Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990 TAG: 9004030121
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
With a protracted legal battle over this latest advance in high-end recording potentially resolved, manufacturers are promising to roll out their consumer DAT machines by summer, nearly three years later than first expected.
The recording industry, aware of statistics showing that four out of 10 people over age 10 have taped recorded music in the past year, is holding its breath.
Technics plans to introduce a DAT recorder in the United States this summer at a cost of $1,200 to $1,300. How well the pricey machines fare with consumers is an open question, but some analysts predict that, like CD players, the prices will fall sharply when DAT gains popularity.
To the recording industry, the scary part about DAT is that as many as 20 generations of digital copies can be made without discernible loss of quality.
The Athens agreement ended the legal battle - for now - by instituting the Serial Copy Management System, which will allow one DAT copy to be made from a copyrighted CD, but the user cannot make a copy from the DAT copy.
SCMS uses a silicon chip that will be able to detect an electronic anti-piracy "flag" placed on copyrighted digital material. The chip will "write" this flag onto the first DAT copy made from the CD. If a DAT recorder detects this flag, its record function will not operate.
DAT tapes, about half the size of conventional audiocassettes, can store as much as two encyclopedias' worth of data. DAT machines record at the dizzying speed of 123 inches per second - 65 times faster than today's cassette deck.
by CNB