The top 10 list about the Video formats failure. You feel free to add items to the list:
10. DIVX DVD (1998, from Digital Video Express and Circuit City)
Not to be confused with the video codec DivX, DIVX was an alternative
to standard DVDs promoted by electronics chain Circuit City and the
entertainment law firm Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca and Fischer. DIVX
presented the consumer with a complex rent-to-own proposition where
owners of a DIVX machine would buy a disc at Circuit City-of course-for
$4 (since I'm adjusting everything for inflation, that's $5.19 today),
then have 48 hours to watch it. After that, the disc would be useless.
If said movie-lover wanted to keep the disc, however, he could pony up
another couple of bucks to own the movie for good. The main benefit of
DIVX was that you didn't need to return your rental disc to the store
when you were done-it just stopped working. Unfortunately, its
drawbacks were much, much worse: You needed to hook it up to your phone
line to make the discs work, the discs were only sold at a limited
number of stores and the players were more expensive than regular DVD
players. The funny thing is that DIVX players could also play
conventional DVDs, so when Circuit City abandoned the format in 1999
and unloaded the remaining DIVX players at steep discounts, the
machines unintentionally ushered in the era of bargain DVD machines.
9. Capacitance Electronic Discs (aka CED, aka SelectaVision; 1981, from RCA)
RCA's
low-tech alternative to LaserDiscs, vinyl CEDs looked like records
encased in plastic cartridges. And they sort of worked like records,
too-SelectaVision players read the video information off of the grooved
CED discs using a stylus. The players cost $500 at launch ($1164 today)
but floundered in the marketplace trying to compete against the hugely
successful VCR. By 1984, SelectaVisions were selling at $149. After
that, they weren't selling at all.
8. LaserDisc (1978, from MCA and Philips)
While
VHS and Beta fought over who had the best recordable videocassette, MCA
and Philips came out with a laser-read optical videodisc technology
that is the basis for every subsequent optical disc format. The first
consumer LaserDisc player, the Magnavox Model 8000, cost $749 (the
equivalent of $2432 today). With 425 lines of resolution, LaserDisc had
better video quality than either Betamax or VHS, but lacked the other
formats' recording capability, so it never gained major market share
outside of the video enthusiast realm. Plus, the discs were huge, at
11.81 in., and easily scratchable. When smaller, higher resolution DVDs
were developed, analog LaserDiscs didn't have a chance.
7. Betamax (1975, from Sony)
The most
famous format war of all time, the contest between Sony's Betamax
technology and JVC's VHS was a long, drawn-out affair that continued
into the late 1980s. Sony's first Betamax players were introduced at
$2495 ($9817 today), and Betamax was pitched as the quality video
recording choice, with 250 lines of resolution to VHS's 240.
Nevertheless, VHS players were cheaper, and VHS tapes had double the
recording time of Betamax. Improvements were made to both technologies
over the years, but in the end, even mighty Sony had to admit defeat.
It started producing VHS players in 1988.
6. TeD (Television Electronic Disc; 1975, from Telefunken and Teldec)
How
do you say "unnecessarily complex" in German? Apparently, the word for
that is TeD, the moniker for a spinning, flexible foil disc that
recorded video information in grooves, which were then read by the
machine using a pressure pickup, which then translated the information
from the grooves into an electrical signal via a piezoelectric crystal.
Instead of a turntable, the 8-in. discs floated on a cushion of air as
they spun around at 1500 rpm-all this engineering for 10 minutes of
playing time per disc. The TeD sounded revolutionary when first
announced in 1970, but, by the time it made it to market in 1975, it
looked like a novelty compared to the videocassettes that were
beginning to establish market dominance.
5. VCord and VCord II (1974, from Sanyo-sold by Toshiba in Canada)
One of the forgotten alternatives to VHS and Betamax during the
videotape format wars, Sanyo's VCord was introduced prior to Betamax,
and was, by all accounts, popular at first. The VCord was advertised as
"exceptionally compact and lightweight" at 30 pounds, and was the first
recorder to offer two recording speeds, along with freeze frame and
slow motion. The great videocassette battle of the 70s and 80s didn't
really have room for a third contestant, however. Today, the VCord and
its successor, the VCord II, are often confused with old Betamax
machines.
4. Avco Cartrivision (1972, from Cartridge Television Inc.)
Television
guru Mark Schubin turned me on to this gem of video history. The
Cartrivision was an American-made videocassette recorder that debuted a
full three years before Sony's Betamax, and was integrated into
television sets sold in stores such as Sears. It cost an astounding
$1600 ($8103 adjusted for inflation), and worked with rental tapes that
could only be played once before they had to be sent back. Not
surprisingly, the manufacturer of this expensive and unwieldy
electronic device was out of business by 1974.
3. U Matic (1971, from Sony)
These 0.75-in. videotape recorders used one of the first enclosed
cartridge formats on the market. Debuting at $1395 ($7292 in 2008
dollars), the machines could record 60 minutes of color television at
250 lines of resolution with full stereo sound. Nevertheless, the price
was too steep for mom-and-pop TV watchers, so U matic never really
caught on with consumers. It did, however, catch on with professionals,
and serves as a workhorse format in television production to this day.
2. EVR (Electronic Video Recording; 1968, developed by CBS Labs, manufactured by Motorola)
Despite
the name, EVR devices didn't record. First demonstrated in the late
1960s, they played reels of film through an optical transducer that
output video for standard televisions. The first demonstration models
were black-and-white, but by the early 70s CBS had developed a color
version. Unfortunately, the machines proved too expensive to mass
produce, and CBS pulled out of the effort by 1971, having lost millions
on the project.
1. CV-2000 (1965, from Sony)
For a mere $695 ($4670 in today's bucks), Sony sold one of the first
consumer videotape recorders. This compact (46 pounds!) machine
recorded TV shows in black and white on reel-to-reel tapes. Each spool
of tape cost $40 (that's almost $270 to you and me) and could hold 1
hour of video at 200 stunning lines of resolution. Intended for the
home market, most CV-2000s were bought up by schools and businesses.
And before the CV-2000 had much of a chance to gain acceptance, color
and cassette options were starting to appear.
''The winner''
Source: http://media.popularmechanics.com
