Word: vcrs
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When video signals take numerical form, all sorts of manipulations become possible. In addition to displaying multiple channels, the circuits can freeze frames or zoom in for close-ups. Digital VCRs can repeat sequences in slow motion or fast-forward without the distortion that mars conventional machines. Standard broadcast images can also be improved, up to a point. One video recorder made by NEC reduces interference by using microprocessors to compare successive image frames. By subtracting random elements that appear on one frame but not the other, the circuitry removes snow before it shows up on the screen...
None of this comes without cost. VCRs with digital features sell for $700 to $1,400, up to $1,000 more than conventional models. Digital TVs run from $1,500 to $3,000, in contrast to $1,800 for a top-of-the-line nondigital set. Given these prices, sales have been understandably sluggish. Digital VCRs will account for less than 3% of the 15 million videocassette recorders sold this year, and the high-tech TVs are not expected to fare much better. Observes David Lachenbruch, editorial director of TV Digest: "Consumers are not prepared to pay twice as much...
...trade deficit is the work of a pesky group of second-tier nations known as the newly industrialized countries. Once dismissed as marginal producers of chintzy clothes and toys, the NICs, which include South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and Brazil, have gone upscale, producing everything from VCRs and computers to cars and commuter planes. By importing technology and deploying armies of low-paid but often well-educated workers, the NICs have been able to undercut competitors' prices in markets all over the world. From 1980 to 1986, NIC exports jumped 56%, to $175 billion...
...argument there. Besides the lavish ego strokes that luxury vessels bestow, today's yachts satisfy almost every whim imaginable. The sun deck cradles a hot tub that can accommodate eight people, while commodious staterooms boast VCRs and private baths with Jacuzzis. Instead of a grungy galley, the superyacht has a gleaming kitchen replete with microwaves, commercial-size freezers and stoves, and trash compactors. The bionic boats pack every aquatic toy: water skis, snorkling gear, diving equipment, Jet Skis and sailboards. To help while away foul weather, a free-flowing bar is at the ready, and libraries are stocked with videotapes...
Negroponte began raising funds for the Media Lab in 1980 with the help of Jerome Wiesner, former M.I.T. president. The two men sought out publishers, broadcasters and electronics manufacturers whose businesses were being transformed by the advent of VCRs, cable television and personal computers. Then they hinted broadly that the faculty at M.I.T. knew precisely where all this was headed. Money came in from such leading sponsors as IBM, CBS, Warner Communications, 20th Century Fox, Mitsubishi, Time Inc. and the Washington Post. Sponsors can send scientists and other observers to the Media Lab and make commercial...