Video Technology

["Tom Johnson" <johnsont -at- starcutter -dot- com>]

Greetings from your correspondent out in the sticks,

I have a chance to work on something outside the normal technical writing
and marcom stuff. I get to lead up a project working with interactive video.
I'm finding out things have changed a lot compared to the analog video stuff
I've used.

We want to use video at a conference, possibly in a kiosk, more likely with
someone using a remote (or touch screen) to present video clips showing the
capabilities of our machines. There are two different ways, that we know of
to make it interactive. One is CD-I (I for Interactive) made by Phillips, I
believe. The other option appears to be DVD. In talking with potential
vendors, we are getting conflicting information about the two technologies.

We have one project that was done for us earlier on CD-I. It works well and
we wouldn't mind continuing to use it. Vendor A, who did this project, says
CD-I is still viable and that is the way we should go. He says DVD is too
unstable at this point.

Another vendor (B) says DVD is the coming standard, still in its infancy,
but stable enough to be viable. He also says he can do the project less
expensively, including new display equipment for us than vendor A.

My questions are:
Is the CD-I technology nearing obsolescence? Vendor A says Phillips is no
longer supporting the technology.

Is there any reason not to use DVD? Even if we buy equipment that will be
obsolete, we can still have something that we can use for maybe a year.

Does anyone know how the cost of digitizing, compression, and all that other
stuff, compares between the two technologies.

Thanks for your help. Anybody want to buy a used CD-I player? ;) ;)

Tom Johnson