7:00 In the mid-80's, players could be controlled by a computer using a serial cable. There were "Interactive Education" programs for the Macintosh using HyperCard (web-like hyperlinked documents) for "how-to" training videos. There were also CLV encyclopedia collections to pull up color still images that the B&W Macintosh could not do by itself.
Laserdisc players were almost impossible to find in some areas until the late 80s. We lived in Raleigh NC and I can remember reading about LD players and wondering why they weren't in stores. In contrast, you could go to any record store or higher end department store and find CEDs until maybe 1986, 1987. I remember my dad going to Sears in early 1987 and buying RCA Selectavision titles at 2 for 5.00 which was insane at the time. The equivalent title on VHS would have run you at least 60 bucks or more.
You forgot to mention that laserdiscs were a victim of their own technology. Because of how advanced they were, it took a long time to produce them. Often, a movie would not be released on laserdisc until 2 months after the movie was released on VHS. Also because of their high cost for movie stores to buy them in surplus and stock them for rental, most mom and pop stores could only afford a handful, and if it was a popular movie, the waiting list would be lengthy.
Well, I guess you could claim Ben was talking about the most famous live action LD game, since Dragon's lair was animated and Mad Dog McCree was a live action interactive movie.
I'm surprised as well that Dragon's Lair, its sequel Time Warp, Space Ace, and Cliff Hanger all went unmentioned. ...oh, and BTW- stop throwing folding chairs my way. I've got enough concussions as it is. ;)
I was just about to mention Dragon's Lair. I tried to play it in the arcades, but it was too clunky for my game play. I didn't really have two quarters to rub together then.
I joined Laserdisc really late in the format. I bought a Pioneer for $279 at Bjorns in San Antonio around 1996 I think. Within a year DVD was introduced. I remember attending the demonstration seminars at Bjorns...the early discs were problematic, but after they figured out encoding and disc authoring issues, DVD clearly blew Laserdisc out of the water
Funny, we got in a copy of Eraser at work and our copy is, amazingly, rot free it would seem. We got extremely lucky. I should borrow the copy to check out on my player - we were using a very high end one as our tester... but yeah, good copies of Eraser DO exist.
You would think that Dragon's Lair would be the most well-known Laserdisc game and not Mad Dog Mcfuck (that's what my friends and I called it when we were kids.) I also remember as a kid playing the sequel to Dragon's Lair and realizing that it was CED-based because if you tipped the machine to the left just a few inches off the ground, it would skip to the end.
CD-Video was another short-lived offshoot of laserdisc- a CD with 20 minutes of music playable on any CD or laserdisc player, and 5 minutes of analog video playable only on post-1987 laserdisc players. (NOT to be confused with MPEG Video CDs!) DTS laserdiscs are much less of a pain than AC3- they replace the digital tracks and are output through any digital audio output. AC3 requires a demodulator, which was built into the first multichannel receivers but quickly dropped after DVD came on the market. Another historical point is that while laserdiscs were originally aimed at the everyday consumer, by the late 80s they were aimed at videophiles, people who actually cared about sound and picture quality. VHS was "good enough" for most people.
***** It's a widespread misconception that Betamax was popular for high-end professional use. It wasn't. That was a pro format called "Betacam" which used the same physical cassette design as Betamax (#), but the recording format was totally different and incompatible with regular Betamax machines and the tape speed was much higher, meaning shorter running times. It was professional grade, but it wasn't the same as the consumer/low-end Betamax format.
eyeh8nbc I was going to mention "CD Video" as well! They obviously tried to promote it under that name on the UK market in the late 1980s (#)- my local John Menzies had leaflets and some of the discs in the music and video department. (##) It obviously didn't go anywhere at that point because I don't recall them being sold after that. Laserdisc must eventually have enjoyed some niche success in the UK- at least enough to justify the local Virgin Megastore's respectable selection of discs in the late 90s or so- but for the most part it was still utterly insignificant compared to VHS. (#) I seem to recall Menzies (or the leaflets) having/mentioning ten and twelve inch discs too- I could have sworn they used the "CD Video" name on those as well, but now I think about it, that wouldn't make sense. EDIT: Just read the Wikipedia article which confirms that here in Europe they *did* use the name on 8 and 12 inch Laserdiscs with digital audio.... I'd like to see someone load them into an actual CD player though. (^_^) (##) I don't think I realised at the time that it was related to Laserdisc. Actually, I'm not sure I'd even *heard* of Laserdisc at that point- as I said, the format wasn't really known or successful in the UK then.
***** NP... btw, the footnote (#) was meant to note that some later variations of Betacam came in much larger cassettes- for longer running time- that wouldn't have even fitted into a Betamax machine.
So in other countries like the UK they have what are called : Dual Disc's (reg size cd/dvd but a lil THICKER * I think ?) !! On one side of disc is video and music is on the other side... ?????
Many 80s/90s LD arcade games, in addition to being released for disc-based home video game systems, were later issued on DVD in the early 00s (Dragon's Lair I and II, Space Ace, Mad Dog I and II, Who Shot Johnny Rock?, etc)...unfortunately, Gallagher's Gallery wasn't among them, though that seems to be one of ALG's lesser-known releases, as I'd never heard of it before watching this episode, and it doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry!
In the late 80s and early 90s, almost no anime was available and Japan did not release anime on VHS. It was selling it all on on laser disc. I paid over 80 dollars just for a company to tape the laser disc onto VHS - and they kept the laser disk! I was in college and couldn't afford a player.
Heh, I noticed Vwestlife's video there. :P I remember when my dad got a Laserdisc player back in 1996. He had Mission Impossible, GoldenEye, and some other things that I don't remember. To this day, the GoldenEye intro reminds me of that Laserdisc player. :P I still have the speakers from his AV setup from back then. Surround sound rocks! I wish I had the Laserdisc player though. It ate a rental disc (and by ate, I mean horribly mangled) and kicked the bucket. :(
My one experience with LaserDisc was in middle school circa 2003. We watched a LaserDisc video in class on decay. It was literally a video of a rabbit carcass decaying in sped-up motion.
Awesome video, but you missed Dragon's Lair, an 80's classic! I'm 45, and I loved playing that. It came out in the arcades in the summer of 83, I started 6th grade that September, and Junior High School in the fall of 84.
Just so you know, I have had several LaserActive's, mainly the US and JPN Pioneer (Black Models CLD-A100) AND the RARE JPN Exclusive NEC Hudson Soft (Gun Metal Grey Models NEC PCE LD-1) and the units sold for $969.99 in the US, and around $1,000 equivalent for the Japanese Models not including shipping from Japan to USA which was around $250 for proper double boxed safe shipping, without any LD PAC's. I have a Pt1 of 2 video on it if interested here on UA-cam, which I sadly never finished Pt2 due to never obtaining the LD's I was promised would be sold to me by a fellow LD ebay seller :(. The 7 PAC's available for the LaserActive are: 1.) NEC TurboGrafx16/NEC Turbo DUO US PAC-N10 = $599.99 (Plays ALL CD games JPN and US but Cart is locked to US Region but can be easily modified) 2.) Sega Genesis/Sega CD US PAC-S10 = $599.99 (Plays US CD+Cart games but JPN games are region locked and require a special adapter to play cross region) 3.) NEC PC Engine DUO JPN (Pioneer Version) PAC-N1 = $599.99 (Plays ALL CD games JPN and US but Cart is locked to JPN Region but can be easily modified) 4.) Sega Megadrive/Sega MegaCD JPN PAC-S1 = $599.99 (Plays JPN CD+Cart games but JPN games are region locked and require a special adapter to play cross region) 5.) NEC PC Engine DUO JPN (Gun Metal Grey Edition) PAC-LD*Rom2 = $599.99 (Plays ALL CD games JPN and US but Cart is locked to JPN Region but can be easily modified) 6.) Pioneer Karaoke PAC-K1 = $249.99 (depending on place of purchase) (Allows you to play any Karaoke LaserDisc on the unit, and includes 2 Karaoke Microphones) 7.) Lastly, the Pioneer Computer Interface Control PAC-PC1 = $449.99 IIRC and Exclusive to Japan (This allows a person to attach the control PAC-PC1 to a Win'95 Computer via the old Printer Port so you can produce your own programs on the LaserActive.) Sadly, it was released in extremely limited quantities much like the best games on the system (ie: Vajra Ni, and Time Gal) and so it became obsolete before anyone even knew what it was or what it did. It was shipped with a little remote control, and a pretty nice LD Compatible remote control to test your projects on. If I got anything wrong I apologize. It's 8am and I haven't yet gone to sleep, lol. I am just trying to recall everything off the top of my head without getting up, and looking at my LaserActive and games etc... I hope you like the history lesson. Also, Your video states that the last LaserDiscs were made in America in 1999 with Bringing out the Dead, and the Last LaserDisc players were made up until 2009, which IIRC is not entirely true. If memory serves correct, the last American LDs which were made in Japan were Sleepy Hollow, Bringing out the Dead, End of Days and The Corrupter in 1999/2000. The final Laserdiscs I bought came out exclusively in Japan in 2001 made by none other than TriStar Sony Entertainment, and Lucas Arts. Those being Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace, Titan A.E., 8MM, and I cannoy recall the other one I have off hand. As for Players, the FINAL players made to the best of my knowledge was in 1994 in Europe with the final ones being made by sony and finally featuring a nice auto flip feature and optical digital output. The final LaserDisc Players made in America were the CLD-D704 which was the best non-Elite model featuring AC-3 Dolby Digital output via COAX out, it had Digital TOSLink for DTS output, and fast autoflip along with a few nice features if you had the remote like Chroma and Luma Noise reduction at the expense of the picture sharpness and overall detail. It has s-video output but no 3D Y/C Filter so it did not matter as the video is recorded in analogue composite anyway. There were also a couple LAST US players that were decent in quality, but still did not touch the final JPN players quality wise. Those were the Pioneer CLD-79 and CLD-99, and the CLD-79 was on par with the CLD-D704 with a more elegant finish on the player itself. However the CLD-99 was the only great LD player released in America with a retail price of $999.99. It contained everything that the CLD-D704 and the Elite CLD-79 had, only the Elite CLD-99 also contained the first American player to have a first gen 3D Y/C Filter for the s-video port! So, when there was no movement on the screen, the dot crawl would stop moving, making the picture much more pleasant on the eyes! The FINAL 4 Japanese Players were outstanding however, and outperformed the American players by leaps and bounds. The final four made in Japan from best to worst IMO, (and I use the word worst very lightly as the worst one still outperforms the top of the line European and USA players by so much that I would never recommend an American player nor a Euro player) these were the CLD-X9, the CLD-S9, the CLD-R7G, and the bad boy of the bunch, the DVL-H9! The CLD-X9 which is the heaviest player second to the DVL-H9 by only a few lbs, has a red laser which gives the best picture quality of all players with the best amount of noise reduction and a 3rd Generation 3D/YC filter to help eliminate all dot crawl, moving or not. It appears that all 4 of these players 3D Y/C Filters rival the 3D Y/C filters that my Panasonic Plasma 1080p 3DTV (2014 model), and my Sony 4K HDR 3DTV have, so these 3rd Gen 3D Y/C Filters MUST be the final ones produced.The X9 LD player ONLY plays LD's and nothing else and it has a slow turn/slow flip mechanism so as to eliminate the spinning disc as it flips sies that the CLD-D704 was plagued with. Then we have the CLD-S9 which is arguably the second best player as it might not have the red laser that the X9 has, but it has nearly the same picture quality as the X9 and it contains the most wanted feature that only 3 LD players ever made have which is to be able to play any disc in slow motion plus you can still step every single frame including the B Frames which no other player can do except for the CLD-R7G which is the most rare player made, and the DVL-H9. IMO the S9 is a decent player, but I prefer the CLD-R7G the most between the two. Then there is the CLD-R7G which has all the functions that the X9 and S9 have, (besides the red laser), and it contains amazing features and has more options than near any other player made, including the aforementioned A and B frames you can see on any disc, plus you can set memories so it can play with different options depending on the disc, and you can save them so certain discs can have more Chroma filter but less Luma filter and vise versa, better sharpness and better black levels etc..just like the S9 has, but lighter weight. Then we have the BEAST IMO, the FINAL LD player made in December of 1999, the DVL-H9 which is my favorite player made. This player is literally about 2 lbs lighter than the X9 player, which is around 75lbs! It's made of pure steel, and is a beast to carry around! It does not have the red laser, but it has every single option that the CLD-R7G has, it has 3 memory slots to save your preferred settings, it allows you to set the chroma, the Luma, the Contrast, the sharpness, the DNR, and more! it contains the coveted feature to look at every single frame A and B on any disc, it has the bells and whistles that the S9 and CLD-R7G have, PLUS it plays DVD's and has a nice menu for other options as well that I have not seen on an other player ever made! Better make sure that you have the remote for this player or your stuck as ALL the functions that this player has are only accessible using the remote, so if you lose it, you cannot use any special features, and the remote sells for over $100 on ebay so be careful not to lose it. Otherwise it is by far my favorite player that I own, and I recommend anyone that wants to see what LDs are all about, especially classic rare horror movies that are remastered in the last few years of LD's life span, or some amazing Japanese Anime titles to try out one of these 4 players along with a beautiful 1080p/4K tv set with proper picture settings, and a good remote for the player along with a ramemeister, and your golden. Once you go LaserDisc you never go back to DVD, and at times even BluRay is hard to stomach. :D
Not only arcades and CLD-A100, but there was also a PALCOM MSX PX-7 machine able to play MSX games from LDs (the game program itself was stored in one of the audio channels). Also, there was an RDI Halcyon console with only 2 games completed (NFL Football and Thayer's Quest), which wasn't sold in stores. MSX also had games on VHD discs as well, something you should cover in your future episodes (VHD discs, I mean, not exactly the ones with MSX games) :)
I just bought Star Wars - The Original Unaltered Trilogy of DVD, it was ripped from a laser disk copy. The quality is pretty good, and it's nice to see all of the beautiful miniature set pieces, handmade puppets, practical effects. I'm really happy, 10 / 10.
Pioneer came out with a refined version of CLV called CAA. Every U.S. manufacturer used them, except for 3M. Apart from lower cross-talk, CAAs used the entire surface of the disc. This was never mentioned on the packaging. The most common were CAA45 (maximum running time 45 minutes and :04 seconds, and the CAA60 (60 minutes and :05 seconds.). I have a couple of releases that used a CAA65 for one side (65 minutes and :05 seconds). The final known variation was the CAA70 (70 minutes), but no known discs exist that used them. I have at least 1,658 NTSC LaserDiscs, plus 19 DiscoVision, plus 26 PAL (including some test pressings of cancelled releases). I also own a few LDs that were recorded onto 3M blanks (by who I don't know).
At one point, about a year before DVDs hit stores, DVC titles which required a Philips CD-I with a Digital Video Cartridge (hence DVC) came out in some stores. The movies were generally $30 and needed 2 discs, compared to the DVD's $20 and 1 disc. Hence why we have one and not the other nowadays.
Baccar Wozat That and the small matter that the DVC discs required a very expensive console very few people had and an at-the-time incredibly expensive add on. DVD players _technically_ might be able to play them (it's all MPEG1 video after all) but yeah, this is a bit like comparing the number of MegaDrive games with the number of 32X CD games.
The DVD information in this video isn't accurate. The first players were $1,000 and up and most discs were $30-40. I bought my first DVD player in 1997 or early 1998 for $450. it was a clearance model so it was half off plus I saved $50 by getting open box from crutchfield. I bought my first discs from Sam Goody as they weren't available from most mass market retailers like Wal-Mart for several years. My second player was a Sony model that was about $300 and was purchased in 1999. DVD was just starting to take off at that time and didn't really explode until the following year when the PlayStation 2 was released. Laserdisc media cost substantially more than DVDs.
Up until places like Tower Records closed down i'd agree with you. Even towards its end i saw Laserdiscs costing upwards of £45 to £50 or more of the; Star Wars Special Edition trilogy, and such films like; Highlander 2: Renegade Edition, Jaws, Indiana Jones trilogy, Superman The Movie, Tron, E.T., westerns and sword & sandles movies costing way more than DVD's on Laserdisc even toward its end. DVD's were new in 1997 to 1999 into the 2000's, but they didn't cost nearly as much as Laserdiscs did in Tower Records however. Luckily they're (LD's) are much cheaper nower days online, in places like E-bay and what have you today though.
The first DVD player model ever was the Toshiba SD-3000. Dvd players started arriving in the United States in 97. They were the Samsung DVD-(MSRP$750), RCA RC-5200P (MSRP$600). Pioneer DVL-700 (MSRP$1000), which, btw- was also Laserdisc/Dvd combo unit that I owned for many years and was a solid LD player, and could be had for as little as $679. There was also a Sony DVP-S7000 ( a tank like unit w/ a MSRP of $1000bucks) and a Panasonic DVDA100. I remember seeing a Samsung player - a 709 I think? For $399 in 1998. My second player though was a JVC ( the 501BK) which sold for $300. My next DVD player was my original XBOX - which I used just about daily in my main surround system from 2003 -2013 when I “retired” it, as it was replace with a Blu-ray player. I also acquired a 26 HDTV monitor with a DVD player built in. I can't say enough good things about the Original XBOX as a DVD player. It was a true workhorse -let me tell you.
I still remember the day i bought my 1st DVD - which was Star Trek: 1st Contact - and I still have it. At that point in time I would RENT Disney Laserdisc - in order to transfer them to VHS for my son to enjoy, as Disney Tapes were still $30bucks a pop. Now you find them at every flee market for a dollar or less.
I purchased a Magnavox DVD player in 1999 for around 300 bucks. It was a piece of junk and crapped out by around 2001. It would occasionally pop up with a "Region Not Supported" warning- even in the middle of playback. The regional lockout was so restrictive it ruined the unit.
Many of my Paramount Discs had laser lock or rot right out of the sleeve. I had to exchange the last disc I ever bought, Star Trek Insurrection, three times in order to get a decent copy. Apparently, Paramount was using a manufacturing plant that was sub par as the 90s progressed as my first Discs from the period worked well until I stopped using LD altogether.
Oh crazy ... I actually had one of those Magnavision top-loading players shown around the 4:10 mark. I saved it from the dumpster at college. We tried to get the other 20 players, but they were already gone by the time we got to the room where they were supposedly stored. Sad day indeed. Once mine decided to play Hudson Hawk's frames in random order, I took it apart and still have the real helium-neon laser (no such thing as a laser diode back then) and 2-axis mirror assembly. Also of note, I have a 9" Laserdisc of They Might Be Giants videos, and a business advertising film titled "The World of dBase". Last thing: have you mentioned "Tippy the Turtle" (as we knew him)? Were there any other examples of video recorded on the "unrecorded" side of discs that was better than said Laserdisc-bellied turtle?
Wasn't one of the big reasons why laserdisc never caught on for recording stuff because you could get comparable results with video Hi8, S-VHS or Betacam vcr's which, although more expensive than a regular vhs deck, certainly were much cheaper than a laserdisc recorder or rewritable discs.
Your show has encouraged me to get a laserdisc, a CED, and a Betamax player. Ironically I have only one beta tape which is the 1982 release of Walt Disney's Dumbo and a CED disc of Donald Duck and Chip n' Dale cartoons.
Have you heard of someone called John Logie Baird? He tried to record tv onto discs back in the 30's but was ahead of his time. Might be interesting to consider what he would have done had he lived in the 70's when optical video discs became practical.
Laser discs served their purpose if you were fan subbing anime with a genlock device. Also the issue with rot - if it was possible to carefully split apart the 2 sides of a disc, recoating the reflective layer could be possible. These things rotted because they didn't use a gold based reflective layer. It won't rot or tarnish. If you have a disc that's not rotted, thank the manufacturer for knowing how to make them. A repressing of the Dragon's Lair game disc was the last one made.
between this, techmoan and Technology Connections I feel like I could teach a really crappy class on Laserdisc....of course no one would show up but w/e it's my dream.
Fun fact: you can actually use a Laser Disc to set up anti-skate on a turntable! And, if you watch Ricky Skaggs’ 1982 video of his single, “Heartbroke”, right at the very end, there’s a very early Laser Disc player, but a silver copy of Ricky’s album is removed!
As a kid back in the early 90s, I enjoyed reading about the technological advantages offered by the LD format, but knowing there was no way my parents would ever spring for one, my interest waned fairly quickly...years later, I found out that the bonus disc included in MGM/UA's 1993 "Ultimate Oz" release really took advantage of the format, including not only all the video extras from the VHS version (which I still own to this day), but also an "audio vault" which contained hours worth of outtakes, alternate takes, and extended versions of all of the songs and underscoring from the classic 1939 film.
Excellent video Ben! Always felt personally your history lesson based episodes are some of the most entertaining. And its in your presentation of it too! As for that Cheryl Tiegs song in the end? I am sure it was Luther Vandross singing. And what sounds like...Joe Sample/Crusaders or Richard Tee/Stuff supplying the music. Since all three of those people are deceased? Might be difficult to find out for certain. In terms of content? Superb video.
About 2 years ago, I had the idea of making a fan-made LaserDisc to gift to JG Quintel for the success of his show, Regular Show. The disc would be CAV formatted and only contain 2 episodes of the show: The Last LaserDisc Player (Episode 109) & The Format Wars ll (Episode 169). Both episodes depict the format wars between LaserDisc vs VHS and LaserDisc vs DVD respectfully. I went as far as making mock-up artwork for the sleeve after I facilitated a response from him on Twitter: twitter.com/iOutatime/status/763586683467988992 Since then I've had a lead for a LaserDisc Recorder from a man in Germany who claimed he had a VMD-V130 but no blanks to record to as from what I could gather, they had to be the caddy styled discs and could not be removed from said caddies. Some online forums helped me get the phone number to a guy in Chicago that had one of the purple styled blank discs, but he started going off on me after I called him up asking about it. Even offering to pay $1k for the disc he simply called me a moron and hung up. I still have the artwork concepts on my Twitter and would love to gift just one LaserDisc to JG Quintel now that Regular Show has ended as a way of saying thanks: twitter.com/iOutatime/status/764164502036164609 Thanks to him, a lot of millennials know of LaserDisc as well as other older tech for being featured in his show. And for that, I think Regular Show did play a small part in reviving the retro movement to such a mainstream degree. I would still love to go through with this idea (despite how ridiculous it may seem). This format is dead, recording devices are rare, and blank media for it even more so. But what else are we going to do with blank media for a dead format that will eventually rot away? It's all for show at the end of the day, but it would be nice to bring some mainstream attention specifically back to LaserDisc just one last time.
VideoFilm wasn't McDonnell Douglas' only foray into failing to stay in its lane, and ending up with a loss making product used only in house. They tried to get into the corporate jet market in the 1960s. Fellow military aircraft manufacturers Lockheed and North American had some success in it with the Jetstar and Sabreliner respectively, so McDonnell (prior to the merger with Douglas) designed and built the McDonnell 119, which they renamed 220. They failed to get any orders, and they don't even seem to have tried chartering, so they ended up with a very expensive corporate jet for themselves. It was sold to the Flight Safety Foundation for research use in 1965, and ended up in New Mexico. It belongs in a museum!
In NYC, during (if I can remember the years correctly), the very early 90's, there were late night/ overnight tests of the MUSE system, which ran for a few weeks, and for anyone who remembers things such as a 20/20 segment which told of how beautiful high definition would be- and even broadcast some clips, they told us because we were using analogue, we couldn't see it. BUT; even though it wasn't visible, it definitely was...a 'cleaner' image, is the only way I can describe it watching those MUSE tests which Japanese techs were conducting in coordination with NBC, those image were also 'cleaner' (I don't remember any audio being played. I think all of this was because even though MUSE WAS high definition, it wasn't digital, they were pushing the capabilities of good old copper wires, electron guns to their limit. What happened - in an almost instantaneous moment (comoaratiu speaking, of course), digital technology bust though, and whereas the 20/20 segment touting high Def was years away (due to the prospect of bringing it to fruition via analogue tech. The segment had to have Aire in the mid-late 80s. High Def was still over amdecade and a half away).
JVC's Digital VHS D-Theater brought digital home high definition video playback AND recording to the US in 2002 before HD-DVD/BluRay showed up. All the digital formats were compressed. MUSE was actually analog interlaced video, roughly on par (but not compatible) with 1080i ATSC. As for CRVdisc, check this out: www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/entry.php?463-Component-Recording-Video-The-LVR-5000
Carrie Criterion isn't in Pan&Scan. It's actually Open Matte (more picture than the letterboxed releases) at the request of Brian De Palma and carries the original mono mix that hasn't been use on later re-releases (DVD, etc.). www.lddb.com/laserdisc/03860/CC1278L/Carrie:-Special-Edition
Neat video chronicling Laserdisc and its development and growth. although this is lacking the Don Bluth's Laserdisc videogames of; "Dragon's Lair" and "Space Ace" unique titles needed in all docs of Laserdisc i reckon.
Bingo but ya see being that bens not a gamer or gaming history guy he wouldnt know that much sorry ben but well...yea...im a big nerd of all trades kinda guy not bashing anyone just throwin around knowledge an stuff please dont hate me * flinches sensing a beating *
Impressive video! Lots of info there. What I was missing as a spin-off format was the CD-Video (no, I don't mean VideoCD), from 1987 or so. Am I the only one who remembers that?
You forgot to note that the DTS on a LaserDisc replaced the PCM CD digital sound channels and that older machines with digital outputs (SPIDF optical and coaxial) could play the DTS even before it arrived for the format and sounded better than the more compressed Dolby Digital AC-3 format. Old DTS was 3:1 compression, while Dolby was 12: 1. Now they are both lossless.
Another thing that sped up mass adoption of DVD was the success and popularity of Sony's Playstation 2. When it came out in 2000 it was the must have system not only because it was Sony's latest console with some killer platform exclusives, it was also a cheap way to get into DVDs, and many people's first player. It's part of the reason Sony was able to trounce SEGA's Dreamcast.
Anyone know where I could find a copy online of Video Magazine from Spring 1979 shown at 4:40? I'm interested in the article on teletext. I've tried googling a bunch, but can't find anything beyond the cover online :/
dts 5.1 soundtracks on laserdisc did not have the same problem like Dolby AC-3 aka Dolby Digital. if i am not mistaken, the dts soundtrack did not need the requirement of a demodulator like Dolby AC-3 did
Laserdiscs were very rare in the UK, I think the most well known use of them here was the BBC Domesday Project (which I'm kinda surprised you didn't touch on) www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday It used the BBC Micro (of course) and recorded information on Laserdiscs to be played in specialised players. They actually had some worries about whether the Domesday Project would still be readable because the equipment used was expensive at the time and therefore rare and the players have broken down over time.
An unnecessarily patronising look at a format that remains the only one remaining for some great musical performances that otherwise have to resort to VHS tapes for sourcing here. I picked up a number of Japanese NTSC music laserdiscs. A vastly larger range of titles the US ever did but then its market penetration 10% instead of 1%. I still play them on my Pioneer and notice many never subsequently released on DVD or even CD. For example Bob Dylan's 1986 Hard to Handle tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. A CBC source said no market for it. Another, technical point that could have been mentioned is that LD's digital soundtrack uncompressed unlike DVDs and CDs. Because of the indolence of the record companies and possible licensing issues music laserdiscs continue to matter...to music lovers. I'm putting them on my channel where no DVD release.
Given the timing of your posting (and a quick scan of your channel), I can't help but feeling this is more a crack at promoting your own channel than anything else. I admit, I haven't watched this episode in ages, but I seem to remember saying that LD's were most popular in Japan and covering the pertinent audio stuff. Also, bear in mind, you're not gonna get a comprehensive history of LD's (or most video formats) in 25 minutes. As for Japanese music LD's, you are right. I've got a few of them myself. Oh yeah, and, really, patronizing? It's an overview meant for anyone with an interest in the format (novice, expert, or any point in between). Any snark in the video (seems like there's little-to-none in this one) is part and parcel of this channel.
Your measured reply is appreciated. My focus is admittedly different - almost archival by comparison. Yes I admit I want to alert music lovers to laserdiscs where they are the only remaining digital source of great performances. UA-cam sanctions uploading without identifying the source, such as a VHS tape. So yes I'm promoting going further where this discarded format can still provide through collectors such as myself. Thanks for at least providing an overview of this victim of 'progress' though its uncompressed digital soundtrack I consider a boon (even Greg Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever cursory on this lingering holdout - incidentally none of my 200 LDs has developed laser rot after 30 years - just praying my Pioneer LD-98 keeps playing them!). Have a happy new year and I have subscribed to your channel.
Partially correct. Later laserdiscs around 1984-1985 gained digital cd quality sound (near-cd bitrates in NTSC regions but exact bitrate in PAL regions) and dts in 1995-1996.
My parents had a laserdisc player for a *SHORT* time back in 1999 (I think), and, when we moved, the player was left behind. We still have the remote for it.
7:00 In the mid-80's, players could be controlled by a computer using a serial cable. There were "Interactive Education" programs for the Macintosh using HyperCard (web-like hyperlinked documents) for "how-to" training videos. There were also CLV encyclopedia collections to pull up color still images that the B&W Macintosh could not do by itself.
20:15 - American Laser Games also formed a girls division, Her Interactive, in 1995 which became a separate entity
Laserdisc players were almost impossible to find in some areas until the late 80s. We lived in Raleigh NC and I can remember reading about LD players and wondering why they weren't in stores. In contrast, you could go to any record store or higher end department store and find CEDs until maybe 1986, 1987. I remember my dad going to Sears in early 1987 and buying RCA Selectavision titles at 2 for 5.00 which was insane at the time. The equivalent title on VHS would have run you at least 60 bucks or more.
You forgot to mention that laserdiscs were a victim of their own technology. Because of how advanced they were, it took a long time to produce them. Often, a movie would not be released on laserdisc until 2 months after the movie was released on VHS. Also because of their high cost for movie stores to buy them in surplus and stock them for rental, most mom and pop stores could only afford a handful, and if it was a popular movie, the waiting list would be lengthy.
Hello, you. Fancy seeing you here.
RevengeofGothzilla
Oh hey bro. lol Same!
MrWolfSnack
I guess we watch a lot of the same stuff.
RevengeofGothzilla
:D
MrWolfSnack
Woo! Same stuff watching party!
22:44 wasn't the JVC D-Theater in the early 2000s able to play 1080i on tape?
also best laserdisc game was Dragon's Lair and Space Ace
Actually, I would argue that the most famous LD video game was Don Bluth's famous "Dragon's Lair"
I agree as well. I'm surprised that Dragon's Lair wasn't brought up.
Well, I guess you could claim Ben was talking about the most famous live action LD game, since Dragon's lair was animated and Mad Dog McCree was a live action interactive movie.
I'm surprised as well that Dragon's Lair, its sequel Time Warp, Space Ace, and Cliff Hanger all went unmentioned.
...oh, and BTW- stop throwing folding chairs my way. I've got enough concussions as it is. ;)
Also Firefox (Clint Eastward). "Boy, is this a machine"
I was just about to mention Dragon's Lair. I tried to play it in the arcades, but it was too clunky for my game play. I didn't really have two quarters to rub together then.
I joined Laserdisc really late in the format. I bought a Pioneer for $279 at Bjorns in San Antonio around 1996 I think. Within a year DVD was introduced. I remember attending the demonstration seminars at Bjorns...the early discs were problematic, but after they figured out encoding and disc authoring issues, DVD clearly blew Laserdisc out of the water
Funny, we got in a copy of Eraser at work and our copy is, amazingly, rot free it would seem. We got extremely lucky.
I should borrow the copy to check out on my player - we were using a very high end one as our tester... but yeah, good copies of Eraser DO exist.
The Ray Charles bit was adorable.
Laserdisc looks like a Vinyl record & a Compact Disc combined together. (0:02)
You would think that Dragon's Lair would be the most well-known Laserdisc game and not Mad Dog Mcfuck (that's what my friends and I called it when we were kids.) I also remember as a kid playing the sequel to Dragon's Lair and realizing that it was CED-based because if you tipped the machine to the left just a few inches off the ground, it would skip to the end.
Really
CD-Video was another short-lived offshoot of laserdisc- a CD with 20 minutes of music playable on any CD or laserdisc player, and 5 minutes of analog video playable only on post-1987 laserdisc players. (NOT to be confused with MPEG Video CDs!)
DTS laserdiscs are much less of a pain than AC3- they replace the digital tracks and are output through any digital audio output. AC3 requires a demodulator, which was built into the first multichannel receivers but quickly dropped after DVD came on the market.
Another historical point is that while laserdiscs were originally aimed at the everyday consumer, by the late 80s they were aimed at videophiles, people who actually cared about sound and picture quality. VHS was "good enough" for most people.
***** It's a widespread misconception that Betamax was popular for high-end professional use. It wasn't. That was a pro format called "Betacam" which used the same physical cassette design as Betamax (#), but the recording format was totally different and incompatible with regular Betamax machines and the tape speed was much higher, meaning shorter running times.
It was professional grade, but it wasn't the same as the consumer/low-end Betamax format.
eyeh8nbc I was going to mention "CD Video" as well! They obviously tried to promote it under that name on the UK market in the late 1980s (#)- my local John Menzies had leaflets and some of the discs in the music and video department. (##) It obviously didn't go anywhere at that point because I don't recall them being sold after that.
Laserdisc must eventually have enjoyed some niche success in the UK- at least enough to justify the local Virgin Megastore's respectable selection of discs in the late 90s or so- but for the most part it was still utterly insignificant compared to VHS.
(#) I seem to recall Menzies (or the leaflets) having/mentioning ten and twelve inch discs too- I could have sworn they used the "CD Video" name on
those as well, but now I think about it, that wouldn't make sense. EDIT: Just read the Wikipedia article which confirms that here in Europe they *did* use the name on 8 and 12 inch Laserdiscs with digital audio.... I'd like to see someone load them into an actual CD player though. (^_^)
(##) I don't think I realised at the time that it was related to Laserdisc. Actually, I'm not sure I'd even *heard* of Laserdisc at that point- as I said, the format wasn't really known or successful in the UK then.
***** NP... btw, the footnote (#) was meant to note that some later variations of Betacam came in much larger cassettes- for longer running time- that wouldn't have even fitted into a Betamax machine.
So in other countries like the UK they have what are called : Dual Disc's (reg size cd/dvd but a lil THICKER * I think ?) !! On one side of disc is video and music is on the other side... ?????
I loved that old Universal Picture logo. It was as realistic as you could get before CGI.
Legend has it that Ben's nose and mouth is _actually_ a cardboard box.
😆
Many 80s/90s LD arcade games, in addition to being released for disc-based home video game systems, were later issued on DVD in the early 00s (Dragon's Lair I and II, Space Ace, Mad Dog I and II, Who Shot Johnny Rock?, etc)...unfortunately, Gallagher's Gallery wasn't among them, though that seems to be one of ALG's lesser-known releases, as I'd never heard of it before watching this episode, and it doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry!
9:17 I own that EXACT Pioneer LaserDisc player! I got it off Ebay a few years back. I have it connected to my living room TV and yes it still works.
In the late 80s and early 90s, almost no anime was available and Japan did not release anime on VHS. It was selling it all on on laser disc. I paid over 80 dollars just for a company to tape the laser disc onto VHS - and they kept the laser disk! I was in college and couldn't afford a player.
From a fellow lover of the format, thank you, Ben!
Heh, I noticed Vwestlife's video there. :P
I remember when my dad got a Laserdisc player back in 1996. He had Mission Impossible, GoldenEye, and some other things that I don't remember. To this day, the GoldenEye intro reminds me of that Laserdisc player. :P
I still have the speakers from his AV setup from back then. Surround sound rocks! I wish I had the Laserdisc player though. It ate a rental disc (and by ate, I mean horribly mangled) and kicked the bucket. :(
I love THOSE episodes :D
They're my favourite. Enjoyable AND informative
My one experience with LaserDisc was in middle school circa 2003. We watched a LaserDisc video in class on decay. It was literally a video of a rabbit carcass decaying in sped-up motion.
I watched that same video in fourth grade. Just before lunch, too.
Better before than after, I say.
Awesome video, but you missed Dragon's Lair, an 80's classic! I'm 45, and I loved playing that. It came out in the arcades in the summer of 83, I started 6th grade that September, and Junior High School in the fall of 84.
Just so you know, I have had several LaserActive's, mainly the US and JPN Pioneer (Black Models CLD-A100) AND the RARE JPN Exclusive NEC Hudson Soft (Gun Metal Grey Models NEC PCE LD-1) and the units sold for $969.99 in the US, and around $1,000 equivalent for the Japanese Models not including shipping from Japan to USA which was around $250 for proper double boxed safe shipping, without any LD PAC's. I have a Pt1 of 2 video on it if interested here on UA-cam, which I sadly never finished Pt2 due to never obtaining the LD's I was promised would be sold to me by a fellow LD ebay seller :(.
The 7 PAC's available for the LaserActive are:
1.) NEC TurboGrafx16/NEC Turbo DUO US PAC-N10 = $599.99 (Plays ALL CD games JPN and US but Cart is locked to US Region but can be easily modified)
2.) Sega Genesis/Sega CD US PAC-S10 = $599.99 (Plays US CD+Cart games but JPN games are region locked and require a special adapter to play cross region)
3.) NEC PC Engine DUO JPN (Pioneer Version) PAC-N1 = $599.99 (Plays ALL CD games JPN and US but Cart is locked to JPN Region but can be easily modified)
4.) Sega Megadrive/Sega MegaCD JPN PAC-S1 = $599.99 (Plays JPN CD+Cart games but JPN games are region locked and require a special adapter to play cross region)
5.) NEC PC Engine DUO JPN (Gun Metal Grey Edition) PAC-LD*Rom2 = $599.99 (Plays ALL CD games JPN and US but Cart is locked to JPN Region but can be easily modified)
6.) Pioneer Karaoke PAC-K1 = $249.99 (depending on place of purchase) (Allows you to play any Karaoke LaserDisc on the unit, and includes 2 Karaoke Microphones)
7.) Lastly, the Pioneer Computer Interface Control PAC-PC1 = $449.99 IIRC and Exclusive to Japan (This allows a person to attach the control PAC-PC1 to a Win'95 Computer via the old Printer Port so you can produce your own programs on the LaserActive.) Sadly, it was released in extremely limited quantities much like the best games on the system (ie: Vajra Ni, and Time Gal) and so it became obsolete before anyone even knew what it was or what it did. It was shipped with a little remote control, and a pretty nice LD Compatible remote control to test your projects on.
If I got anything wrong I apologize. It's 8am and I haven't yet gone to sleep, lol. I am just trying to recall everything off the top of my head without getting up, and looking at my LaserActive and games etc... I hope you like the history lesson. Also, Your video states that the last LaserDiscs were made in America in 1999 with Bringing out the Dead, and the Last LaserDisc players were made up until 2009, which IIRC is not entirely true.
If memory serves correct, the last American LDs which were made in Japan were Sleepy Hollow, Bringing out the Dead, End of Days and The Corrupter in 1999/2000. The final Laserdiscs I bought came out exclusively in Japan in 2001 made by none other than TriStar Sony Entertainment, and Lucas Arts. Those being Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace, Titan A.E., 8MM, and I cannoy recall the other one I have off hand.
As for Players, the FINAL players made to the best of my knowledge was in 1994 in Europe with the final ones being made by sony and finally featuring a nice auto flip feature and optical digital output. The final LaserDisc Players made in America were the CLD-D704 which was the best non-Elite model featuring AC-3 Dolby Digital output via COAX out, it had Digital TOSLink for DTS output, and fast autoflip along with a few nice features if you had the remote like Chroma and Luma Noise reduction at the expense of the picture sharpness and overall detail. It has s-video output but no 3D Y/C Filter so it did not matter as the video is recorded in analogue composite anyway.
There were also a couple LAST US players that were decent in quality, but still did not touch the final JPN players quality wise. Those were the Pioneer CLD-79 and CLD-99, and the CLD-79 was on par with the CLD-D704 with a more elegant finish on the player itself. However the CLD-99 was the only great LD player released in America with a retail price of $999.99. It contained everything that the CLD-D704 and the Elite CLD-79 had, only the Elite CLD-99 also contained the first American player to have a first gen 3D Y/C Filter for the s-video port! So, when there was no movement on the screen, the dot crawl would stop moving, making the picture much more pleasant on the eyes!
The FINAL 4 Japanese Players were outstanding however, and outperformed the American players by leaps and bounds. The final four made in Japan from best to worst IMO, (and I use the word worst very lightly as the worst one still outperforms the top of the line European and USA players by so much that I would never recommend an American player nor a Euro player) these were the CLD-X9, the CLD-S9, the CLD-R7G, and the bad boy of the bunch, the DVL-H9!
The CLD-X9 which is the heaviest player second to the DVL-H9 by only a few lbs, has a red laser which gives the best picture quality of all players with the best amount of noise reduction and a 3rd Generation 3D/YC filter to help eliminate all dot crawl, moving or not. It appears that all 4 of these players 3D Y/C Filters rival the 3D Y/C filters that my Panasonic Plasma 1080p 3DTV (2014 model), and my Sony 4K HDR 3DTV have, so these 3rd Gen 3D Y/C Filters MUST be the final ones produced.The X9 LD player ONLY plays LD's and nothing else and it has a slow turn/slow flip mechanism so as to eliminate the spinning disc as it flips sies that the CLD-D704 was plagued with.
Then we have the CLD-S9 which is arguably the second best player as it might not have the red laser that the X9 has, but it has nearly the same picture quality as the X9 and it contains the most wanted feature that only 3 LD players ever made have which is to be able to play any disc in slow motion plus you can still step every single frame including the B Frames which no other player can do except for the CLD-R7G which is the most rare player made, and the DVL-H9. IMO the S9 is a decent player, but I prefer the CLD-R7G the most between the two.
Then there is the CLD-R7G which has all the functions that the X9 and S9 have, (besides the red laser), and it contains amazing features and has more options than near any other player made, including the aforementioned A and B frames you can see on any disc, plus you can set memories so it can play with different options depending on the disc, and you can save them so certain discs can have more Chroma filter but less Luma filter and vise versa, better sharpness and better black levels etc..just like the S9 has, but lighter weight.
Then we have the BEAST IMO, the FINAL LD player made in December of 1999, the DVL-H9 which is my favorite player made. This player is literally about 2 lbs lighter than the X9 player, which is around 75lbs! It's made of pure steel, and is a beast to carry around! It does not have the red laser, but it has every single option that the CLD-R7G has, it has 3 memory slots to save your preferred settings, it allows you to set the chroma, the Luma, the Contrast, the sharpness, the DNR, and more! it contains the coveted feature to look at every single frame A and B on any disc, it has the bells and whistles that the S9 and CLD-R7G have, PLUS it plays DVD's and has a nice menu for other options as well that I have not seen on an other player ever made! Better make sure that you have the remote for this player or your stuck as ALL the functions that this player has are only accessible using the remote, so if you lose it, you cannot use any special features, and the remote sells for over $100 on ebay so be careful not to lose it. Otherwise it is by far my favorite player that I own, and I recommend anyone that wants to see what LDs are all about, especially classic rare horror movies that are remastered in the last few years of LD's life span, or some amazing Japanese Anime titles to try out one of these 4 players along with a beautiful 1080p/4K tv set with proper picture settings, and a good remote for the player along with a ramemeister, and your golden. Once you go LaserDisc you never go back to DVD, and at times even BluRay is hard to stomach. :D
how I wish America adopted the iMUSE system back in the '90s
we could've been filming in 48K today
Not only arcades and CLD-A100, but there was also a PALCOM MSX PX-7 machine able to play MSX games from LDs (the game program itself was stored in one of the audio channels). Also, there was an RDI Halcyon console with only 2 games completed (NFL Football and Thayer's Quest), which wasn't sold in stores. MSX also had games on VHD discs as well, something you should cover in your future episodes (VHD discs, I mean, not exactly the ones with MSX games) :)
"Halloween II" on Laserdisc, coooooolllll
I just bought Star Wars - The Original Unaltered Trilogy of DVD, it was ripped from a laser disk copy. The quality is pretty good, and it's nice to see all of the beautiful miniature set pieces, handmade puppets, practical effects. I'm really happy, 10 / 10.
Pioneer came out with a refined version of CLV called CAA. Every U.S. manufacturer used them, except for 3M. Apart from lower cross-talk, CAAs used the entire surface of the disc. This was never mentioned on the packaging. The most common were CAA45 (maximum running time 45 minutes and :04 seconds, and the CAA60 (60 minutes and :05 seconds.). I have a couple of releases that used a CAA65 for one side (65 minutes and :05 seconds). The final known variation was the CAA70 (70 minutes), but no known discs exist that used them. I have at least 1,658 NTSC LaserDiscs, plus 19 DiscoVision, plus 26 PAL (including some test pressings of cancelled releases). I also own a few LDs that were recorded onto 3M blanks (by who I don't know).
At one point, about a year before DVDs hit stores, DVC titles which required a Philips CD-I with a Digital Video Cartridge (hence DVC) came out in some stores. The movies were generally $30 and needed 2 discs, compared to the DVD's $20 and 1 disc. Hence why we have one and not the other nowadays.
Baccar Wozat That and the small matter that the DVC discs required a very expensive console very few people had and an at-the-time incredibly expensive add on.
DVD players _technically_ might be able to play them (it's all MPEG1 video after all) but yeah, this is a bit like comparing the number of MegaDrive games with the number of 32X CD games.
The DVD information in this video isn't accurate. The first players were $1,000 and up and most discs were $30-40. I bought my first DVD player in 1997 or early 1998 for $450. it was a clearance model so it was half off plus I saved $50 by getting open box from crutchfield. I bought my first discs from Sam Goody as they weren't available from most mass market retailers like Wal-Mart for several years. My second player was a Sony model that was about $300 and was purchased in 1999. DVD was just starting to take off at that time and didn't really explode until the following year when the PlayStation 2 was released. Laserdisc media cost substantially more than DVDs.
Up until places like Tower Records closed down i'd agree with you. Even towards its end i saw Laserdiscs costing upwards of £45 to £50 or more of the; Star Wars Special Edition trilogy, and such films like; Highlander 2: Renegade Edition, Jaws, Indiana Jones trilogy, Superman The Movie, Tron, E.T., westerns and sword & sandles movies costing way more than DVD's on Laserdisc even toward its end. DVD's were new in 1997 to 1999 into the 2000's, but they didn't cost nearly as much as Laserdiscs did in Tower Records however.
Luckily they're (LD's) are much cheaper nower days online, in places like E-bay and what have you today though.
The first DVD player model ever was the Toshiba SD-3000. Dvd players started arriving in the United States in 97. They were the Samsung DVD-(MSRP$750), RCA RC-5200P (MSRP$600). Pioneer DVL-700 (MSRP$1000), which, btw- was also Laserdisc/Dvd combo unit that I owned for many years and was a solid LD player, and could be had for as little as $679. There was also a Sony DVP-S7000 ( a tank like unit w/ a MSRP of $1000bucks) and a Panasonic DVDA100. I remember seeing a Samsung player - a 709 I think? For $399 in 1998. My second player though was a JVC ( the 501BK) which sold for $300. My next DVD player was my original XBOX - which I used just about daily in my main surround system from 2003 -2013 when I “retired” it, as it was replace with a Blu-ray player. I also acquired a 26 HDTV monitor with a DVD player built in. I can't say enough good things about the Original XBOX as a DVD player. It was a true workhorse -let me tell you.
I still remember the day i bought my 1st DVD - which was Star Trek: 1st Contact - and I still have it. At that point in time I would RENT Disney Laserdisc - in order to transfer them to VHS for my son to enjoy, as Disney Tapes were still $30bucks a pop. Now you find them at every flee market for a dollar or less.
I purchased a Magnavox DVD player in 1999 for around 300 bucks. It was a piece of junk and crapped out by around 2001. It would occasionally pop up with a "Region Not Supported" warning- even in the middle of playback. The regional lockout was so restrictive it ruined the unit.
Many of my Paramount Discs had laser lock or rot right out of the sleeve. I had to exchange the last disc I ever bought, Star Trek Insurrection, three times in order to get a decent copy. Apparently, Paramount was using a manufacturing plant that was sub par as the 90s progressed as my first Discs from the period worked well until I stopped using LD altogether.
Oh crazy ... I actually had one of those Magnavision top-loading players shown around the 4:10 mark. I saved it from the dumpster at college. We tried to get the other 20 players, but they were already gone by the time we got to the room where they were supposedly stored. Sad day indeed.
Once mine decided to play Hudson Hawk's frames in random order, I took it apart and still have the real helium-neon laser (no such thing as a laser diode back then) and 2-axis mirror assembly.
Also of note, I have a 9" Laserdisc of They Might Be Giants videos, and a business advertising film titled "The World of dBase".
Last thing: have you mentioned "Tippy the Turtle" (as we knew him)? Were there any other examples of video recorded on the "unrecorded" side of discs that was better than said Laserdisc-bellied turtle?
Wasn't one of the big reasons why laserdisc never caught on for recording stuff because you could get comparable results with video Hi8, S-VHS or Betacam vcr's which, although more expensive than a regular vhs deck, certainly were much cheaper than a laserdisc recorder or rewritable discs.
I still have my Pioneer 909 dual player.....
4:40 - "Sit and Relax with Video Wallpaper" - could we have an Oddity Archive episode about this?
About not having footage or stills of MUSE Hi-Vision. Techmoan did make a video about the format recently
15:33 - It won't work if you smack it shut like that, Mr Charles!
Growing up, my parents had a laserdisc player, but I don't recall it getting much use. They used the VCR more often than not.
Your show has encouraged me to get a laserdisc, a CED, and a Betamax player.
Ironically I have only one beta tape which is the 1982 release of Walt Disney's Dumbo and a CED disc of Donald Duck and Chip n' Dale cartoons.
Just wanted to tell you what a great show you have here. I just discovered and have binge watched them all week. Really well done.
Have you heard of someone called John Logie Baird? He tried to record tv onto discs back in the 30's but was ahead of his time. Might be interesting to consider what he would have done had he lived in the 70's when optical video discs became practical.
Laser discs served their purpose if you were fan subbing anime with a genlock device. Also the issue with rot - if it was possible to carefully split apart the 2 sides of a disc, recoating the reflective layer could be possible. These things rotted because they didn't use a gold based reflective layer. It won't rot or tarnish. If you have a disc that's not rotted, thank the manufacturer for knowing how to make them. A repressing of the Dragon's Lair game disc was the last one made.
between this, techmoan and Technology Connections I feel like I could teach a really crappy class on Laserdisc....of course no one would show up but w/e it's my dream.
Fun fact: you can actually use a Laser Disc to set up anti-skate on a turntable! And, if you watch Ricky Skaggs’ 1982 video of his single, “Heartbroke”, right at the very end, there’s a very early Laser Disc player, but a silver copy of Ricky’s album is removed!
Amazing amount of informations. Thank you for a great video!
To think the local pawn shop stopped buying DVDs and now sell the non-BluRay versions for a dollar apiece.
As a kid back in the early 90s, I enjoyed reading about the technological advantages offered by the LD format, but knowing there was no way my parents would ever spring for one, my interest waned fairly quickly...years later, I found out that the bonus disc included in MGM/UA's 1993 "Ultimate Oz" release really took advantage of the format, including not only all the video extras from the VHS version (which I still own to this day), but also an "audio vault" which contained hours worth of outtakes, alternate takes, and extended versions of all of the songs and underscoring from the classic 1939 film.
Excellent video Ben! Always felt personally your history lesson based episodes are some of the most entertaining. And its in your presentation of it too! As for that Cheryl Tiegs song in the end? I am sure it was Luther Vandross singing. And what sounds like...Joe Sample/Crusaders or Richard Tee/Stuff supplying the music. Since all three of those people are deceased? Might be difficult to find out for certain. In terms of content? Superb video.
The first UA-cam Poop stutter ever: 14:18
don't forget that the game Dragons Lair also used Laserdisc as well.
the first laser lock example reminded me of some kind of youtube poop
Roxie Mika exactly what I thought
It made me think of Max Headroom.
"Isn't it rich?" *laser lock*
Yes, yes it is.
My father owned a LaserDisc player and we had SEVERAL videos!
Can we order the entire Oddity Archive on VHS?
like the "elephant Parts" reference at the end!
About 2 years ago, I had the idea of making a fan-made LaserDisc to gift to JG Quintel for the success of his show, Regular Show. The disc would be CAV formatted and only contain 2 episodes of the show: The Last LaserDisc Player (Episode 109) & The Format Wars ll (Episode 169). Both episodes depict the format wars between LaserDisc vs VHS and LaserDisc vs DVD respectfully. I went as far as making mock-up artwork for the sleeve after I facilitated a response from him on Twitter: twitter.com/iOutatime/status/763586683467988992
Since then I've had a lead for a LaserDisc Recorder from a man in Germany who claimed he had a VMD-V130 but no blanks to record to as from what I could gather, they had to be the caddy styled discs and could not be removed from said caddies. Some online forums helped me get the phone number to a guy in Chicago that had one of the purple styled blank discs, but he started going off on me after I called him up asking about it. Even offering to pay $1k for the disc he simply called me a moron and hung up.
I still have the artwork concepts on my Twitter and would love to gift just one LaserDisc to JG Quintel now that Regular Show has ended as a way of saying thanks: twitter.com/iOutatime/status/764164502036164609
Thanks to him, a lot of millennials know of LaserDisc as well as other older tech for being featured in his show. And for that, I think Regular Show did play a small part in reviving the retro movement to such a mainstream degree. I would still love to go through with this idea (despite how ridiculous it may seem). This format is dead, recording devices are rare, and blank media for it even more so. But what else are we going to do with blank media for a dead format that will eventually rot away? It's all for show at the end of the day, but it would be nice to bring some mainstream attention specifically back to LaserDisc just one last time.
VideoFilm wasn't McDonnell Douglas' only foray into failing to stay in its lane, and ending up with a loss making product used only in house. They tried to get into the corporate jet market in the 1960s. Fellow military aircraft manufacturers Lockheed and North American had some success in it with the Jetstar and Sabreliner respectively, so McDonnell (prior to the merger with Douglas) designed and built the McDonnell 119, which they renamed 220. They failed to get any orders, and they don't even seem to have tried chartering, so they ended up with a very expensive corporate jet for themselves. It was sold to the Flight Safety Foundation for research use in 1965, and ended up in New Mexico.
It belongs in a museum!
My CLV copy of For All Mankind had visible green spots all over and totally locked up. Thanks, Criterion! CAV version is fine.
In NYC, during (if I can remember the years correctly), the very early 90's, there were late night/ overnight tests of the MUSE system, which ran for a few weeks, and for anyone who remembers things such as a 20/20 segment which told of how beautiful high definition would be- and even broadcast some clips, they told us because we were using analogue, we couldn't see it. BUT; even though it wasn't visible, it definitely was...a 'cleaner' image, is the only way I can describe it watching those MUSE tests which Japanese techs were conducting in coordination with NBC, those image were also 'cleaner' (I don't remember any audio being played. I think all of this was because even though MUSE WAS high definition, it wasn't digital, they were pushing the capabilities of good old copper wires, electron guns to their limit.
What happened - in an almost instantaneous moment (comoaratiu speaking, of course), digital technology bust though, and whereas the 20/20 segment touting high Def was years away (due to the prospect of bringing it to fruition via analogue tech. The segment had to have Aire in the mid-late 80s. High Def was still over amdecade and a half away).
JVC's Digital VHS D-Theater brought digital home high definition video playback AND recording to the US in 2002 before HD-DVD/BluRay showed up. All the digital formats were compressed. MUSE was actually analog interlaced video, roughly on par (but not compatible) with 1080i ATSC.
As for CRVdisc, check this out: www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/entry.php?463-Component-Recording-Video-The-LVR-5000
Is there a way you can hook up 2 old laserdisc players to a mixer & make video DJ sets?
Carrie Criterion isn't in Pan&Scan. It's actually Open Matte (more picture than the letterboxed releases) at the request of Brian De Palma and carries the original mono mix that hasn't been use on later re-releases (DVD, etc.).
www.lddb.com/laserdisc/03860/CC1278L/Carrie:-Special-Edition
The CARRIE Criterion is the proper aspect ratio, but the print has Fujirot, so you get thousands of colorful dots throughout playing the film.
I wonder how much sound could be fit on a laser disc!
Consult Wikipedia for the technical aspects of Laser Disc.
Yay! I love history day! Matter of fact, it's actually what I mainly watch this show for!
I've had that stupid Cheryl Tiegs song stuck in my head all day.
I'm not sure if I should love you or hate you right now because of it.
By the way, you might want to know that the title on the Chinese RoboCop disc is actually the Chinese name for Lost in Space. XD
Neat video chronicling Laserdisc and its development and growth. although this is lacking the Don Bluth's Laserdisc videogames of; "Dragon's Lair" and "Space Ace" unique titles needed in all docs of Laserdisc i reckon.
i saw that laserdisc princess bride scene
I hate to correct you, but Mad Dog McRee is not considered the most widely regarded LaserDisc game. That title would go to " Dragon's Lair "
Bingo but ya see being that bens not a gamer or gaming history guy he wouldnt know that much sorry ben but well...yea...im a big nerd of all trades kinda guy not bashing anyone just throwin around knowledge an stuff please dont hate me * flinches sensing a beating *
Wow, the laser active is very interesting.
Impressive video! Lots of info there. What I was missing as a spin-off format was the CD-Video (no, I don't mean VideoCD), from 1987 or so. Am I the only one who remembers that?
The audio effects of laser lock and laser rot sound like Turnado loop settings.
Great video, but I have a question... Why are you hiding behind a cardboard
box?
How nice someone thinks, as I do, that LaserDisc was an immense success!!
watched it all
awesome episode, man
You forgot to note that the DTS on a LaserDisc replaced the PCM CD digital sound channels and that older machines with digital outputs (SPIDF optical and coaxial) could play the DTS even before it arrived for the format and sounded better than the more compressed Dolby Digital AC-3 format. Old DTS was 3:1 compression, while Dolby was 12: 1. Now they are both lossless.
Nice thing about living in NM/TX, in the part I'm living in, it's so dry that nothing here has laser rot.
Dead Laserdiscs = big microwave light show.
Classic Archive. I'm doing a randomized OA Advent Calendar. This one's a doozy.
One wonders if any porno LaserDics were ever created. Just curious, i guess.
So porn LDs are actually called LaserDicks, huh?
@@denelson83 Boooo
@@imrustyokay Boooo-urns!
OK, then.
@@denelson83 Woo!
Another thing that sped up mass adoption of DVD was the success and popularity of Sony's Playstation 2. When it came out in 2000 it was the must have system not only because it was Sony's latest console with some killer platform exclusives, it was also a cheap way to get into DVDs, and many people's first player. It's part of the reason Sony was able to trounce SEGA's Dreamcast.
awesome episode!
Dragon’s Lair is another most well known laserdisc Arcade Game
Anyone know where I could find a copy online of Video Magazine from Spring 1979 shown at 4:40? I'm interested in the article on teletext. I've tried googling a bunch, but can't find anything beyond the cover online :/
Nic Cage has killed more than Laserdisc. He has managed to ruin so many movies, that are otherwise fine.
+Greeceindirestraits Still haven't forgiven him for Raping Ghostrider
dts 5.1 soundtracks on laserdisc did not have the same problem like Dolby AC-3 aka Dolby Digital. if i am not mistaken, the dts soundtrack did not need the requirement of a demodulator like Dolby AC-3 did
Why is the man giving us that hand gesture at 14:24? ;-)
Laserdiscs were very rare in the UK, I think the most well known use of them here was the BBC Domesday Project (which I'm kinda surprised you didn't touch on)
www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday
It used the BBC Micro (of course) and recorded information on Laserdiscs to be played in specialised players. They actually had some worries about whether the Domesday Project would still be readable because the equipment used was expensive at the time and therefore rare and the players have broken down over time.
very interesting. Thanks.
I LOL'D at the join as next time part!
20:23 I'd have to disagree with you there Ben. Most famous Laserdisc game would have to be Dragon's Lair.
My teacher has a Laserdisc player for some reason but doesn't ACTUALLY use it.
Same here
I was shown an interactive video in 8th grade science class. It was a mystery concerning uncooked chicken. Definitely memorable.
I had a teacher with one when I was in middle school.
It's the only time I EVER saw a LaserDisc.
In my middle school music classroom there was a LaserDisc player, we watched The Pirates of Penzance on it.
If you'd have went one title past that "crappy pan and scan", you'd have gotten to the Dr. Strangelove Criterion. Which would be a great option.
An unnecessarily patronising look at a format that remains the only one remaining for some great musical performances that otherwise have to resort to VHS tapes for sourcing here. I picked up a number of Japanese NTSC music laserdiscs. A vastly larger range of titles the US ever did but then its market penetration 10% instead of 1%. I still play them on my Pioneer and notice many never subsequently released on DVD or even CD. For example Bob Dylan's 1986 Hard to Handle tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. A CBC source said no market for it. Another, technical point that could have been mentioned is that LD's digital soundtrack uncompressed unlike DVDs and CDs. Because of the indolence of the record companies and possible licensing issues music laserdiscs continue to matter...to music lovers. I'm putting them on my channel where no DVD release.
Given the timing of your posting (and a quick scan of your channel), I can't help but feeling this is more a crack at promoting your own channel than anything else.
I admit, I haven't watched this episode in ages, but I seem to remember saying that LD's were most popular in Japan and covering the pertinent audio stuff. Also, bear in mind, you're not gonna get a comprehensive history of LD's (or most video formats) in 25 minutes. As for Japanese music LD's, you are right. I've got a few of them myself.
Oh yeah, and, really, patronizing? It's an overview meant for anyone with an interest in the format (novice, expert, or any point in between). Any snark in the video (seems like there's little-to-none in this one) is part and parcel of this channel.
Your measured reply is appreciated. My focus is admittedly different - almost archival by comparison. Yes I admit I want to alert music lovers to laserdiscs where they are the only remaining digital source of great performances. UA-cam sanctions uploading without identifying the source, such as a VHS tape. So yes I'm promoting going further where this discarded format can still provide through collectors such as myself. Thanks for at least providing an overview of this victim of 'progress' though its uncompressed digital soundtrack I consider a boon (even Greg Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever cursory on this lingering holdout - incidentally none of my 200 LDs has developed laser rot after 30 years - just praying my Pioneer LD-98 keeps playing them!). Have a happy new year and I have subscribed to your channel.
The compact disc was not an offshoot. It was digital. The laserdisc was analog.
Partially correct. Later laserdiscs around 1984-1985 gained digital cd quality sound (near-cd bitrates in NTSC regions but exact bitrate in PAL regions) and dts in 1995-1996.
Oddity Archive for the Original Star Wars.
Im surprised that you didnt touch on the Video CD format..or is that not a child of the LaserDisc?
I've never even heard of these kinds if discs my parents went straight to the DVDs when vhs went obsolete.
My parents had a laserdisc player for a *SHORT* time back in 1999 (I think), and, when we moved, the player was left behind. We still have the remote for it.