The 10 Video Formats HD DVD Will Meet in Heaven

[Ian]

Popular Mechanics has an article talking about 10 other dead formats. I gotta admit that I haven't heard of some of these. Then again, I wasn't even born when half of these were released.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technol ... 55160.html

HD DVD, someone had to go. Sure, your picture quality was every bit as stunning as Blu-ray's, your price point was mildly more tolerable and your multimedia functionality probably would have been pretty good if it had ever really had a chance to develop. Nevertheless, members of the buying public weren't going to go out and buy two machines, so the world had to pick one-and it just wasn't you.

But take heart. When you reach the sweet hereafter, you'll be in remarkable company, hanging with some of the most promising nonstarters in the history of video technology. Every one of these formats was a brilliantly engineered technological flop—and maybe Toshiba can reap some consolation from the fact that rival Sony's name shows up more than once, proving that for every sip of marketplace success, a company must swallow an ocean of consumer rejection.

Here's the list:

10. DIVX DVD
9. Capacitance Electronic Discs (CED)
8. LaserDisc
7. Betamax
6. TeD (Television Electronic Disc)
5. VCord and VCord II
4. Avco Cartrivision
3. U Matic
2. EVR (Electronic Video Recording)
1. CV-2000

[Grain]

My HD DVD player has it's place of glory on my stereo rack, not too far from my laserdisc player

[redk9258]

I never realized that U-Matic was meant as a consumer format. I think Beta was based on the U-Matic format, but downsized for home use (1/2" tape instead of 3/4" tape).

My 6th grade teacher had a U-Matic machine, but I always thought is was a professional unit built for the broadcast industry.

[cozkramer]

There's more then one format on that list that was superior to its opposition.. At some point in time, I've had most of those on said list. However, I never bought into the HD DVD market as it really was a lesser format. Tho don't give up Toshiba, you do make some nice stuff!