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Technology Stocks : Hide & Seek - The Copy Protection Solution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chloe R who wrote (595)	8/17/1998 10:00:00 AM
From: IPOJunkie	Respond to of 690

Thursday, August 13, 1998 DVD-ROMs may push out CDs They look the same, but new disks can hold more than seven times as much By Deb Price / The Detroit News Godzilla may have been a summertime flop, but the ugly-toed monster sure got something right: Size does matter. Just ask the salesperson at your local computer store, where a fright bigger than any you'd get from a mere flick is waiting for you. CD technology -- now that you've gotten the hang of it -- is on its way out. Now there's DVD -- Digital Versatile Disk -- a futuristic mega-storage concept that promises to finally unify everyone's audio, visual and data needs into one eye-popping system. Over recent weeks, high-end computers loaded with DVD-ROM (DVD-read-only memory) drives instead of CD-ROM drives have started hitting Michigan stores. DVD is BIG. A compact disk holds 650 megabytes on a single-side, single layer. But a digital versatile disk, which to the unsuspecting eye looks identical to a CD, holds 4.7 gigabytes, or seven times as much. As PC Magazine points out, that's enough room for the text of the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 15 languages. But wait. That's just the start. The new DVD can store data on two layers, read by laser beams with different power levels, and can store information on both sides, boosting its storage capacity up to 17 GBs. One DVD, for example, can hold a two-hour movie with such options as multiple languages and subtitles, theatrical trailers, different endings, bloopers, and PG-13 and R-rated versions. In addition to its huge storage capacity, DVD offers high-resolution picture quality and awesome sound far superior to what you get from your standard videotape. The disks don't wear out and they're smaller -- therefore easier to store -- than VHS tapes. "Customers won't know the value of the DVD until they go to use something with full-motion video. And then they'll go, WOW!" says Jim Reese, a salesman at Dearborn's Best Buy, which offers Compaq and Hewlett-Packard PCs with DVD-ROM drives. DVD-ROM drives also can be bought separately to be inserted into your computer for about $300. "Now the DVD is a luxury," Reese says. "But within a year it'll be a standard feature." Cahner In-Stat Group projects that DVD-ROM drives will outship CD-ROM drives worldwide in 2000. The good news is that the new DVD-ROM drives can still play your CDs. "This is a natural progression," says Michelle Abraham, a senior analyst at the marketing research firm. "This is evolution, not revolution." DVD-equipped computers follow the release early last year of DVD players for television. Movies on DVDs are sold for $20 to $30 each. In late fall, Blockbuster plans to start renting DVD movies and players in select metro Detroit stores, says spokeswoman Liz Greene. In addition to stoking the desire for more DVD movie titles, the availability of DVD-equipped computers is unleashing a new generation of exotic computer games. Meanwhile, DVD-RAM (DVD-random access memory) drives, which enable you to record data, are just becoming available. Creative Labs is selling a kit for $500. Hi-Val Inc. will be releasing a kit around Thanksgiving for $399 to $599. Hi-Val also sells a wireless DVD system for $399 that allows you to use your computer's DVD-ROM drive to view DVD movies on your television. By the turn of the century, the first DVD recordable players for television are expected to be out. Computer models equipped with DVD-ROM are "selling like hotcakes," says Michael Davis of Troy's Computer City. "When customers ask me about it, I say go ahead and jump on it!" DVD stampede * What: Digital Versatile Disk, stores huge amounts of data and visual and audio material, expected to phase out CDs. * DVD vs. CD: Same physical size, but CD holds 650 MBs, DVD holds 4.7 to 17 GBs. * Uses: Movies with such options as PG-13- and R-rated versions; data on one disk instead of multidisk CD sets; exotic games. Next are DVD-RAM drives and DVD TV players that record as well. * Cost: PCs equipped with DVD-ROM drives cost about $300 extra. Can also be bought separately for about $300 to add to existing PC. * What about CDs? DVD-ROM drives can read and play standard CDs. PCs equipped with DVD-ROM expected to outpace those with CD-ROM by the year 2000.