Word: videodiscs
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...consumer electronics business has produced some fierce marketing wars, but none is likely to be quite so cutthroat as the struggle that is starting for control of the videodisc industry. Videodisc players look much like any stereo deck, but, plugged into a TV, they play prerecorded movies, sports events, opera, sitcoms and documentaries. They promise to advance significantly the cause of viewers' lib, giving TV addicts freedom to watch what they want when they want to watch...
...folks who can both obtain films and keep home screening rooms to show them in. But now Magnavox and RCA are betting heavily on a new device they say will make this possible in any of the 70 million U.S. homes that have a television. It is called the videodisc...
...Videodisc? Americans are already familiar with videotape recorders, or VTRS, which can be plugged into an ordinary TV set and record up to four hours of programming on a cassette for later viewing. Videodiscs are also used with standard TV sets, but they are like phonograph records that can "play" video images as well as sound. They cannot record TV shows but, like records, are sold pre-programmed with anything that can be shown on the tube: movies, concerts, how-to instructions in golf and cooking...
Magnavox, which has been marketing a $695 videodisc player in Atlanta since December and plans to introduce it in other cities this year, has already assembled a list of 202 recorded discs; they include 108 movies, among them Animal House, Jaws 2 and House Calls, which sell for a top price of $15.95. RCA plans to launch a less expensive system (about $400) next year and is also building up a library of similarly priced films, as well as concerts and opera performances...
...discs, which will all play for 60 min., are grooved like records, and a stylus is used to pick up the sound and images. Because they are easily fouled by dirt, the discs are kept in plastic caddies; they are inserted in a slot in the videodisc machine rather than placed on a turntable...