SONY LAUNCHING PERSONAL VIDEO CD PLAYER
By Adnews Staff
Japan-based Sony Corp. is trying to make video CD players as popular as Walkmans. The company is introducing a portable video compact disc player and personal display monitor that users can wear on their head later this month in Japan. The disc player must be hooked up to either a TV set or to the new personal display monitor. Sony has no plans to bring the product to Canada in the short term, Canadian corporate communications and advertising general manager John McCarter told Adnews yesterday. Long term plans could always change, he added. Sony is still deciding on whether to sell the two products to the U.S. Sony expects worldwide sales of video CD players to jump to four million units this year, an increase from one million in 1995. The video CD format is becoming more popular in Japan and throughout Asia partly because of its use as a karaoke device for sing-alongs in homes and bars. Video CD is a five-inch disc format that provides 74 minutes of pictures and sound. The new device will give the user up to four hours of use when playing videos and up to 12 hours when using music compact discs.