September 16, 1999

DOWNTIME

A Step Toward a Versatile High-Definition VCR

By JOEL BRINKLEY

he first high-definition VCR is now on the market. But don't assume that the technology behind it will become dominant, the way VHS videotape rules the world today. In fact, the future looks quite messy.

	EARLY CONTENDER - Panasonic is marketing the PV-HD1000, the first digital VCR that is designed to work with high-definition television.

At least three different formats and technologies for recording high-definition broadcasts are butting heads in research laboratories and product development studios around the world. For the industry, and for consumers, this issue holds tremendous importance. About 91 percent of American homes have a VCR, most often more than one. The ability to play movies and record shows has become a ubiquitous feature of home entertainment.

The nation has not yet entered one of those format wars endemic to the consumer electronics industry. Most companies are simply waiting and watching, trying to see which technology will ripen in time to dominate the market as digital television becomes a mainstream product in the years ahead. But unless all of the major companies magically make the same choice, a format war seems inevitable.

In the meantime, the Panasonic Corporation is the first to offer an entry-level product, a digital, high-definition VCR based on the VHS format. This updated version of the venerable standard is called digital-VHS or D-VHS. It can record digital programs, even high-definition programs, on a special $14.95 VHS videotape that has a higher-quality magnetic coating. The machine can also serve as a traditional VCR and record regular television shows on conventional VHS tape -- all for a retail price of about $1,000, twice as much as a typical high-end VCR today.

Several other companies have announced plans to come out with D-VHS products in the months ahead, even though many industry leaders call this format an interim solution in the quest for the definitive digital, high-definition recorder. But for the next year or two at least, D-VHS machines may be the only option. The alternatives aren't ready yet.

That should not prove to be an important issue for any but a tiny handful of consumers today, as there would be no reason to buy a D-VHS machine if you did not already own an HDTV. And by the time high-definition sets become a mainstream product, two or three years from now, the alternative formats may be ready.

In the meantime, though, a look at the new Panasonic VCR indicates that D-VHS is hardly an unappealing interim option. The new Panasonic machine works quite well, just like a regular VCR.

The reason D-VHS machines are considered an interim compromise is that they cannot easily offer all the versatility that consumers have become accustomed to in a traditional VCR. For example, if you record a high-definition television show and want to fast-forward through the commercials when you watch it later on your HDTV, that is not at all easy to do with a D-VHS machine. The reason is that the VCR is recording a coded digital signal that cannot be watched until it has been passed through a digital decoder. And these decoders are not equipped to handle a highly complex digital signal pouring in at two, three or four times the normal speed.

The Panasonic device can provide a freeze frame of a high-definition image when the user presses Pause. But most of the other special functions that come with high-end VCR's, including slow motion, are not available. When the tape is advanced quickly, the monitor shows a still image of the last frame displayed before the Advance button was pressed.

The format wars are just beginning, but the first high-definition VCR is on the market.

Four years ago, 50 consumer electronics companies, including Panasonic, agreed on a format for a new sort of digital, high-definition VCR that would do everything a high-end analog VCR can now do. The idea behind this industry agreement was to avert a format war. The new system was called the digital videocassette, a completely new format that would simultaneously record a low-definition copy as well as the high-definition program. The low-definition version would be used for "trick effects," as they are known in the industry: fast-forward, slow, reverse play and the rest.

In the years since then, that format has been used for camcorders. But manufacturers appear to have forgotten about the agreement to use it to build high-definition VCR's.

"I don't know of anyone who is looking at it now," said Ed Milbourn, a senior executive at Thomson Consumer Electronics, the maker of RCA, Proscan and General Electric equipment.

The reason seems to be that most manufacturers are betting that one of two competing technologies will replace tape-based recorders altogether in the next two or three years.

The leading candidate is a high-definition DVD recorder. But Milbourn said he, like others in the industry, was also keeping his eye on video recorders based on hard drives, like the Replay Networks or Tivo video recorders that are on the market now.

"You can integrate those in a TV easily, and they can be a lot cheaper than a DVD recorder," he said. But high-definition video eats huge amounts of storage space, and the technology behind hard-drive video recorders will have to advance significantly before they can hold larger quantities of data.

Similar hurdles await a high-definition DVD recorder. DVD recorders are possible now for conventional video, but the marketing of such recorders is hampered by the two most common problems afflicting the consumer electronics industry: format wars and piracy concerns.

Even though the DVD Forum, a consortium of companies that control the format, agreed several years ago on a format for recordable DVD's, several manufacturers ignored that agreement and began promoting competing formats.

And to prevent piracy, Hollywood is insisting that any digital recording format be designed to prevent the copying of movies. The standard for that has not been agreed upon, either. Both those problems have held up the aggressive marketing of DVD recorders.

What's more, a different technology must be perfected, one that uses a blue laser, which has a shorter wavelength than the red ones now in use. Changing to a blue laser is the most practical way to increase the storage capacity of a DVD so it can hold a high-definition movie. The capacity of a DVD must more than double, to about 17 gigabytes. A blue laser with a shorter wavelength can read smaller pits burned into the surface of a DVD. And the more pits, representing digital ones and zeros, the greater the recording time of the disk.

Early this year, a Japanese company began shipping sample quantities of a blue laser to manufacturers. But the actual commercial sale of DVD products using a blue laser is thought to be at last two years away. "As soon as the essential factors such as the short-wave laser are ready, the work will begin," Toshihiro Sugaya, chief specialist of the optical-disk technology department at Toshiba, told the journal Electronic Engineering Times in June.

In the meantime, consumers are being offered the D-VHS format.

Gene Kelsey, vice president of the Panasonic Audio Group, said the company did not view D-VHS as an interim format. "My understanding is that the format will be improved so that it can eventually include these other features," he said. Panasonic has a stake in the continued health of D-VHS.

Panasonic's parent company, the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company, is the majority owner of JVC, the inventor of VHS and D-VHS. And JVC will receive licensing royalties for every D-VHS deck sold.

For now, however, Panasonic's product works as a digital recorder only in a closed, proprietary system in conjunction with a Panasonic digital receiver box. It can record a conventional television signal from an antenna or cable connection, just as any VCR does. But digital programming is received only through a special cable that connects the VCR to Panasonic's receiver box.

With that, the VCR works quite simply. And not surprisingly, digital copies of high-definition programming are flawless. There is no easily apparent difference between the original and the recorded copy -- just as it should be with a digital device.

The future of the VCR may be uncertain. But with D-VHS, the present feels quite comfortable and familiar.