machine, auto dialer, electronic phone book. You can send e-mail, and not only text, but also a voice message, a photograph, and if you have a video camera, a video letter. A video camera is also needed in the case when the terminal acts as an observer-security guard, exercising visual control of the area in front of the front door, of the car under the window. In principle, other functions for home automation are also possible - control of lighting, heating, ventilation, etc. The device is capable of playing music and video discs, acting as an FM receiver, organizer, calculator, and gaming terminal.
Using the remote control you can access the Internet. The terminal is connected to an electronic payment system, so it allows you to make purchases in online and teleshops, as well as pay for utilities and other services. All this in a very simple form, quite accessible to any housewife.
Each Web-TV terminal significantly expands the capabilities of conventional television. Its memory contains an electronic program program for received channels with brief annotations. Web-TV allows you to create a personal program schedule: the terminal will automatically switch the TV to those programs in which the viewer has previously indicated interest. Finally, the viewer gets the technical opportunity to personally take part in the TV show - ask a question by email, take part in a competition, find out additional information about the characters, etc. And all this without looking up from the TV screen. So far, these changes in the work of television are only being planned, but the prospects are opening up enormous (take, for example, such a thing as personalized advertising). And therefore, television producers, together with programmers, are now mastering a new profession - creators of interactive programs. This is the future of television.

ALL CONSUMER ELECTRONICS ARE BEING DIGITAL. EVEN TAPE VCRS ARE GOING DIGITAL
IN CONSUMER ELECTRONICS THERE IS NOW A BIG BATTLE BETWEEN FUNDAMENTALLY NEW STANDARDS AND IMPROVED OLD STANDARDS

Signatures
Philips plasma TV was recognized by European experts as the best in its class
Dogs with semiconductor “brains” made by Sony are ready to chase the ball until the batteries run out
This is what Grundig believes a home theater should look like. Grundig received the EISA Award for Best Design
Minsk "Horizon" is breaking into Europe
This Samsung VCR is designed for use in a car.
"The best mp3 player of the year" was made by Samsung. There is not a single moving part in it
The RICOR telecomputer ($595) is a jack of all trades. He will look after the house, show movies, and put them on the Internet.

Magazine "Kommersant Money" No. 36 dated September 15, 1999, p. 53

Authors:

Igor Pichugin