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To: BillyG who wrote (27711)	1/7/1998 5:24:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

$240 is a good price point. They'll need it to compete with VCD, or Super VCD. DVD positive spin.................................. nytsyn.com Industry Group Puts Positive Spin on DVDs BY DAVE McNARY c.1998 Los Angeles Daily News LOS ANGELES -- In a sign that much-hyped DVD technology is catching on, a consumer electronics trade group has predicted that U.S. sales of DVD players will more than double this year from 325,000 units in 1997 to 750,000. Although final 1997 sales will be about 25,000 short of projections originally made by the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association, CEMA spokesman Ed Korenman said, ''We think it's a pretty good launch for something that wasn't even in the stores before last April. ... Any new technology is going to take a couple of years to catch on.'' Digital versatile discs are the same size as audio compact discs but with seven times the capacity. DVDs can play full-length movies with digital clarity and six-channel sound along with features like massive background information and instant rewind. Korenman said the retail price paid for basic DVD players has started to drop to under $500 as second-generation machines come into the market. ''Prices should continue to come down this year,'' he added. Tom Adams of Adams Media Research said the projection, to be officially released Thursday at the opening of the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is in line with his forecasts. He noted the numbers nearly match the sales figures generated by compact-disc players in the mid-1980s. ''We are still bullish on DVD,'' Adams said, adding that the technology will receive major boosts this year from the introduction of recordable DVDs and from the increased use of DVDs in personal computers. ''By 1999, DVD will be standard in most PCs,'' he predicted. Some analysts are less optimistic due to the downturn in the Japanese market, where the machines were launched in late 1996, and potential confusion over a pay-per-view DVD format called Divx to be released later this year. DVD will have a massive presence at the Winter CES while no Divx machines are planned for display, Korenman said. The show is a key launch point for new technologies in the retail marketplace. The four-day show, sponsored by the Electronics Industry Association, will have over 1,700 exhibits and should draw more than 90,000 people. Barry Diller, who agreed in October to buy most of Universal Studios' TV assets, will give the show's keynote address when the event opens.

To: BillyG who wrote (27711)	1/7/1998 6:58:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Pioneer's DVD-R/W............................ onlineinc.com Pioneer Proposes DVD-R/W Pioneer has unveiled a DVD-based rewritable format that promises to do what DVD-RAM, the Forum-approved rewritable specification for DVD, cannot: be readable on existing DVD read-only hardware. DVD-RAM isn't the exception, since DVD+RW, MMVF, and ASMO--to name some of the other rewritable DVD proposals--also require some change in DVD-ROM drives for backward compatibility. DVD-R/W, by Pioneer, is a relative latecomer to the growing options for rewritable DVD, and one that offers some compelling advantages. DVD-R/W is essentially a phase-change version of DVD-Recordable, which is directly comparable to CD-R. DVD-R/W is, therefore, directly comparable to CD-RW, which is making noteworthy inroads in the CD-R market. DVD-R/W's capacity is 3.95GB and the media will support up to 1,000 rewrites--substantially less than DVD-RAM and DVD+RW's 100,000 rewrites. But unlike any other proposed rewritable DVD format (and unlike CD-RW, which required "Multiread" changes in CD-ROM drives), DVD-R/W would be readable on existing DVD hardware, and a DVD-R/W recorder would be able to record DVD-R media and rewrite DVD-R/W media. DVD-R/W's appeal lies in its close adherence to the already approved DVD-ROM and DVD-R specifications. Because of the similarities to DVD-R and DVD-ROM, however, which includes CLV recording that facilitates streaming content rather than random-access content, and because of the 1,000-rewrite limitation, DVD-R/W is better suited as a development tool for streaming content than as secondary storage of random-access data. It was CD-R's role as a development tool for CD-ROM, however, that was responsible for bringing the concept, and the price point, of recordable and rewritable CD to the desktop and to the home. DVD-R/W has been proposed to the DVD Forum for endorsement as an "official" alternative to DVD-RAM. If it is not accepted, Pioneer may or may not pursue the development of products using this technology. According to Andy Parsons, vice president of technical support and business development for Pioneer New Media Technologies, "The announcement of DVD-R/W is not a product announcement, but a technology announcement." If products using DVD-R/W are developed, the hardware is expected to cost between $3,000 and $5,000 when introduced. TDK, Mitsubishi Chemical Company/Verbatim Corporation, and Hitachi Maxell, Inc. (the media division of Hitachi), have agreed to provide media development for the format, and JVC will provide application development. (Pioneer New Media Technologies, Inc., 2205 East 220th Street, Long Beach, CA 90810; 310/952-2111; Fax 310/952-2990; pioneerusa.com) --Dana J. Parker