Video Asylum

Posted by Larry I (A) on January 15, 2008 at 16:09:11

In Reply to: RE: Costco has their Toshiba HD A3 for $129. posted by jsm on January 13, 2008 at 15:45:00

I suppose this is Toshiba's last, and probably hopeless last maneuver in a lost war. Perhaps enough cheap movies would become available, but for me, there is, so far, less than ten titles in both formats combined that I really want.

Perhaps someone will get lucky as those who bought RCA's competitor to LaserDiscs. RCA had a video disc that was read by a stylus playing in a shallow groove (the signal was the difference in capacitance caused by varying depth of pits in the groove). It worked well, but lost to the LaserDisc (itself, ultimately a loser). But, as a good faith gesture to those who bought the machines, RCA offered $500 to buy back the machines. That was a fantastic bargain for those who bought the machines for a lot less. At a show, I saw boxes and boxes of machines going for $50 (and no takers) before RCA made the offer.