The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 300 Format Controversy
However, although the company responsible for setting standards is very cool, it is not so cool when it finds out that it has a competitor.

Originally, Sony had already developed the BETAMAX format video recorder as early as April and May, but encountered some bottlenecks in promotion.The reason is that it does not intend to authorize other home appliance manufacturers, and wants to eat alone behind closed doors, which makes other home appliance manufacturers very dissatisfied.

Hollywood studios didn't pay much attention to this invention at first. On the contrary, they felt that this invention would harm their interests and prevent consumers from going to theaters to watch movies, so they resisted it in the first few years.

Especially in the 80s, Universal Pictures sued Sony Corporation. Universal Pictures believed that video recording opportunities would lead to the proliferation of pirated movies, and demanded compensation from Sony, the video recorder manufacturer, and issued an injunction to prohibit the sale of such equipment in the United States.

Sony argued on the grounds, arguing that the video recorder itself was not at fault, and that it did not need to bear such serious charges.After the trial, the court also believed that although the video recorder may lead to rampant piracy, it also has non-illegal uses, so it dismissed Universal Pictures' complaint.Sony's victory also puts on protective clothing for digital cameras, WALKMAN, MP3 and other electronic products that may cause piracy disputes in the future, so that they can avoid being sued by record companies and other copyright owners.

American Hollywood studios obviously have the ability to participate in the format competition, but chose to sit on the sidelines.Xu Guanwu wanted to participate in the format competition, but secretly hated that he was not qualified to participate in the competition.With the current capital of Hollywood in Hong Kong, it is not yet able to challenge global home appliance companies.

The 80s and [-]s were the golden age for the vigorous development of the global manufacturing industry. Refrigerators, color TVs, air conditioners, washing machines, etc., along with the rapid development of the economy, the rapid expansion of people's demand, and sales are also growing at an extremely fast rate.

In comparison, the film industry is at a low ebb, and even Hollywood Studios is on the verge of bankruptcy. Its annual revenue is not as much as that of Sony, so naturally it has no ability to speak.

But in the [-]s and [-]s, the manufacturing industry began to fall into a period of saturation. Traditional home appliance manufacturers competed fiercely, and their profits dropped from several times before to only [-]-[-]%.Just like in the early days of Zhongguancun, saving a computer could earn thousands of yuan, but now saving a computer can only earn a cabbage money.

At this time, content suppliers such as movies and TV, which were previously ignored, have become the arbiters who determine the life and death of manufacturers.The format competition between Blu-ray and HDDVD is because five of the seven major Hollywood film companies have chosen Blu-ray discs, which led to the fiasco of HDDVD.

However, it is a pity that in the previous and subsequent format wars, mainland home appliance manufacturers were just passing by to make soy sauce, and did not have the strength to participate in it.

……

Xu Guanwu originally planned to use Sony's BETAMAX to build a videotape factory, because the videotapes in this format have a better picture and are naturally more suitable for film companies to distribute movie videotapes.

But it is a pity that although it has been launched for five months, the sales volume has not made great progress. It is not known that it will be fully rolled out in East Asia until the Year of the Monkey.Therefore, opening a video tape factory is also something that cannot see profits in the short term.

And now JVC has launched the VHS format video recorder, and is willing to authorize other companies to manufacture, which has made many allies for the VHS format video recorder, not only the shipment can be greatly increased, but also the strength of allies can be used , quickly open the market all over the world.

The competition between BETAMAX and VHS formats has just started, and it is not clear who will win or lose in a short time.Xu Guanwu only knows that there is a dispute between CD\VCD\DVD, Blu-ray and HDDVD, but he really can't remember the dispute over the video recorder format. This kind of machine is sold more in Europe and the United States.On the other hand, sales in the mainland were relatively small, and all of them were replaced with VCDs in the 90s.

It is not good to join either side rashly, because purchasing video tape production equipment also costs a lot of money.And every time a video tape is produced, a patent fee needs to be paid to the patentee.Although the patent fee is not expensive individually, but imagine if it is a best-selling video tape with a sales volume of more than one million video screens, the cumulative patent fee will be an astronomical figure.

And how many videotapes will be produced in the world every year, which is hundreds of millions, and the patent fee is naturally quite high.This is why there are so many e-commerce companies scrambling to set standards, because once their own standards are determined, it is really raising a golden chicken that lays golden eggs.

Although more advanced home appliances such as DVD\HDDVD\Blu-ray have already been produced, many video tapes are released every year in Europe and the United States, so that JVC is still enjoying the dividends brought by VHS format video recorders.

……

Although he couldn't make up his mind, Xu Guanwu thought of 20th Century Fox in North America.Although the Xu Brothers Company is unable to join the format competition, if 20th Century Fox can stand up and unite with some other film companies, it will be enough to form a considerable fighting force.

After all, although the video recorder is good, it still needs content. If there is not enough support from film manufacturers, it will be quite embarrassing if the video recorder is sold in the future and there are no movies to watch.

Just like the DC home game console launched by Sega back then, the game performance far exceeded Sony's PS, but because of the lack of high-end game content support, the sales volume was far lower than Sony's PS game console.However, Sega, a traditional hardware manufacturer, has never recovered, and unfortunately withdrew from the home game console market.

But when Xu Guanwu called Darryl Zaniuk, the old Zaniuk seemed very angry, "They are encouraging piracy, damn Japanese shorties, if everyone gets a videotape in the future, and then just rip it Hundreds and thousands of movies, who will enter the theaters after that? We must protest this company, and we will definitely not let them succeed."

Xu Guanwu didn't expect that Hollywood filmmakers would be so short-sighted, and would choose to shut out the new technology of video recorders because of fear of piracy.

However, this matter is not unusual. At first, Hollywood filmmakers did not have a deep understanding of VCRs. One was worried that it would encourage piracy, and the other was that they did not believe how much profit it could bring.That's why the Hollywood Screenwriters Guild easily let go of the video market and only charged a symbolic [-]% dividend.

As a result, the videotape and DVD market became a huge source of income for Hollywood movies, accounting for more than 1.8% of the total income. This poor [-]% ([-]%) has risen to [-]%.Naturally, the Hollywood studios are unwilling to give up their fat, so the two sides have been engaged in a tug-of-war, round after round of strikes and rounds of negotiations, very busy.

Even Hollywood's think tank was so short-sighted at the beginning, which shows how other Hollywood filmmakers view the video tape.

After Xu Guanwu patiently listened to Daryl's scolding, he suggested that he should not underestimate this machine. In fact, it has a huge market, which is to make up for the current lack of home entertainment.It is impossible for people to go to the theater to watch movies all the time, because that requires more than two hours of special time, and then they drive together, and after arriving at the theater, they have to spend a lot of money to buy snacks, and then maybe the selected movies are not as advertised. Well, after enjoying an audio-visual feast or a disgusting bad movie, I have to drive home again.

It will take at least several hours to come and go, but if you have a video recorder at home, it will be very different.You can rent a box of your favorite video tapes at any time on the way home, or at the rental shop in the community, and then take it home and sit on the sofa, or alone, three or five people, or the whole family, eating snacks and drinking Enjoying it while sipping a beer is a very pleasant thing.And it costs nothing more than a little rental fee.

After hearing the scene described by Xu Guanwu, Darryl Zarnuk couldn't help but feel a little bit moved. It really sounds like a very good electronic product.If you really have such a machine at home, and rent a few DVDs to lie on the sofa in your spare time, drink beer and watch your favorite movies, it will be a kind of happy enjoyment.

"However, Xu, you have to know that this will lead to rampant piracy. What if those people don't rent video tapes, but choose to rip some video tapes and then share them in the circle of friends?" Darryl Zarnuk He suddenly asked, "In this way, our loss will be too great. Maybe the income we can get from renting is not as good as the money we paid for recording a video tape."

"Of course, on the one hand, this requires the publicity of the media to tell people not to watch pirated video tapes. On the other hand, the law must also be used to crack down on pirates. Another point is that manufacturers need to invent methods to prevent piracy. I believe there will be There is a way to solve it." Xu Guanwu smiled and said, "There is an old saying in China that you can't eat because of choking. We can't just miss such a household appliance that can greatly improve the quality of life because of possible piracy incidents."

"Your suggestions are not bad, but now there are two different video recorders, which one should we choose?" Darryl Zarnuk accepted Xu Guanwu's suggestion, but asked with some doubts.

Now both JVC and Sony have launched their own video recorders with their own formats, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and Darryl has no idea how to choose.

"You contact a few Hollywood film companies first, and then talk to Sony and JVC respectively to see who can make the most profit. This is the most important thing for us." Xu Guanwu scratched his head and suggested.

"Okay, then I'll go find someone to contact them. I believe that if our Hollywood film company joins the battle, it will definitely muddy the water." Darryl Zanyuk looked excited .

Xu Guanwu couldn't help rolling his eyes, this old militant wished to muddy the water.It is estimated that through this method, the format battle between Sony and JVC will be more fierce, and then fish in troubled waters.

……

After finishing the phone call, Xu Guanwu began to watch Daryl lead a group of Hollywood film companies into the battle circle.When Hollywood studios joined the format war as a third party, the battle suddenly became dizzying, and wonderful shows were staged frequently.

However, Xu Guanwu felt ashamed to see the American film colleagues wandering between Sony and JVC's major e-commerce companies, taking advantage of the fire, while the Hong Kong Hollywood filmmakers could only watch from the sidelines.

"When will Chinese people be able to participate in this kind of war with customized game rules?" Xu Guanwu couldn't help thinking depressingly.

As far as he knows, there is no shadow of Chinese companies in the customization of CD\DVD\HDDVD\Blu-ray and other formats.Therefore, when Chinese manufacturers produce these machines, they will have to pay patent fees to the standard setters, and the products made in China open the market at low prices, so paying high patent fees has become unbearable for Chinese manufacturers. Heavy.

On the contrary, if you can participate in standard customization, you can save a lot of patent fees.Just like the mainland participated in the formulation of 3G communication technology standards, if the technical standards can be adopted, then the 3G mobile phones produced in the mainland can save a lot of patent fees in the future.If you just passively accept the standards set by foreign manufacturers, you will have to pay a patent fee for each mobile phone produced, so how can you talk about entering the world market? !

In the international arena, it is not empty talk that fourth-rate companies sell strength, third-rate companies sell products, second-rate companies sell technology, and first-rate companies sell standards.

(End of this chapter)