New DVD Standard

Welcome! You are encouraged to register with the site and login (for free). When you register, you support the site and your question history is saved.

The founders of a new company believe they have developed a new standard of DVD that will display movies at far higher fidelity than any other existing standard. While they recognize that the benefits of the new technology may not be sufficient to induce the entire market to adopt the new player and disc formats, they predict that format will be worth the cost of adoption in commercial venues that show movies on large screens, where the improvement in quality would be quite noticeable.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion drawn above?

Review: New DVD Standard


Explanation

Reading the question: we get a plan, and we have to choose what will most weaken the idea that the plan will work.

Creating a filter: the correct answer is likely not just to undermine the conclusion, but the logic of the argument. That involves quality, the new player and format, and large screens. The argument says that the new player and format are worth it because of the quality benefit on the large screens. The best weakener of this argument as a whole is likely to weaken that specific connection. We look for such a format-quality-screen weakener in the answer choices.

Applying the filter: (A) doesn't mention anything we're looking for. (B) doesn't, because "quality" is about sound quality. So (A) and (B) are out. (C) doesn't pertain to the connection we're interested in. Moreover, we're not expected to believe that there is a low cost to installation, but rather that the installation will be worth the cost, and maybe recouping in several months is not so bad. (D) is better; if movies aren't available in the new format, then improved visual quality might not merit switching to the new format. (D) is objectively superior because it alone undermines the logical connection in the argument between improved visual quality and being worth the switch. It does it somewhat indirectly, but since it hampers the conditions under which the switch can be adopted. (E) is not necessarily a problem for the argument. The correct answer is (D).


If you believe you have found an error in this question or explanation, please contact us and include the question title or URL in your message.