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In December 1978, LaserDiscs looked like the hot new thing in visual technology. So why did VHS eventually win out?
ANYONE remember LaserDiscs? On 14 December 1978, New Scientist ran a long story about this new technology entitled “Vinyl goes visual“. These early versions of compact discs were just about to hit the market and enter the battle for video supremacy.
VHS and Betamax video cassettes had launched a few years earlier, and Dutch electronics giant Philips was banking that its new technology, far superior in sound and visual quality, would blow video cassettes out of the water.
There…
