A dazzling array of new entertainment and educational software was previewed last week at the Consumer Electronics Show here, the annual convention that is to computer nerds and propeller heads that Woodstock was to hippies.
The Digital Video Disc (DVD) dominated the 1996 Winter Consumer Electronics Show the way snow dominated the East Coast the same week.
Sunny Las Vegas was host to CES Jan. 5-8, and the consumer electronics industry painted a sunny forecast for DVD in the coming years, claiming it would be the most successful product in the history of electronics.
First-year sales estimates ranged from .5 to 1.5 million players. The only other disagreement about DVD concerned whether the new name, Digital Versatile Disc, would stick. Most people continued referring to its middle name as Video.
Virtually every company introducing a DVD player claimed it had some role in inventing the new format, although Toshiba can take much of the credit.
In case you’ve been visiting Antarctica the past six months, the DVD is a CD-size disc that stores up to 30 times more information than existing CDs. That means a 135-minute movie will fit on a single side, with audio and video quality far surpassing existing 12-inch laserdiscs.
RCA promised to deliver at least two models of DVD players by Labor Day, starting at $499. Matsushita, parent of Panasonic/Quasar/Technics, will manufacture the players for RCA, which means Technics also will offer a player at about the same time. In return, RCA announced it will build Digital Satellite System (DSS) receivers for Panasonic, the newest major company to endorse DSS. Toshiba introduced its own pair of DVD players at $100 more than RCA’s prices also for late summer arrival. (Toshiba also announced a DSS receiver.)
Features, more than performance, differentiate models. The more expensive editions will include the decoding circuits for the full six digital sound channels (Dolby AC-3) and more video output options.
Other manufacturers aboard the DVD juggernaut include Sony, Philips, Pioneer, Onkyo, Sanyo/Fisher and LG (Goldstar) Electronics. Pioneer will introduce a combination DVD/CD/LD (laserdisc) player, so movie buffs can continue to play their existing LD collections. DVD is the first high-tech new product to debut at such a low price. The first VCRs and CD players cost $1,000, which in today’s dollars is even higher.
Audio offerings
Dolby AC-3, a digital audio technology enabling six discrete sound channels on laserdisc and DVD, surrounded the audio offerings. Yamaha, Kenwood, Harman/Kardon, Onkyo, Pioneer and Technics all showed stereo receivers either equipped with AC-3, or ready to connect to DVD players with built-in AC-3. These receivers ranged in price from $1,000-$2,000.
AC-3 sounds, and surrounds, far better than the popular Dolby Pro Logic. It permits stereo surround channels, so the sound can really orbit around your head. Audiophiles salivate over the strictly audio possibilities of DVD. An altruistic organization called Acoustic Renaissance for Audio presented a proposal for a versatile ultra-high quality audio standard for DVD that ranged from 96 kilohertz sampling rate (as compared with the current 44.1 khz) with 24 bits (as compared with the current 16 bits) to the current system with six hours of sound per disc.
The most promising of the new audio standards were those offering multi-channel audio along with improved fidelity. DVD developers will formalize new audio standards in March. Fortunately, manufacturers promise that all DVD players will play existing CD audio discs, and that forthcoming DVD-ROM computer drives will read present CD-ROM discs. Furthermore, ARA desires that all future super fidelity audio DVD discs will contain standard CD audio as well, enabling people to play the new discs in their ordinary CD players.
On the negative side, more than likely, the first DVD players introduced this year will not be able to take advantage of the super fidelity discs.
Among new stereo receivers, Technics unveiled the visually stunning SA-TX50. This second-generation THX-certified receiver gently glows with two enormous power meters dominating its uncluttered front panel. While Technics improved cosmetics and performance by making it AC-3 ready, it maintained the $1,000 price of last year’s model.
TVs, camcorders
Sony occupied the CES space formerly claimed by Intel. Whether a magic location or Sony magic it was the most crowded spot at the show. Sony wowed people with a 3D video and its expected arsenal of “gee whiz” products.
Sony maintained its domination of TV technology, showing both near and distant video display technologies. A rear-screen projection TV using liquid crystal displays for the projector source rather than TV tubes looked impressive. Sony says the thin set could be scaled to almost any screen size. The company already sells the product in Japan.
A more advanced technology, still a couple of years away, is the Plasmatron, Sony’s proprietary hybrid plasma/LCD flat panel TV that you could hang on the wall. Sony also introduced a dramatically price-reduced portable mini-disc player at $200, about half the price of previous models.
Sharp owned the other most heavily trafficked location. Its LCD front video projectors keep improving every year with ever-brighter pictures. Sharp showed the world’s largest LCD direct-view video screen at 27 inches, at an anticipated price of over $1,000 per inch.
Panasonic offered a twist on camcorders. The Palmcorder PV-D406 and PV-D506 include automatic video lights that illuminate when the video requires improved lighting. They also sense motion. You can set these camcorders to begin recording when the lens picks up movement. They will then record for 30 seconds and shut off.
Unusual, future products
A few additional unusual TVs appeared that won’t materialize in stores this year.
Sanyo showed the first widescreen TV that converts standard TV pictures to 3D using special electronic glasses. If you must have this, you can buy it in Japan now for $38,000. Onkyo announced a new way to create TV pictures using a solid-state laser, claiming that it surpassed all other technologies in quality and versatility.
RCA showed off “Genius Theater” a 35-inch TV with CD-ROM changer, high-speed modem and wireless keyboard. It’s the ultimate home entertainment system that also allows you to surf the Internet.
Zenith and Polaroid demonstrated a pair of TVs that capture screen images on film and print-out color snapshots. TV Picture Print costs a dollar a picture, which could be worth a thousand words.
If conventional reality becomes too much for you, virtual reality now enters the audio/video world.
Virtual Listening Systems debuted the first headphone listening system, Auri, that fully and accurately reproduces surround sound in headphones. The elaborate, but convenient-to-use system employs a patented technology called Toltec that works with any brand of headphones. Auri, which operates wirelessly from your TV, VCR or laserdisc player, includes its own Dolby Pro Logic surround sound processor, and will cost less than $400.
Virtual i-O, the company known for its eyeglasses style computer monitor, introduced VTV glasses for video viewing, which at $399 are half the price of the computer version. These glasses give the illusion of a 62-inch TV screen, right on the bridge of your nose.
Interest in tubes and demand by certain audiophiles — plus the current retro trend — caused Marantz to go back to the future to reintroduce its famed Model 7 tube electronics from the early 1960s, at prices close to $4,000 each. The company took great pains to identically match the original performance and even the color of the face plates.
Finally, Onkyo introduced something long overdue. The add-on SK-501 Access System to accompany the company’s MPC-501 micro-component system facilitates use of the component by the visually impaired. Onkyo supplies a Braille front panel, owner’s manual and Braille-labeled instructional audio cassette tapes, and even specially encoded interconnect and speaker cables. The SK-501 adds $50 to the cost of the MPC-501.
A final note: Shortly before CES, the man with the best ears in the audio industry passed away. Peter Mitchell, recording engineer, record producer and audio, columnist died at his home in California.
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E-mail Rich Warren at rwarren@prairienet.org
