Computer Consumer Technologies.
Digital video (or versatile) disc (DVD) was one of
the most talked-about consumer computer
technologies in 1996, even though most consumers had not
yet seen it. A DVD player would read a shiny disc
similar in appearance to a computer CD-ROM but
able to hold about 4.7 billion bytes of data, compared
with 650 million bytes on a CD-ROM. (Future DVD discs
were expected to hold more than eight billion bytes.)
The increased DVD storage capacity also would make
possible higher-quality video and sound than could be
obtained with a videocassette recorder tape and would
make it feasible for a moviemaker to sell a single DVD
containing several different endings to the same film or
multiple versions of the same movie, each in a different
language. The first consumer DVD players were expected
to debut in the U.S. in early 1997.
Digital photography, a marriage of computer
chips and traditional cameras that could capture photos
in electronic form, began to trickle into the U.S.
market during 1996. These electronic cameras had
previously cost from $1,500 to $30,000, but prices had
dropped dramatically. Proponents hoped digital cameras
costing less than $1,000 would compete for part of the
$13 billion that U.S. consumers were expected to spend
in 1996 on conventional cameras, photographic
accessories, and film processing, while camera
manufacturers and computer makers hoped that
consumers would be interested in taking digital photos
that could be edited on PC screens.
|