Audio Video News

As the Consumer Electronics Association sees it, the Digital Versatile Disc player is one of the most successful electronic products ever introduced. The format was introduced late in 1996, and began to gather momentum in 1998. Last year the players flew off dealers' shelves as prices approached the $200 level and the film industry began cranking out thousands of titles. DVD has been a huge hit in the US, which is in the midst of one of the longest economic upswings in history.

Approximately 3 million DVD players were sold in the US in 1999, according to the CEA, but the picture isn't so rosy in Japan, where most of the machines are made. The format has been slow to win converts there because of a slow economy and a lack of space for home theater in most dwellings. The pattern is unusual, says a July 4 report from the Associated Press; most consumer-electronics products debut in their home countries before spreading to the global market.

Only 388,000 DVD players were sold to Japanese consumers last year, a 62% jump from 1998, according to the Electronic Industries Association of Japan, but still only a fraction of the number sold in America. Japanese manufacturers would like to duplicate their US success at home, but are encountering obstacles unique to the island nation: small apartments and a plethora of electronic devices. Most people have no space to devote to another gadget. The Japanese people are also notoriously thrifty, and reluctant to spend money on luxury items. In Japan, a DVD player costs approximately ¥40,000, three times the price of a VCR. Moreover, the DVD demands a better display and improved audio gear, which pushes the tab up to hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of yen.

DVD discs are twice as expensive in Japan as in the States, according to the AP, but video rental shops are everywhere, as are the VCRs needed to play rented tapes. The result is that, in Japan, DVD is a format for the "fanatic fringe"—those who can afford both the gear and the space to put it in. "The idea of the home theater was easily accepted in the United States," stated Hitoshi Hitokoto, manager of Sony's DVD product-planning division. "It appealed to only a small part of the Japanese population."

For now, it appears that video cassettes will continue to rule the market in which DVD originated. "In Japan, DVDs are still for the minority—those who're so crazy about movies they're willing to pay for the latest technology," said Junichi Nishikawa, a Pioneer Corp. manager. The recordable DVD could change the trend, however. Several companies are planning to release DVD-R machines later this year.