And Now SelectaVision

Tired of television? There may be a way to watch the tube without having to see what is on it now, Last week RCA presented "SelectaVision," a new system that it called "potentially the most significant development for the home since color television."

SelectaVision (SV) is designed to convert any standard TV set into a home movie projector and screen. When perfected, the SV converter will be able to play movies, operas, lessons--or even deliver an audio-visual TV magazine. RCA hopes to begin marketing the first SV adapters in 1972 for a retail price of "under $400." Six-inch cartridges, providing a half-hour of color programming, would initially cost about $10 apiece but could be rented for far less.

Last year CBS Laboratories introduced its own playback system, called Electronic Video Recording (EVR). But the RCA version--which works through a combination of laser beams and holography--would cost the consumer only half as much. The model RCA demonstrated last week, however, was still a primitive prototype with grainy picture, color distortion and no sound.

In the long run, no matter whether CBS, RCA or another competitor comes to dominate the new field, few would dispute the projection of RCA Executive Chase Morsey Jr. that it could be a $1 billion industry by the 1980s. EVR, SV or whatever is, as he put it, the first "personalized television" in a period when "mass programming will no longer completely satisfy the customer." Morsey's implication was clear: SelectaVision could be the answer to Rejectavision.

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