Consumer electronics: Stereo sound for television and new video technologies grabbed and held the consumer-electronics spotlight in 1984

Growth in color-television sales was slowing. The video-game industry had matured much faster than expected and appeared to be rapidly deteriorating. Prototypes of high-definition television sets and direct-broadcast-satellite receivers had been demonstrated, but some industry officials predicted that it would be another year at least until those technologies turned up in products. Digital video and audio disks were no longer news and were not selling as well as had been expected. And teletext and videotex ventures were folding. In short, the consumer-electronics industry appeared to be entering a period of hibernation in January 1984 [Fig. 1].