Re: Digital Watermarks (long, getting off-topic)

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

(My comments are really minor quibbles, based on my longtime use of DAT
machines, which I now have three of.)

At 2:19 PM 7/23/96, Alex F wrote:

>The Ent. Ind. got what they wanted though.  There are taxes, etc.
>(some sort of import restrictions anyway) that keep DAT player/recorder
>devices at around $700 per unit.  By this time normally the prices
>*should* be down to like $200 (using the CD industry as a guide)

As I said, I have three DAT machines. They are complicated machines, having
lots of moving parts and precise tolerances. (And they are prone to break!)
CD players are vastly simpler.

I'm not at all surprised that prices have remained at about the $400 level
for DAT decks, and about the same for DAT portables. After all, camcorders,
which use much the same technology, have also remained at about the same
price.

And I don't think the SCMS code had too much to do with mass-acceptance.
Most comsumers, according to available figures, *buy* C-90 cassette tapes,
and do not make their own. (That _you_, the CP list reader, may use your
cassette deck to make tapes has little to do with the vast numbers of
cassette users out there do...most don't know how to record with their
cassette decks.)

Pre-recorded DAT tapes were available for a while...they did not sell. I
believe this was because DAT machine purchasers were sophisticated and new
how to make CD-to-DAT copies, with or without SCMS.

Thus, the failure of DAT as a consumer medium (not to mention the
much-hyped MD and DCC formats) probably is due to other reasons, including
the mechanical issues, the lack of a real need for consumer DAT, and the
confusion over new emerging formats.

--Tim May



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