Date   : Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:57:28 -0500
From   : jules.richardson99@... (Jules Richardson)
Subject: Domesday Preservation

Darren Grant wrote:
> I expect however that proper CD's will last just as long as 
 > the LaserDiscs.

I'm not sure - there's just so much more to a LD; I imagine they're prone to 
rot, scratches etc. in the same way as CD/DVD, but the fact that they're 
thicker and lower density makes them a lot more robust.

I have seen a few LVROMs that are decaying at the edges, same as some old CDs 
do, but so far I've not found one that's unusable because of this.

> I think there are a number of reasons why LaserDisc failed.
> The first was that the price of the equipment was so high aimed at
> specialist markets where as CD Audio became increasingly cheap. Once it
> became practical to store images digitally and display them on a computer
> someone realised that you could use cheaper CD hardware. Consumers favoured
> the smaller, single sided media and the CD drive could fit inside the
> computer. Where as Philips were the only ones behind LV-ROM a number of
> companies got behind the CD-ROM standard.

I'm not so sure that the physical size was an issue - players were comparable 
in size to video recorders of a similar period. But the need to flip / change 
discs partway through a movie really put all but the die-hard consumers off 
(despite the image quality and lack of degradation inherent in LD technology 
as compared to VHS / Beta)