Chapter 80 VHS Should Become History
Qin Weimin put down his lunchbox and stared at Su Yuanshan: "I don't agree with your theory."
"Why not?"
Qin Weimin spoke seriously: "Because the whole trick you're suggesting relies on us losing our cool. I don't believe Sony would make the mistake of pinning their hopes on their opponent's mistakes."
Chen Jing, sitting beside them, smiled and nodded. Clearly, she also believed Sony wouldn't underestimate them to such a degree.
Su Yuanshan nodded and smiled: "Mm, Senior Brother is right. But what if they're confident enough that they think they can make us lose our composure?"
Chen Jing paused and immediately looked back at him.
Su Yuanshan took a sip of water, closed his disposable lunchbox, and said slowly, eyes resting on the container: "Compared to Yuanchip, Sony has much deeper technical foundations. If we hadn't achieved a leap forward in development last year through precise foresight, we wouldn't even have the qualifications to sit at the negotiating table with a company like Sony, no matter how much we ran around."
"So, we must not let our temporary achievements make us underestimate Sony, especially their R&D capabilities."
"Until just now, I've been wondering — they must have some black technology or hidden asset related to the VCD that we don't know about yet."
Chen Jing was stunned: "Black technology? What's that?"
"It means some sudden breakthrough or advanced technology — a term coined by Xiaoshan," Qin Weimin explained with a chuckle, then turned back to Su Yuanshan: "But why not assume they have hidden cards in consoles or chip development instead?"
"They do have technology in the console field," Su Yuanshan said. "After all, they learned plenty while cooperating with Nintendo..."
Everyone chuckled.
"But that technology alone isn't enough to bridge their gap with us."
"YX01 is currently the most powerful chip in the RISC field. Sony could only try to balance the scales with immature products, which would be meaningless."
Su Yuanshan couldn't recall the exact model numbers of the PlayStation's chips, but he remembered very clearly that the PS1 used CPUs and graphics cores not developed in-house. Only after the PS succeeded did they start designing their own chips for the PS2.
Designing and taping out a chip takes an enormous amount of time, energy, and — most importantly — money. Sony's finances had been strained for years due to losses in their film division. It made no sense to believe they would risk developing two brand-new chips for an unproven new console.
"Moreover, Kutaragi himself leading the team shows how seriously they take the console project. Don't forget, he was in charge of the Nintendo collaboration."
"So, if they have any hidden technology, it must be on the VCD side," Su Yuanshan said, narrowing his eyes. "Or rather... are you aware that two years ago, the Western film industry proposed developing a new medium to replace LaserDiscs and VCRs? Not long after, the MPEG group launched the MPEG1 compression format to test the waters."
"We know MPEG1 is a lossy compression format. Without going into the technical details, last year when Li Mingliu and I read the standard, I did a rough calculation — with some adjustments, it would be possible to meet the film industry's requirements. However, the disc capacity would have to increase."
"There are only two ways to increase disc capacity: either increase the density or enlarge the disc's diameter. Enlarging the diameter would lead to the same problems LaserDiscs faced — big, clumsy, fragile, terrible in every way. Companies like Sony, Philips, and Toshiba, which dominate optical drive and disc technology, certainly have strong enough foundations to solve the density problem."
"I estimate they believe they can quickly launch a new product to kill off the VCD."
Su Yuanshan finished speaking and glanced around: "Was that clear enough?"
"... We're not idiots," Chen Jing said dryly, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "We better find out if the MPEG group is working on a new compression standard."
"Exactly. I'll call Senior Brother Xi right after this."
Su Yuanshan dumped his lunchbox in the trash, then turned back to face the team: "We don't have time to waste with them. Tomorrow, I'll expose whatever cards they're hiding."
Chen Jing's eyes gleamed: "Good!"
Originally, the afternoon was supposed to be spent showing Sony's delegation around the city, courtesy of Zhang Ke. But Kutaragi politely declined, saying they preferred to rest at the hotel.
Yuanchip's staff, of course, didn't get to rest — they all had their own work to do. Especially Chen Jing, who still needed to finalize plans for the campus recruitment drive in Beijing next month.
The next morning, Xi Xiaoding called Su Yuanshan back. There was no news about any new initiatives from the MPEG group. However, it seemed the Motion Picture Experts Group was excited about the arrival of the VCD and had revived discussions around the "new media" vision from two years ago.
Hearing this, Su Yuanshan knew he had been right all along.
When both sides sat down again, Chen Jing opened with the same welcoming tone.
"Mr. Kutaragi, are we continuing discussions about the VCD today? If your side still refuses to make any concessions, perhaps we could change the scenery and continue talks while touring some mountains and rivers."
Kutaragi smiled and shook his head: "Miss Chen, the reality is that your VCD doesn't offer any advantage in developed markets. It's a new product, yes — but a backward one."
At that, Su Yuanshan smiled faintly: "Pardon me for interrupting. May I interpret that as meaning your company is anticipating a product superior to VCD in both image quality and capacity?"
After the translation, Kutaragi's eyes sharpened instantly.
Even before Su Yuanshan finished speaking, Akita Junichi, sitting next to Kutaragi, snapped his head toward Su Yuanshan.
"The VCD's decoding chip was designed by my team," Su Yuanshan said, casually twirling a pen between his fingers. It was a slightly cheeky gesture, but it matched his youthful image perfectly. "Frankly, after reading the MPEG standards, I realized that VCD offers no real visual advantage over VHS. And yet we still chose to pursue VCD. Why?"
Akita Junichi asked directly in Chinese: "Why?"
Su Yuanshan smiled: "Because I had no idea when your company — or Philips, or Toshiba — would successfully develop a high-density optical disc."
After the translation, Su Yuanshan caught a tiny twitch at the corner of Kutaragi's eye.
At that moment, Su Yuanshan's confidence solidified.
They definitely had hidden technology. Otherwise, there's no way so many optical media giants could have launched DVD discs so quickly after MPEG2 became standard in 1994.
"Since we already anticipated that, Mr. Kutaragi," Su Yuanshan continued, "why would you assume our VCD technology wouldn't also extend to high-density disc readers and players?"
"Mr. Kutaragi, believe me. If we work together, we can create a new, unified standard for high-density optical disc playback — a full suite of decoding rules and hardware specifications. But first, we need VCDs as the trial product. Their role isn't to replace VHS, but to consolidate audiovisual content rights and fill the current market gap."
"More importantly, they will help consumers realize that the future of audiovisual media belongs to optical discs."
"VHS should become history."
"And if we fail to recognize that... we will become history."
Su Yuanshan casually dropped the pen he had been twirling and leaned back in his chair, visibly relaxed.
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