DVD ERA SET TO BEGIN : ORDERS PRECEDE DELIVERY OF PLAYER.Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer High-tech video fans have begun embracing the much-hyped digital versatile disc digital versatile disc or digital video disc (DVD), a small plastic disc used for the storage of digital data. The successor media to the compact disc (CD), a DVD can have as much as 26 times the storage capacity of a CD. players - even though the $1,600 machines won't be on store shelves until this weekend, and at just one store in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . ``We have been very pleasantly surprised by the response,'' said Mark Elson, general manager of Dave's Video, the Laser Place in Studio City. ``There is an unbelievable level of interest.'' The Ventura Boulevard Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east-west thouroughfares in the San Fernando Valley; as it was originally a part of the El Camino Real (the trail between Spanish missions), Ventura Boulevard is the oldest route in the San Fernando Valley. It was also U.S. store, which targets affluent customers working in the entertainment industry, is one of 26 nationwide selected by Pioneer Electronics to start selling the Elite DVL-90 as of this weekend. It told customers last week that it had scheduled five showings for Saturday, added three more showings and had filled all eight by Tuesday. Each showing has a capacity of about 80 people. ``We're expecting standing-room only,'' he said. Elson said customer orders have started coming in for the DVL-90 even though they are not yet on the premises. He predicted sales will be strong once customers view the machine in action. ``Even though we're just seeing the first production run, the video quality is beautiful,'' he said. ``There's also a lot of value-added features, such as the search capability.'' The discs used for DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. contain seven times the capacity of a CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). , along with image quality equal to that of a laserdisc An earlier optical disc used for full-motion video and interactive training. It was introduced in the late 1970s and became obsolete in the 1990s. Videodisc systems based on a stylus were introduced (see CED), but only the optical-based LaserDisc survived, although never very popular. player. Pioneer is the first manufacturer to begin selling DVD players in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , with Toshiba expected to follow in late March and Sony coming in April. The DVL-90 can play both DVD and laserdisc formats. Dave's Video will start selling Pioneer's $1,000 DVL-70 and a $600 DVD-only player in a few weeks. Pioneer has estimated that 1 million DVD players of all types will be sold during the first year of distribution in the United States and 69 million units in the first four years. Movie studios announced earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas plans to release a wide variety of movies in the DVD format. Elson said his store will start selling DVD titles next month. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion