(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 Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."