Here we go again. Big guns and big stakes have been pulled into the fracas over two competing digital videodisc formats. And people are taking sides. Even big players from Hollywood are jumping in, as if they knew the difference between an angstrom and a micron. These mature and savvy businessfolk, as well as the press, refuse to understand that the issue is not video, but bits.
Bits are bits.
The moving image is only one data type. Surely, we cannot expect consumers to buy one machine or technology for video, another for audio, another for data, and yet another for multimedia. The screwball idea of owning a digital videodisc, which is nothing more than a movie player, is tantamount to digital obscenity. Certainly, we must increase the number of bits per square millimeter on CDs, but we also need to treat those bits as nothing more or less than what they are. We do not need to agree in advance on precise digital standards and formats, and we cannot speculate in advance on all conceivable uses.