Tall order, right? Yet multimedia delivers. Using the same basic CD technology that brings crystalline sound quality to stereo, the new machines use the silvery discs to store information - everything from full-length encyclopedias and reference works to travel guides. Computer users have been able to enjoy CD interactivity for a couple of years now, with software ranging from vast volumes of business data to titillating video role-playing adventures. But the makers of the new machines know that most consumers don’t want to touch a keyboard if they can help it. To get around computerphobia, these user-friendlier machines take their orders from a handheld remote control - and look a lot like now familiar stereo CD players.
The soul of the new machines is in how you get information. Say you’re checking out a travel guide to England. Interested in the finest British gardens? Use the remote control to call up an article, as well as rich photograph-quality images. A Bach disc will give his biography - but at the push of a button, you’ll also be able to hear the strains of his music. There are also entertainment titles among the 50 programs already in production: “Hot Seat” presents ethical dilemmas in video vignettes. Should he go upstairs on the first date? Should she keep the incorrect change? Players take time out to discuss the issue, and then use the remote to guide the action - and see the final result.
Consumers will have to make choices, too - in stores. Like VHS versus Betamax, dueling standards have emerged in the new media. The first to market, Commodore’s CDTV, has the look of Sony’s doomed Betamax: it’s limited to the company’s own product line. The second wave, due out before Christmas, conforms to an industry-wide CD-I (for CD-Interactive) standard, accepted by Sony, Philips, Magnavox and others. Sony is poised for a huge market assault. The Japanese electronics giant recently inked a deal with video-game king Nintendo: current and future Nintendo players will plug into Sony’s hardware. This will lead to video games with photo-quality graphics and, down the road, moving video similar to movies. Inevitably, Sony will even market a DataDiscman. Similar in shape to a Walkman, it uses 2.5-inch compact discs to display, via a liquid-crystal screen, encyclopedia entries or any other titles from a coming Sony library.
Of course, we could just be infatuated with a new toy; some analysts are skeptical. The players cost about $1,000, which could initially stop many consumers. Still, that’s the same price as the first stereo CD players in 1983, and look what happened with them. But the new CD gadgetry might be a harder sell, says Denise Caruso of the Seybold Digital Media Report: “People don’t know how to interact with their televisions. So they’ll have to have compelling reasons to invest.” CD-I developer Rob Fullop agrees: “When you’re an adult, you may just want to come home and turn on ‘Cheers’.” Fullop is none the less developing CD software. After all, interactive multimedia may not need the thirty some things. Their kids are perfectly happy to read text on computer screens and already love electronic games. The Nintendo generation is ready for the next step - and parents have proved willing to spend hundreds of dollars to feed the kidvid addiction. The prospect of mixing learning with pleasure could get them to pony up even more.
A new entertainment medium connects TVs to compact-disc players, but which disc is which? Here, the main competitors:
For CD-Interactive, the broad standard accepted by Sony, Philips and Magnavox; will go on sale next Christmas.
Commodore’s entry, and the first on the market. On sale now at computer stores.
Compact discs that can be read by personal computers. On the market for more than two years already, but held back by consumer computerphobia.
