Newsgroup: it.hobby.home-cinema
Titolo: Considerazioni su laserdisc e DVD di LaserScans

Forwardo parte dell'ultimo numero di Laser Scans, ottima rivista on
line sulle novita' in DVD e laserdisc: mi sembrano considerazioni
molto interessanti!
Laser Scans, an Internet newsletter, is edited and published by Chris
McGowan. To inquire about advertising or web site use, contact us at
laser...@aol.com
. Subscriptions are free: send an email with the
message "subscribe Laser Scans." Š Chris McGowan 1998.
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                                              News
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LASER SHRINKS AND GOES DIGITAL: The end of LD appears to be near, at
least in North America. There are still a few dozen new titles
released each month and many laser specialists continue to report a
substantial laserdisc business, but the writing is on the wall.
Support for the format eroded much more swiftly in 1998 than many of
us had anticipated. Players virtually evaporated from retail shelves
and labels are liquidating their catalog titles. Image and Pioneer,
who release virtually all laserdiscs between them, have done a great
job in keeping the format alive this long, considering that most of
the major studios abandoned LD some time ago. But the two
industry stalwarts are releasing fewer laserdisc titles each month,
and devoting more of their energies to DVD. The last remaining
publishers of LDs -- such as Image, Pioneer, Columbia
TriStar, Criterion and Elite -- are issuing only about one-third the
number of new titles (not re-releases) that they were a year ago. We
are now seeing only about 30-40 new LDs per month
instead of last year's pace of 100-125 monthly releases. Indeed, this
could very well be the last Christmas season for new laserdisc
software. Enjoy it while you can.
In 1999, diehard supporters of the 12-inch format will be able to
purchase better and more affordable DVD machines -- including, we
hope, much cheaper DVD/LD combiplayers. Or they can wait for whatever
next-generation format has appeared or is on the horizon, be it HDVD,
DVHS, DVC or something else. In the meantime, LD will remain an
invaluable supplement to DVD, especially if you live near a video
store with a great LD selection (such as two L.A.-area favorites,
Dave's Video in Studio City and Laser Library in Pasadena). I
personally expect to be renting both formats for quite some time. But
the inevitable has occurred: laserdisc holdouts without DVD players
already are missing some of the latest releases.
DVD meanwhile is doing well but not quite as well as we'd like.
Despite all the hype and the frequent press-release ploy of
substituting wholesale numbers for retail sales, the format's
household population is still at a niche level. It is unlikely to
match laserdisc's peak penetration (roughly 1.5 million according to
some estimates) until mid- or late-1999. The DVD-Video software market
will certainly be bolstered by the proliferation of PCs with DVD-ROM
drives, which should bring in new waves of potential viewers. All of
the studios, including DreamWorks, are now releasing, or about to
release, DVD titles. But there will be consumer confusion about Open
DVD vs. Divx (the two DVD-Video configurations). Will DVD go
mainstream? Does most of the U.S. care enough about quality to move
beyond the VCR? Hard to say. It is probable, though, that in the next
few months we will see burgeoning DVD software, better players, mass
confusion if Divx is successful, and a rapidly growing rental market.
The future is bright -- but the picture will be much clearer next
year.
DVD SALES: CEMA reports that 113,558 DVD players were shipped to
retailers in North America in September (during a five-week span
ending Oct. 2) and 81,170 units in August, bringing the year's
cumulative total to 555,774 wholesale sales.
Ciao
Nicola
"Fuck DVD!"  (Kevin Smith nella Special Edition
              in laserdisc di "Chasing Amy")