Film 92 looks at Laserdisc

A look at the newest way of watching movies at home, despite having been launched way back in 1978. From 19th October 1992.

[@vangmx]

It will come and so it did. What a fascinating vintage video for someone watching in 2022. 16x9, HDTV, flatscreen technology. For these guys in 1992, it was the future. For me, it’s become a reality. Praise to all the countless people in the past for making their future our current reality.

[@robmilsom]

"Yes I could wait for high definition TV. But as soon as I get high definition TV, who's to say there won't be a high definition mark two". Ultra HD Forum: Oh shit, he's onto us.

[@arcadeapocalypsemusic]

Just WILD to see 16x9 TVs that far back in 1992 & hear them talk about the upcoming HD revolution

[@quatz1981]

Fascinating to see home theatre setups of the day. Cutting edge at the time, got to appreciate it for the time it was made in.

[@kentdean3882]

And just think ... in a few years, they'll be saying the same thing about our gear!

[@tompo010101]

I remember getting a 32" philips wide-screen TV in 97 and was blown away

[@steviegbcool]

ha yeah now my pc monitor is bigger than that lol

[@peterconnell8083]

I got one too in 98...32" Philips cool green wide-screen with matching VHS recorder. I remember it lasted about 5 years and then the tubes broke. Loved that TV!

[@SimonChristensen]

Almost matches 35mm film eh? Yeah, sure!

[@irtbmtind89]

Most multiplex release prints didn't look great TBH. Probably the equivalent of between 500-700 lines depending on the film stock, how many generations between the print and the original negative (could be as many as 7 generations), and whether the lab developed the film properly. This doesn't even include projection problems.

[@beckyzwhite]

Certainly it does, scratched out of focus 35mm film.

[@Reticuli]

yeah, marketing bs

[@NineteenEightyFive]

This was so interesting. Amazing how far off they were with HDTVs catching on.

[@ManCave1972]

My Uncle Fred, God rest his soul, was the only person I knew to get a Philips Laserdisc back in the day, we didn’t know what was going on. He would love the 4K stuff we have now.

[@robmilsom]

Video on a disc? That will never take off.

[@duncanbrown8150]

I have now got all the modern home entertainment technology in my flat. Plus I have still got some VHS tapes and laserdiscs in my collection. This video is a good example of what kind of home entertainment, was to come.

[@WattTheTech]

I remember watching this back in the day. I also had laserdisc and shopped at Thames valley laser. I also did import discs from USA and Japan Visited the shops in London to buy LD fun times. Still got my LD player and a discs but not played them in years now I use blueray and 4K

[@steviegbcool]

oh wow they had HD content available in 92? why did take another 13 years to get to broadcasting and home video?

[@Kit_Bear]

Signal bandwidth restrictions. That's why we switched over to Digital Broadcasts. Theoretically it could have been done via satellite or Cable but that would have taken a huge amount of investment which at the time we weren't ready for.

[@andrewattenboroughtwothumb4697]

he got it right about home cinema and about projectors used for home cinema

[@Earthtime3978]

Nothing like a widescreen CRT

[@steviegbcool]

a widescreen HD CRT !

[@Knightmessenger]

I actually wrote papers both about John Logie Baird and and the laserdisc format for a class in grad school (Dead Media). What a coincidence. However, I don't think it's acurrate to say he pioneered the laserdisc format. As this video shows, the discs he tried to record video on were more like vinyl records, which is much closer to the RCA CED format that pretty much was a flop. Most youtube channels credit I think John Paul Greg with a patent for using optical lasers in the 60's that got bought by MCA. Or something like that, which is considered the beginning of the laserdisc format, and really of optical discs, period.

[@DVDfeverGames]

You're welcome to dig up Barry Norman and discuss it with him...

[@MartinFarrell1972]

We have 1080p and 4K. Tv's with an aspect ratio of 4:3 just look unatural even though at the time we bought them. I'm old enough to remember Channel 4 launching and nicam stereo. The guy was talking about a wall as a screen. That is a reality. My projector almost covers the wall. I need to extend my flat out to get wall sized but it's supposed to project up to 300". Modern tech still amazes me. Was recently in Currys to look at new cookers but ended up in their tv department. I wonder if we'll have 8k boroadcast over the air.

[@ronny332]

I love this kind of footage. That you very much for sharing!

[@garyhunt8067]

Yep. Laserdisc didn't last long. Great picture, great sound 🔊. But, sadly they didn't do well.

[@pHD77]

The laserdisc system came out around 1976 and saw it's last disc release in circa 2001. Didn't last long? Evidence suggests otherwise. It never became a mainstream thing, though.

[@Kit_Bear]

It did fantastically well considering the price of the player and the discs at the time. The problem was no-one could afford it and most shops and catalogues didn't stock it. If you look at old catalogues of say Argos or Dixons which were electronic consumer goods powerhouses back in the day none of them sold LD players. You had to go to specialist high street shops to buy one. In my entire childhood and teen years I never saw a single one. The closest was when I was 5 years old in school and they had the RCA Selectavision. That was a failure but LD was a success around the world for over 30 years. I think that classes it as a success in my opinion.

[@sakuraglenn]

Fascinating. Though it'd be at least another decade before HD would be relatively commonplace. Recently started watching my old laserdiscs on my HD tv and the visuals hold up remarkably well, as good as and if CAV better than DVD. However laserdisc can even blow blu ray out of the water when it comes to sound quality. The original CAV Star Wars trilogy sound far surpasses that of the blu ray set and there's a huge number of similar examples.

[@DarthHater100]

WRONG. Everything you said.

[@sakuraglenn]

The Star Wars laserdiscs definitely sound better than the blu rays. The laserdiscs are the original versions while the blu's are the '97 redos but there's tons more oomff in the LDs.

[@DarthHater100]

@@sakuraglenn Lossy matrixed Dolby Surround?? Please. You are being absurd.

[@vintagelife3504]

​@@DarthHater100 laserdiscs sounds way better the blu ray

[@DarthHater100]

@@vintagelife3504 Lies.

[@EFIShell]

Nokia's HD-MAC used TV model.

[@GrimCellar]

Brilliant video and some interesting predictions about the future, if a little off. But, boy, Barry Norman was such a knob! What a comment to finish on when talking to movie fans essentially about movie fans!

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

Laserdisc sought of took off a bit in the 1990s in the UK. It was always quite niche though. I do remember the old Sony Centres on the high street displaying the laserdisc players, and for the time, they were very impressive with the picture and surround sound.

[@EFIShell]

HD LaserDisc has remained something of a Japan exclusive. It was released in 1990, but its sales to the public started after 1993. Because he was using the MUSE system, he couldn't go outside Japan. If you search for MUSE LaserDisc, it will appear.

[@ConsumerDV]

They still pushed analog SD Laserdisc four years before the launch of DVD? Huh.

[@NEWCASTLE.UNITED.]

Wow when will these be available?

[@benrichards399]

Toon Nufc ive ordered mine from woolworths.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

America had these since the late 70's.

[@IronsWorks1990]

1995 aye, crazy To think they were talking about HDTV something that didn't come to the mainstream til 2005. Alot of us jumped on in the late 2000s.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Jarrod Steel It depends, I got my first set in 2008. I know I was already seeing them on the shelves of Best Buy five years before.

[@NUCLEARARMAMENT]

There was a broadcast version of this system called HD-MAC, as well as an SD-compatible variant called D2-MAC. They were both analog component systems and could utilize either analog or digital stereo audio (12-bit/NICAM) encoding as well. There were even HD-MAC encoded LaserDiscs, but these are exceedingly rare and were never produced on the scale of Japanese MUSE LaserDiscs.

[@sheldonspock5566]

How much did that tritube CRT projector cost in 1992? And shouldn't it be capable of projecting on a substantially bigger screen? Or was he just implying he could have a bigger screen in his house because of size?

[@aaronganga2207]

5.03 Big Projector He Got

[@Knightmessenger]

Laserdisc could look as good as 35mm film? Maybe on a 1992 television but as good as the format was, no standard def format can reproduce the detail of a 4k capture (which finally approximates what 35mm is) The other weird thing is I did 2 separate projects for a class on Dead Media on John Logie Baird and the laserdisc format. Neither one did I come across anything that suggested Baired came close to inventing the laser disc. He experimented with recording picture onto discs but I believe they were vinyl so it would be more like the CED format. Still very much ahead of his time for trying to use discs for video.

[@nesnioreh]

There were HD laserdiscs in japan available in 1992, I think he is referring to those

[@Nitrobotti]

Yeah he's talking about the HD Laserdisc.

[@sheldonspock5566]

people need to stop comparing film (35mm in this case) with random resolution numbers. It doesn't really work like that. Perceived quality can't be mesured by pixels alone. Laserdisc on a small CRT TV looked very good for that day and age, and many 35mm venues looked very bad screening beaten to death 35mm reels. So yeah in a way you can understand where they're coming from.

[@cemsengul16]

Yeah it is adorable how wrong he was with that comment man.

[@Knightmessenger]

@Absolute Longplay to be fair, I didn't even realize there was a major difference between film and video in the 90s. I thought sports looked just as good as movies. I was surprised when there was this hype about sports games being in HD because I always thought they looked incredibly good already. It's possible the lower resolution allowed the camera to have more things be in focus while still appearing to show a shallow depth of field. Even today, sports on tv dont always have natural looking colors or lower the contrast/exposure like 90s broadcasts did to avoid overexposure.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

4:34 Star Trek!

[@Takeshi357]

A whole lot of it, too; look at his shelf! I wonder what he's up to these days.

[@miamijim5964]

I hope he's still watching Star Trek@@Takeshi357

[@BAKEDPOTATOLARDYASS]

The last great decade

[@525Lines]

Am I correct in saying the laserdisc is the format that introduced the commentary?

[@hector-sauvage]

Yes, but you had to turn the disc over halfway through, like a vinyl record.

[@Leonards-leopard]

Barry not overly impressed at the end there. And why not?

[@OzzyMandias]

No way VHS is here to stay, HD TV don't make me laugh

[@oblitum]

Barcelona 92 1250

[@lizichell2]

You can get blu ray films in cex for as little as £2

[@robmilsom]

Less than that even. No Laserdiscs unfortunately.

[@keithmoseley1612]

i really like laserdisc a lot .i think it's way better than dvd

[@clyth41]

How things have changed haha... HD is standard now and laserdisc is well... Dead

[@austinwillcut4919]

blu ray/4K is pretty much laserdisc now, niche and most people don't watch them just like LDs in the 90's lol. Streaming is what most people are into now and even DVD is still around lol.

[@austinwillcut4919]

@Gerald Moody I agree but sadly most people nowadays don't see it that way, they want quick convenience over quality. I think streaming sucks ass too but I have to be realistic here.....people just don't have passion for physical media anymore like they used to. It's becoming very niche unfortunately, that's why we don't have video rental stores anymore.....streaming killed them dead.

[@monsieurmike2072]

@@austinwillcut4919 I saw online recently..samsung will not be manufacturing bluray players anymore...the signs of times is coming...BETA...VHS...LASERDISC..DVD...AND JUST NOW BLURAY....most folks now I guess is streaming content rather than solid materials..

[@austinwillcut4919]

@@monsieurmike2072Samsung are only quitting making new models(they are still producing the old ones) because they make shitty players and they're not selling very well.....not because blu ray is phasing out. People are over exaggerating this. If it's phasing out, why are the other companies not stopping production of players either? Why are players, DVDs, Blus still selling very well? Doesn't seem like it's phasing out to me and they've been saying this for 10 yrs now but yet it's still here. CDs/vinyls are still here and they're much older than DVD. VHS/LD phased out because DVDs were better quality and cheaper, not because of decline of interest in physical media.....it just evolved. Just because Samsung is not making players anymore doesn't mean the rest will follow....why do people assume that? Everyone needs to get a grip lol. Also, not everyone likes just streaming their stuff......there's always going to be interest in physical media.

[@monsieurmike2072]

@@austinwillcut4919 🤗🤘✌

[@hansemist]

Do you any Laserdiscs With ATSC encoding?

[@Kit_Bear]

You mean NTSC? Yes.

[@fordtechchris]

wide screen crt looks odd.

[@Pasi123]

Probably because that Nokia TV has a curved glass. In the early 00's widescreen CRT TV's with flat glass were pretty popular. Sony KD-34XBR960 from 2004 was the best HD (1080i) widescreen CRT TV ever made, it still beats pretty much all new flatscreen TV's except OLED TV's in colors and contrast.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

To watch widescreen on a CRT, I use a VGA monitor and resize the image to be letter boxed on a 4:3 screen.

[@TronicGames]

@@Pasi123 Main winner for me is motion clarity. We had to wait for Plasma to get something comparable and when it disappeared we had to wait once again until OLED. That being said, geometry in CRT sets is a big pain in the ass. Specially flat glass CRTs.

[@ItsKapow]

5:20 Tony Stark

[@Earthtime3978]

My LDs don’t look as good as the ones on this video .

[@deckofcards87]

It's all down to the LDs transfer and quality of your player.

[@Earthtime3978]

Theta I’m well aware. I have an R7G and have played some of the best transfers and they don’t look as good as this video but maybe it’s an illusion .

[@ProfessorDeezNutz]

AJ Steele this is Highvision Laserdisc it is not the same as standard Laserdisc!!!

[@Earthtime3978]

J There’s no mention of hi def laserdisc in this video, nor are any hi def laserdiscs shown. The only mention of hi def is the TVs

[@ProfessorDeezNutz]

AJ Steele I could be wrong, but why discuss HD without the appropriate signal.