 October 15, 2005
The False Gods of
Compatibility
A single Blue Amberol sits atop my record shelves,
mute testimony to the futility of one of the dearest beliefs of the home entertainment
industry: that every new medium should be compatible in some degree with what’s
already out there. The ideal is that old media will play on new machines, and that new
media will play on old machines.
That sort of compatibility is very rare, and usually comes
at some cost, either in convenience or in performance. Most often, the marketplace has
decided to scrap the old format and technological progress has proceeded.
The Blue Amberol is an Edison cylinder recording, a format
that its defenders (notably Thomas Edison himself) maintained to the end was superior to
what came later. But the market knew best, it seems, and trashed the cylinder in favor of
something completely different. There are many more examples.
Cylinder to 78rpm Disc
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Mass production brought costs down and increased
quality. Turned a small niche into a mass market.
78rpm disc to 33.3rpm LP
Compatibility: Some, as long as makers of record players
continued to make three-speed turntables (and provide the incompatible 78rpm stylus, which
would ruin LPs). New discs would definitely not play on old machines.
Gains: Much longer playing times (400% from the start,
increasing later). True high fidelity. Far less noise. Resistance to breakage. Eventually,
two-channel stereo.
LP to CD
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Absence of noise, distortion, speed irregularities.
Much wider dynamic range than all but the most exotic audiophile LPs. Superb sound, even
if some continued to prefer vinyl’s character.
Transcription discs to open-reel tape
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: High-fidelity recording. Editability. Accessibility
to consumers. Near indestructibility (you could fix many breaks). Revolutionized radio,
recording, movies, kids’ piano recitals.
Open-reel tape to 8-track tape
Compatibility: Zero
Gain: Some convenience. But oops! Big mistake! On virtually
every performance level, worse than what it replaced. Supplanted eventually by cassette.
Open-reel tape to cassette tape
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Convenience. Standardization -- a cassette made on
any machine would play on any other. Eventually, technological improvements made the best
cassettes superior to open-reel, at least at the consumer level.
Cassette tape to Digital Audio Tape (DAT)
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Matchless recording. Long playing time from small
tape. Embroiled in political disputes and died as a consumer item despite its superior
technology.
Cassette tape to Digital Compact Cassette (DCC)
Compatibility: Some. Regular cassettes would play in DCC
machines, but not vice versa.
Gains: Excellent digital sound. Died from lack of interest
by consumers and record companies, despite superior technology.
Cassette tape to MiniDisc
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Excellent digital sound. Reusability. Wonderful
editing features. Small discs and machines. Jury’s still out on whether the MiniDisc
will make it.
Cassette tape to CD-R/RW
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Excellent digital sound. Record-only version will
play in most CD players.
Amplitude-modulation (AM) to frequency-modulation (FM)
radio
Compatibility: Zero, though most radios now have both bands
and share amplification, etc.
Gains: High-fidelity sound and, eventually, stereo. Freedom
from static and much interference. Low noise, though this was compromised somewhat when
(compatible) stereo was introduced.
Radio to television
Compatibility: Zero, although TV is a form of radio. Some
early sets had built-in radios, but they were really separate components.
Gain: Pictures.
Black-and-white TV to color TV
Compatibility: Good. Both kinds of pictures will play on
both kinds of sets.
Gain: Color an obvious benefit, although originally
achieved at the cost of a drop in resolution, largely overcome in more recent sets.
Open-reel videotape to Beta videocassette
Compatibility: Zero. Pre-Beta tapes were open-reel and very
awkward.
Gains: Compact tapes, ease of operation. First opportunity
ever for consumers to program their own television viewing.
Beta videocassette to VHS videocassette
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Longer recording time. Wider availability of tapes,
once most video companies decided to back this format. Many believe that this involved a
drop in quality from Beta, but that’s unlikely.
VHS videocassette to Super VHS videocassette
Compatibility: Some. All SVHS machines play and record
regular VHS. Regular VHS machines can’t play SVHS.
Gain: Far higher picture quality, even at slowest speed.
Movie companies refused to embrace the format, so it languished.
VHS videocassette to laserdisc
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Far superior picture quality and, eventually,
digital sound. For years, the choice of serious video hobbyists.
Laserdisc to DVD-Video
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Superior digital pictures. Small disc, enormous data
capacity. May have some compatibility with audio-only version.
Home film cameras to camcorder
Compatibility: Zero
Gains: Instant viewing. Reusability. Sound. Convenience.
Turned every father and grandfather into a video director.
Please -- I never wanted to play my CDs on my turntable or
tune in AM radio on the TV set, and I don’t think anyone else did either.
Compatibility has been honored more in the breach than in the observance, and that’s
as it should be.
...Ian G. Masters
igmasters@soundstageav.com
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