Word: dvd
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Another thing I want is a DVD player. I've been "testing" the Panasonic A310 ($599), a splendid machine with built-in Dolby audio, and I've been dragging my feet in returning it. DVD is to videotape what CDs were to records. If you haven't seen it, you'll be surprised by the clarity of the picture. I only wish I had DVD on my laptop...
Though technological advances often come with risks, one safe buy is the DVD player. Less than two years into its existence, 1 million units have been sold. Now the format is entering its third generation, with falling prices and added refinements (a muscular midrange unit like the new Toshiba SD-3108, seen here, is $699); 1,700 titles are available, and that number could triple this Christmas season with an infusion of back-catalog classics. Wary of splurging for a collection? In the home-theater market, legitimacy means that Blockbuster--and many local video stores--now have discs to rent...
...extra $100, you can try DVD's pay-per-view cousin, called DVX. But don't get too attached yet. "Some of the concepts aren't bad," Kevin Hause, a senior analyst at market researcher IDC, says with faint praise. "In the end, the best thing about it may be that the player will still play DVDs after DVX dies...
...anyone want to get rid of his old reliable videotape player? For the same reasons that music lovers upgraded from record players to audio CDs: superior quality, compact storage and the ability to hop quickly to a precise spot in the programming. I've been trying out a Panasonic DVD A310 ($599), and am surprised that the picture really does look twice as good as those blurry images my half-as-expensive, suddenly depressing VCR has been grinding out. That's because VHS recorders typically display movies at about 240 lines of resolution; digital video paints the screen with...
While a Divx deck can run DVDs, it also plays its own disks. Divx decks plug into the TV, just like DVD drives. But they plug into the phone line too. When you first set up your deck, you must establish an account with Divx central--your machine calls a toll-free number, and you key in credit-card information. (The player automatically calls headquarters once or twice a month in the middle of the night, which I find creepy.) You see, rather than simply renting Divx disks, you buy them outright, for $4.50, and never return them...