I love the fact that early laser discs, while being touted for having the most superior quality available, were just transfers of beat-up old films. Even the "Disco Vision" bumper at the beginning of the discs seems like it had been through the mill.
Plus the telecine technology used by DiscoVision then was state of the art for the time (but obviously quite quaint compared to today's HD digital film scanners), which probably brought out the less-than-stellar condition of the prints. And I'd reckon to guess they probably used the same film print of the DiscoVision bumper for every transfer, spliced at the head of the movie or other presentation before transfer, hence it's slightly haggard appearance (dirt specks and slight frame weaving). IINM, DiscoVision had an early-model Rank Cintel flying-spot scanner telecine unit for their film transfers (bleeding edge in '78), which were then recorded to 2" helical IVC 9000-format videotape (the highest quality videotape format of the era due to IVC making their model 9000 VTRs quite overengineered) for mastering to disc. They later switched to 1" Type C-format tape instead by the end of the 70s (in wide use in TV broadcasting and post-production at the time) due to IVC going out of business by the 1980s (due to the excessive R&D costs they'd put into their 9000 VTR), leaving their products without service or support. I'm guessing the prints DiscoVision used were probably old syndicated TV prints, or more than likely theatrical release prints that had already made their run in theaters. You'd think DiscoVision would've had access to better quality materials, especially for Universal releases--considering DiscoVision was an offshoot of MCA Universal. Then again, I'd also guess they probably went this route to cut production costs, since Universal through their DV subsidiary already had millions tied up in developing the DiscoVison/LaserDisc format as it was--striking new prints from the internegatives just for DiscoVision transfer probably would've added to the format's cost to develop and manufacture, I'd assume. And I'd also assume Universal wasn't too keen on DV transferring the internegatives (or interpositives) directly to tape as well, to save on the wear & tear of said internegatives or interpositives to keep them in good shape for future theatrical prints for the former or new internegatives from the latter to be struck from them. Who knows... (and pardon my TL;DR length of comment) :)
My first car was a 1982 Citation. I purchased it for around $100 in 2002. Aside from all the window & windshield seals leaking and an alternator that would occasionally catch on fire (a tiny extinguisher fit comfortably inside the engine compartment), it served me well during my first year of college. A nice feature was that, with the rear seat folded down, two people could sleep fairly comfortably in the back - great for camping. Unless it rained, on account of the aforementioned window seals.
My family took a trip halfway across the country to Minnesota in our yellow Citation and my sister and I slept comfortably in the back with the seats down. It's funny that that's the biggest positive I can remember with that car. It was before the driver side door stopped latching and eventually had to be welded shut.
Teletext data is sent cyclically, so you can get multiple instances of the same page. You can later use special algorithms that check for characters that show up the most and construct a proper page from them. If there are still errors on the page, you can edit them out with Teletext editor. So, you should at least try to capture that data transmission.
Disco(vision) isn't dead! 😉 It's a shame that Keyfax update didn't go as planned, but at least you're keeping the memory going to the general public which is the main thing. :)
Also to many Americans of a "certain age". We got a lot of UK TV (telly?) shows in the states the 1970s. In fact "The World at War" was one of them. The Thames logo and the ITC logo are very nostalgic for me. Now I'm going to go play the "Space 1999" intro, Because that stuff JAMS!
There's something that seems just right about the dead side of Saturday Night Fever being a stuffy 30's movie. Balance? Zen? Irony? I can't rightfully describe it. Though what's weirder is basically unintentionally having 2 parts of that 30's movie between the two disks that you just so happened to procure. It's either a coincidence OF coincidences, or they just had a LOT of unsold Ruggles of Red Gap Discovisions they had to reuse. Maybe a bit of both.
Stuffy? It's a classic. It's on the Library of Congress National Film Registry. It was one of the biggest critical and commercial successes of 1935. Charles Laughton won the New York Critics award for acting. It was cited for years in books on classic film comedies. Kind of an ignorant insult, dude.
@@OuterGalaxyLounge You get what the definition of "stuffy" is in contrast to a flamboyant, loud film like Saturday Night Fever, right? I'm merely commenting on the fact one film is a proper, sophisticated affair that was an example of the films made in its day, and the other is a grittier, yet bolder and more colorful sold partially by its Bee Gees soundtrack. Honestly, I don't think either is my taste. When I hear 30's, 40's comedy I'm going to the standby teams like Three Stooges or the Marx Bros. Bolder personality driven comedy stuff. As for Saturday Night Fever, I saw that once didn't love it, didn't hate it. I greatly prefer Rocky.
@@OuterGalaxyLounge It is a classic, But then I LOVE movies from before Movies had television as competition, They were THEN a different art. "Saturday Night Fever" had to "live" in a world where movies had to compete with TV and mostly had to be a bit of an "edgier" version of TV. Cable skewed the lines further. Any 1930s-50s movie NEEDS appreciation as a SEPERATE "thing" from later movies. 👍😊👍
@@OuterGalaxyLounge I would have been more Amused if it was Top Hat on the Dead Side of Saturday Night Fever. That was the #1 Film of 1935 and starred Fred Astaire.
Or trying to pick up a snowy KTXL TV 40 late nights from Fresno, CA. Only remember LABrie's Comfort Sleep Centers ads. Also snowy Speed Racer at 7:30am, same channel.
My first car in high school was a 1983 Citation. It was sort of orangeish-brown. Was it a great car? Nah. However, it wasn't bad. I loved it unconditionally because it gave me the freedom I lacked before getting my license. RIP Citation.
Is there enough room in the "pizza box" if you replaced the original abrasive laserdisc cover with a safer one and left the original inside the box in the back so you still have it? Maybe an idea? Otherwise another great video as always!
My grandma had a metallic brown 1980 4-door Citation when I was a kid, her and my grandpa bought it used (but still relatively new) back in the early 80s (it was formerly a fleet car of some kind from the original owner IIRC, it even had a "NMO"-style 2-way radio antenna mount on the middle of the roof). She had it for almost 20 years without any trouble with it that I know of, before she moved into a assisted-living apartment and my uncle sold it for her then. It actually was a decent car (in spite of the Citation's reputation for being unreliable, as GM's X-body vehicles were), it even had the car stereo upgraded by the 1st owner from the factory unit to an aftermarket AM/FM auto-reverse cassette deck, where we'd listen to tapes of Lawrence Welk and Pete Fountain that my grandma had when we were driving. :)
19:57 Incredibly, I actually watched "Ruggles of Red Gap" last week; I've been on a 30s comedy binge lately! (And "The World at War" is one of the greatest documentaries ever made.)
I find it interesting that disco vision would actually have dead sides from other discs with other movies on it just so bizarre but I guess back then they had a save a buck and that was one way of doing it.
So hold up... The dead side to SNF was RRG disc 3... and the dead side of Birds was RRG disc 4? What are the odds, like were these made in sequence or something?
You might get somewhere with a high end tbc but the best would be to make up some teletext with some kind of vbi text / code generator. If I anyone runs into one they should grab it before they get melted down overseas because someone ELSE wants their storage locker to look like an apple store (and 'need's to get rid of important things).
I'm still a-collecting Laser Discs (AKA CD Video - for some reason). Not as easy as it used to be here in the UK. It's easier to buy Japanese and US releases here probably as there were fewer domestic ones made. The chances of finding any older formats here are remote.
"CD Video" is kind of a misnomer. It was its own pseudo-format briefly (see my Laserdiscs Vol. 2 video or Techmoan's video on it), then they just started slapping the "CD Video" name on regular laserdiscs.
@@OddityArchive Yes, I have the 1988 Madonna Ciao Italia LaserDiscs, one from Europe that was released as a LaserDisc and the UK one which is identical except it's got CD Video in the bottom corner. It's these little differences that turns a normal collector into a raving nerd hehehe
As far as I'm concerned, the graphic title at 19:34 would read "Disco Ision" because the letter 'V' is not in the font of the rest of the letters. As I see it, the 'V' is missing, replaced with a downward-pointing arrow head, same as on the packaging "pizza-box" sleeve fronts. The only variation is part of the movie's promotional "slick" had been superimposed on the arrow.
I love the fact that early laser discs, while being touted for having the most superior quality available, were just transfers of beat-up old films. Even the "Disco Vision" bumper at the beginning of the discs seems like it had been through the mill.
Reminds me of Techmoan and his prerecorded DAT - which featured old 50s and 60s recordings.
ua-cam.com/video/F4K1QKKPX_g/v-deo.html
I guess restoring film prints to HD resolution was too expensive back then.
@@nooneinpart "High Fidelity Film Damage" is a good name for a band.
@@nooneinpart Who doesn't enjoy some nice nitrate curl?
Plus the telecine technology used by DiscoVision then was state of the art for the time (but obviously quite quaint compared to today's HD digital film scanners), which probably brought out the less-than-stellar condition of the prints. And I'd reckon to guess they probably used the same film print of the DiscoVision bumper for every transfer, spliced at the head of the movie or other presentation before transfer, hence it's slightly haggard appearance (dirt specks and slight frame weaving).
IINM, DiscoVision had an early-model Rank Cintel flying-spot scanner telecine unit for their film transfers (bleeding edge in '78), which were then recorded to 2" helical IVC 9000-format videotape (the highest quality videotape format of the era due to IVC making their model 9000 VTRs quite overengineered) for mastering to disc.
They later switched to 1" Type C-format tape instead by the end of the 70s (in wide use in TV broadcasting and post-production at the time) due to IVC going out of business by the 1980s (due to the excessive R&D costs they'd put into their 9000 VTR), leaving their products without service or support.
I'm guessing the prints DiscoVision used were probably old syndicated TV prints, or more than likely theatrical release prints that had already made their run in theaters. You'd think DiscoVision would've had access to better quality materials, especially for Universal releases--considering DiscoVision was an offshoot of MCA Universal.
Then again, I'd also guess they probably went this route to cut production costs, since Universal through their DV subsidiary already had millions tied up in developing the DiscoVison/LaserDisc format as it was--striking new prints from the internegatives just for DiscoVision transfer probably would've added to the format's cost to develop and manufacture, I'd assume. And I'd also assume Universal wasn't too keen on DV transferring the internegatives (or interpositives) directly to tape as well, to save on the wear & tear of said internegatives or interpositives to keep them in good shape for future theatrical prints for the former or new internegatives from the latter to be struck from them. Who knows... (and pardon my TL;DR length of comment) :)
My first car was a 1982 Citation. I purchased it for around $100 in 2002. Aside from all the window & windshield seals leaking and an alternator that would occasionally catch on fire (a tiny extinguisher fit comfortably inside the engine compartment), it served me well during my first year of college. A nice feature was that, with the rear seat folded down, two people could sleep fairly comfortably in the back - great for camping. Unless it rained, on account of the aforementioned window seals.
My family took a trip halfway across the country to Minnesota in our yellow Citation and my sister and I slept comfortably in the back with the seats down. It's funny that that's the biggest positive I can remember with that car. It was before the driver side door stopped latching and eventually had to be welded shut.
Who else was hoping when Thames came on it was going to be Benny Hill?
or some early Kenny Everett
Or, Man About The House.
Teletext data is sent cyclically, so you can get multiple instances of the same page. You can later use special algorithms that check for characters that show up the most and construct a proper page from them. If there are still errors on the page, you can edit them out with Teletext editor. So, you should at least try to capture that data transmission.
Teletext data is sent cynically.
Disco(vision) isn't dead! 😉
It's a shame that Keyfax update didn't go as planned, but at least you're keeping the memory going to the general public which is the main thing. :)
“D-D-D-Discovision!”
“When the red light comes on, simply press stop.”
That Thames Television intro sure is nostalgic to Britons of a certain age!
...and anyone who watched Danger Mouse on Nickelodeon in the 80s! 😁
Also to many Americans of a "certain age". We got a lot of UK TV (telly?) shows in the states the 1970s. In fact "The World at War" was one of them. The Thames logo and the ITC logo are very nostalgic for me. Now I'm going to go play the "Space 1999" intro, Because that stuff JAMS!
The introduction sting to Morecambe and Wise. Blast from the past.
@@jamesslick4790 It reminds me of watching Man About The House.
Wow, I have just leaned that some laserdiscs have dead sides. I'm now watching your original dead sides video. Thanks Ben for all your obscura.
The World at War. Absolutely epic documentary!
There's something that seems just right about the dead side of Saturday Night Fever being a stuffy 30's movie. Balance? Zen? Irony? I can't rightfully describe it. Though what's weirder is basically unintentionally having 2 parts of that 30's movie between the two disks that you just so happened to procure. It's either a coincidence OF coincidences, or they just had a LOT of unsold Ruggles of Red Gap Discovisions they had to reuse. Maybe a bit of both.
Stuffy? It's a classic. It's on the Library of Congress National Film Registry. It was one of the biggest critical and commercial successes of 1935. Charles Laughton won the New York Critics award for acting. It was cited for years in books on classic film comedies. Kind of an ignorant insult, dude.
@@OuterGalaxyLounge You get what the definition of "stuffy" is in contrast to a flamboyant, loud film like Saturday Night Fever, right? I'm merely commenting on the fact one film is a proper, sophisticated affair that was an example of the films made in its day, and the other is a grittier, yet bolder and more colorful sold partially by its Bee Gees soundtrack. Honestly, I don't think either is my taste. When I hear 30's, 40's comedy I'm going to the standby teams like Three Stooges or the Marx Bros. Bolder personality driven comedy stuff. As for Saturday Night Fever, I saw that once didn't love it, didn't hate it. I greatly prefer Rocky.
@@OuterGalaxyLounge It is a classic, But then I LOVE movies from before Movies had television as competition, They were THEN a different art. "Saturday Night Fever" had to "live" in a world where movies had to compete with TV and mostly had to be a bit of an "edgier" version of TV. Cable skewed the lines further. Any 1930s-50s movie NEEDS appreciation as a SEPERATE "thing" from later movies. 👍😊👍
@@OuterGalaxyLounge I would have been more Amused if it was Top Hat on the Dead Side of Saturday Night Fever. That was the #1 Film of 1935 and starred Fred Astaire.
Nice! I just got finished watching your older Discovision Dead side videos last night!
The finest in overnight programming on 32 back in the day.
Or trying to pick up a snowy KTXL TV 40 late nights from Fresno, CA. Only remember LABrie's Comfort Sleep Centers ads. Also snowy Speed Racer at 7:30am, same channel.
Happy New year Benny Boy
Time to break out that Guy Lombardo 8-track and open a Babycham!
My first car in high school was a 1983 Citation. It was sort of orangeish-brown. Was it a great car? Nah. However, it wasn't bad. I loved it unconditionally because it gave me the freedom I lacked before getting my license. RIP Citation.
One's FIRST car is always the BEST car! 👍😊👍
Is there enough room in the "pizza box" if you replaced the original abrasive laserdisc cover with a safer one and left the original inside the box in the back so you still have it? Maybe an idea? Otherwise another great video as always!
A 1984 Citation II was our family’s primary car until 1992. So many memories.
Also, Saturday Night Fever just happens to be one of my all time favorite movies!
My grandma had a metallic brown 1980 4-door Citation when I was a kid, her and my grandpa bought it used (but still relatively new) back in the early 80s (it was formerly a fleet car of some kind from the original owner IIRC, it even had a "NMO"-style 2-way radio antenna mount on the middle of the roof). She had it for almost 20 years without any trouble with it that I know of, before she moved into a assisted-living apartment and my uncle sold it for her then.
It actually was a decent car (in spite of the Citation's reputation for being unreliable, as GM's X-body vehicles were), it even had the car stereo upgraded by the 1st owner from the factory unit to an aftermarket AM/FM auto-reverse cassette deck, where we'd listen to tapes of Lawrence Welk and Pete Fountain that my grandma had when we were driving. :)
Too bad on the keyfax but the dead sides were fascinating. Amazing what you find.
19:57 Incredibly, I actually watched "Ruggles of Red Gap" last week; I've been on a 30s comedy binge lately! (And "The World at War" is one of the greatest documentaries ever made.)
Check out "Top Hat" with Fred Astaire, it came out the same year and was the #1 film of 1935!
Thames TV... Did not expect that to pop up
I find it interesting that disco vision would actually have dead sides from other discs with other movies on it just so bizarre but I guess back then they had a save a buck and that was one way of doing it.
It's equivalent to painters painting over their previous work to save money on new canvases.
RePC in Seattle used to have *bins* of old remotes. Haven't been in years though
So hold up... The dead side to SNF was RRG disc 3... and the dead side of Birds was RRG disc 4? What are the odds, like were these made in sequence or something?
@5:05; another annoying earworm commercial I had to be reminded of from my youth! (Even though the sound wasn't there.) Thanks Benny-boy! lol
You might get somewhere with a high end tbc but the best would be to make up some teletext with some kind of vbi text / code generator. If I anyone runs into one they should grab it before they get melted down overseas because someone ELSE wants their storage locker to look like an apple store (and 'need's to get rid of important things).
Memetic logic, perhaps?
I'm still a-collecting Laser Discs (AKA CD Video - for some reason). Not as easy as it used to be here in the UK. It's easier to buy Japanese and US releases here probably as there were fewer domestic ones made. The chances of finding any older formats here are remote.
"CD Video" is kind of a misnomer. It was its own pseudo-format briefly (see my Laserdiscs Vol. 2 video or Techmoan's video on it), then they just started slapping the "CD Video" name on regular laserdiscs.
@@OddityArchive Yes, I have the 1988 Madonna Ciao Italia LaserDiscs, one from Europe that was released as a LaserDisc and the UK one which is identical except it's got CD Video in the bottom corner. It's these little differences that turns a normal collector into a raving nerd hehehe
Ruggles of Red Gap is a great movie👍
Aww...Benny boy, showing off his junk again. ;)
I knew a guy in highschool who had a Citation. His name was Curby. For his sake, I wish I was kidding. I'm not.
Every single time I see that THAMES intro, i really and I mean really hope it cuts to Benny Hill right after it's done.
As far as I'm concerned, the graphic title at 19:34 would read "Disco Ision" because the letter 'V' is not in the font of the rest of the letters. As I see it, the 'V' is missing, replaced with a downward-pointing arrow head, same as on the packaging "pizza-box" sleeve fronts. The only variation is part of the movie's promotional "slick" had been superimposed on the arrow.