How Does LaserDisc Work and Why Did It Fail?

[@austinevans]

I had heard of LaserDisc before but never really knew much about it. Great video dude!

[@xXTheNextKillerxX]

Aye Austin what's up?

[@stellar022]

Wutttt austin commenting on a snazzy video? HYPE

[@LuisGomez96]

Austin Evans The hype Is real.

[@snazzy]

Thanks, good sir!

[@TheRosemontag]

+Austin Evans Me too I've always seen the Laser Disc player, but never the actual discs.

[@transtremm]

You forgot something VERY IMPORTANT, you could record on a VHS tape, but not onto a laser disc. That is the reason why few people purchased laserdisc players. DVR eventually killed the VCR.

[@michaeldickens1101]

You could actually burn LaserDiscs in the same way that you can burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays today, so in a way, it was possible to record on LaserDiscs, problem is it had the same compatibility pitfalls as CD-R/RWs did, so you couldn't always rely on a burned LD-R playing on your LD player Also, unlike commercially stamped LaserDiscs, LD-Rs came in a caddy-like device, and as far as I remember, it could not be removed from the caddy unless you purposely broke the caddy to remove it, so you needed a player that was LD-R compatible and could accept caddies On top of all that, LD-R burners/recorders were cost prohibitive for the residential market, and were difficult to operate, not to mention huge (not something you would replace a VCR with), so they were not very popular, and afaik were not even sold in stores

[@johntate4638]

+transtremm You are so right and I jumped on DVD recorders when they came out, but I soon switched to using My PC for all media and still do so this day. I got a LD for my 12th birthday and it was cool. I had an awesome Pioneer Stereo receiver and speakers to go with it. The novelty wore off quick though and soon girls and sports took my attention away. I was always a nerd, but turned into a jock. I am a nerd again. Might as well learn and better yourself if you aren't getting laid. lol

[@Edubarca46]

It was EXACTLY THE SAME with vinyl records. You couldn't record on them That is why it has live side by side with tape, being cassette, 8 track or open reel so vinyls could be recorded. Laserdisc lived side by side with the terrible VHS and the better Beta but mostly for bad marketing decisions, it was not as popular as videotape. A pity because it had several advantages over DVD let alone videotape. But that's life.

[@joeyclemenza7339]

transtremm and streaming killed everything else

[@dancarlin5434]

LD recorders were actually a thing, the problems however was the obscene price they comanded and the lack of decent availability for blank discs.

[@BrendanKOD]

Actually the earliest laserdisk players were a little cheaper than the VCR's they were competing with. But in point of fact, they weren't competing, because while Laserdisks were being sold to play movies you buy, VCR's were being sold to record TV shows and especially football games to be watched later. So for the early 80's consumer, a laserdisk was a device that would see occasional use to watch movies you've bought to add to your collection, while a VCR could see near daily use letting you watch that one beloved TV show that was airing in a very inconvenient timeslot.

[@tookitogo]

So many little mistakes in this video... The biggest outright error is claiming the DVD didn't originally support Dolby Digital. This is just wrong. In fact, a Dolby Digital decoder is mandatory according to the DVD standard, together with PCM.

[@tookitogo]

Daniel Kufer Eh, I don’t think I agree with you there. I think that to most consumers, it very much was video disc vs video tape, and by the time the cost had come down enough to be relevant to most households, it had boiled down to VHS vs LD, with everything else having lost the race

[@dancarlin5434]

Incorrect, Dolby Digital was added some 2 years later when the standard was officially adopted, I worked in the industry at the time.

[@tookitogo]

Dan Carlin Then it is correct, insofar as DVD players without DD support were never sold. What happened before the standard was finalized is irrelevant.

[@dancarlin5434]

@@tookitogo many were made that originally did not support Dolby Digital.

[@tookitogo]

Dan Carlin Not according to Dolby Labs, as well as every other source I’ve been able to locate. Everything confirms that DD has been mandatory on players from day 1. Plenty of discs without DD soundtracks have been sold, but not players.

[@TLD]

Awesome man!

[@snazzy]

***** Thanks Jon!

[@CarlosDeBernardMrAgapi]

***** hahahaha I still have a player of those. I thing mine is pioneer and still works

[@youngatom]

I also have a Pioneer and I use it often because I have some great movies. The sound quality is great, but maybe I am stuck in the seventy's

[@kingcrimson234]

I still watch Laserdiscs several times a week. I refuse to get rid of my collection. I'll own it until I die!

[@howellwong11]

I haven't played mine for years, but it is still kept on standby power. I hope lubrication is not required.

[@alfredoizg789]

This why I love this channel you are all over the place with tech old and new , your channel is remarkable :) great job

[@snazzy]

Alfredo Izg Thanks Alfredo!

[@KayoMichiels]

8:05 the reason why they where big and bulky was because they are the same size as vinyl records, so that you don't have to develop a new shipping method or even display method (store display).

[@dancarlin5434]

I still have my LD Player.

[@dancarlin5434]

@Rising General LD's in working condition are difficult to find these days

[@dancarlin5434]

@Rising General LD's are randomly subject to "Laser Rot" vhs is not.

[@spendle]

My parents have a LaserDisc player, I don't remember it being used that often, but I still have memories of it.

[@codname125]

I think format wars will still exist just in a different form. These days you have wars between video codecs like VP8 vs. H.264 or VP9 & AV1 vs. H.265

[@XcaptainXobliviousX]

You forgot to mention that laser disc produced an HD format 15 years before the tech was replicated by dvd or blu ray!

[@joestradamus75]

+XcaptainXobliviousX i just recently found out that there was an HD laserdisc. Did you know there was an HD VHS?

[@WebVManReturns]

+joestradamus75 I knew about HD VHS. They used a lot more images of film, but ran faster so you had shorter play times on each tape.

[@michaeldickens1101]

+joestradamus75 I think it was called D-Theater, though it used the VHS format and was backwards compatible with regular VHS tapes

[@benji888578]

The LaserDisc HD format was primarily in Japan, based on the Muse Hi-Vision 5:3 1080i analog system. It fizzled out when the current digital HDTV 16:9 became standard.

[@dancarlin5434]

This is accurate, also note japan had 1080P years before the west, it was very costly however.

[@bigoranget]

Laserdisc being more expensive in the 90s is true but in the early 80s, both the players and discs were typically cheaper than VHS. VHS pre recorded tapes really didn’t become cheaper than laserdisc until the late 1980s.

[@dylan-nguyen]

Yet here I am baffled that this video is in 4K in 2015 😳

[@johntate4638]

I got a laser disc player for my 12 birthday in 92. It had so much better picture quality and sound and all my friends thought it was cool. Well for a year. I have no idea what I did with the player, but I still have all the movies I bought in that short time.

[@Culturedog]

5.1 surround tracks didn't appear on LD until the mid-90s, but hybrid discs with digital audio (usually with matrix-encoded surround sound) actually hit the market in the 80s.

[@KitCaboodle1312]

I've heard people say that LaserDiscs were analogue before but I never heard someone explain how that was so. thank you

[@mariogiresi6792]

Good vid, but, I wouldn’t use the word “ failed”. Technology just advanced, and the format was never meant to be recorded on anyway. I purchased my first my player back in 1993 and have built an extensive library since ( luckily before EBay was founded). CDs, DVDs, and now Blu-ray, are all children “of” the laserdisc. Blu-ray is a beautiful and superior format, but nothing replaces the extras you would get with laserdiscs; fold out gate covers, exclusive books, posters, 8x10 glossy photos, cd soundtracks, and limited autographed copies were all worth their prices when compared to the sometimes microscopic liner notes that come with the current formats. I suppose it all comes down to taste and preferences.

[@steverobert1]

Good video. I own e a pioneer Laserdisc player and 70+ discs.

[@brettknoss486]

Yes, it was a great technology. They problem was that MCA did not release the laserdisc for video rental, at least not early on, and they limited the content. Originally the laserdisc was to be sold like records, while VCR was to be used for playback of tv, an early PVR. People already had VCRs, and shared recorded programs, so an industry formed around pre recorded VHS tapes, and it didn't make sence to buy a laserdisc player.

[@TimurTripp2]

Since this video was made, others have pointed out that the ability to record to VHS was what made it more popular than LaserDisc in the early '80s, in reality the price of both the players and the discs was competitive with VHS at the time (this would change later on partly as a consequence of VHS already being far more popular). And since many already had or wanted VCRs for recording live TV broadcasts, there was little incentive to also buy a new LaserDisc player for slightly better video and audio quality on prerecorded discs.

[@limewirepro]

VHS vs Beta-max Not hipster enough Film vs Theater Better.

[@Scudmaster11]

It's film vs tape

[@zacksstuff]

Just bought a Laserdisc at a thrift store for $1.50. I don't have a player, but it looks pretty sweet mounted on the wall.

[@christianale]

One thing i believe you have wrong, are the prices. I started buying Laserdisc in 1991, and by then, Laserdisc were cheaper to buy than VHS in the US. I still have magazines like Billboard, Premiere and Variety with advertising prices. If you wanted to buy a movie in VHS, the regular price was 89.99 dollars, where the same movie in Laserdisc costed 29.99 dollars. (some titles were 39.99 dollars) There where always exceptions, like for blockbusters (for example Terminator 2), VHS prices would be same as Laserdisc.

[@masterandservant8021]

4:54 Well, for a beginning, anything taken like a data stream reflected from a surface such as a laserdisc, DVD, cd or blu ray, is at the very start ANALOG...! because it is only light reflected, but as those light pulses undergo the treatment of several stages, is when some circuits and devices convert those light pulses into digital data. But the matter here is whether laserdisc is analog or not, it is analog indeed but due to the method chosen to be that way, laserdisc comes from the late '60s and for those days there was not such a thing like video compression, so scientists who developed that system were prone to use an optical signal but considering that the size of a pit or land, either this was long or short, would equal a voltage value when readed and accounted to ensemble a coherent video signal, so these changing values, would render a series of multiple electrical values derived from the wide of those optical pulses, this is a method called PULSE-WIDE MODULATION, (digital CD uses PCM that stands for Pulse-Code Modulation) which was the more precise choice to create an optical system for video encoding. Based on continuously changing reflectivity to be turned into an equivalent continuously changing voltage signal, which could make an electronic oscillator to generate an RF signal in which a carrier could bring audio and video

[@blackpearl2133]

Great video! I don't ever remember watching LaserDiscs, but I do remember renting VideoDiscs when I was young.

[@snazzy]

Jason Deason Thanks for watching, Jason!

[@pf5658]

I wouldn’t necessarily call laser disc a failure. It was ground breaking technology for its time and better technology eventually came along. You must remember that when this was out it was not cheap and not many normal folks could afford it like the way, say DVD, Blu-ray took off.

[@ThePowerPCHub]

Another immensely interesting video. You've been killing it lately dude. Keep it up!

[@snazzy]

***** Thanks so much! Kind words. :D

[@Linuxguideontheair]

Ayy

[@huskerfan4life]

Laserdiscs were ahead of their time. I'm surprised they didn't go over better than DVD.

[@BoxOfCurryos]

You should do a video on future technology. A few ideas like implants in our optical nerve. Augmented reality helmets and implants. Cybernetics. And wearable tech. I know it's not your style Snazzy but it would be so cool. It's a mix of Science and Tech so I'd totally be watching. With regards from New York!

[@b22chris]

BoxOfCurryos Trying to predict the future is a discouraging and hazardous occupation. n.If by some miracle a prophet could describe the future exactly as it was going to take place, his predictions would sound so absurd that everyone would laugh him to scorn. The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic. So, if what I say now seems to you to be very reasonable, then I will have failed completely. Only if what I tell you appears absolutely unbelievable have we any chance of visualizing the future as it really will happen.

[@BoxOfCurryos]

What the fuck are you talking about? Lmao I just want a video on cool future tech. I already study prosthetics and DNA so I know what our future is gonna be like. I already have a plan for this world.

[@b22chris]

BoxOfCurryos I was just quoting this guy. And thats pretty awesome that you do that research. I hope you do change the world for the better and I hope your dreams are so far fetched that everyone will laugh at you now only to be biting their tongue when you prove them wrong.

[@circuit-studio]

Snazzy Labs Awesome video !!!. Pls do this kind of videos more.. Want to know how the technology evolved over time. Very hard to find such videos.

[@UNAL0504]

20 years for a format its not bad .Did it fail, i don t think so.

[@smwsmwsmw]

Contrary to what was said in the video, Pioneer was actually pretty well known in the 1970s for their audio equipment line, in Japan and actually throughout the world.

[@HarmonicWave]

My best friend with "rich" parents had a laserdisc player at his house in the 90s with a surround sound system and "big screen" TV (a 46" projection TV, not even high def or widescreen). I always thought that it was a digital format just like CDs and DVDs, I actually looked up this video to confirm the claim that it's analog. Mind blown.

[@freddyiglesias6110]

just bought one today at my local goodwill for 2 bucks!! will look great on my bedroom wall along with my records

[@canoopsy]

Great video Quinn, thanks for all the info!

[@artl52]

Nicely done video. I still have dozens of discs I bought in the early-mid 1980s and two players - one is the first the Pioneer VP1000.

[@syncmonism]

As far as failures go, this was a pretty good one. It certainly wasn't a complete failure. On an engineering/ technical level, there wasn't really anything inherently wrong with it, and the format WAS popular in some regions, and was in production for over 20 years.

[@Decrepit_Productions]

I still have my Pioneer CLD 3030 player and a good number of disks. In fact I watched the 1935 'Bride of Frankenstein' on laserdisc just prior to supper today. This was the first time I viewed it since being able to upscale LDs to 1080p (via a Pioneer A/V receiver). Image quality was very nice, exceeding my expectations, especially since my disk is an old 1985 MCA Encore Edition pressing that, so far as I know, received no sort of special treatment. Not a hint of laser rot either. I've watched a decent number of LDs lately. Last week I watched my Criterion Collection King Kong (early sound version), which sports the first ever audio commentary track!

[@TheMediaHoarder]

Some good info here, but info at 6:00 is wrong- DVD had 5.1 Dolby Digital from the very beginning. DTS was added a few months later. Many of the first DVDs had 5.1 mixes that hadn't been available on laserdisc. I didn't even get my first DVD player until I could also upgrade to a 5.1 sound system, as without one I'd be hearing the 5.1 tracks mixed down.

[@claytonberg721]

I used to own one. By that time the hardware wasn't that expensive, I think I paid $300 for mine. Around 1995 it was the only way to watch widescreen. Practically all VHS releases were in 4:3. It was where extra features first started coming out. The star wars definitive collection laserdisc still has information that has not been released in any other format, to my knowledge anyway. The movies themselves were prohibitively expensive though. I for some releases I was paying $75 CAD. But it was the only way to watch films in their original aspect ratios. Plus the picture quality was so much better than VHS.

[@cubdukat]

I bought my first one in the late 80's, and one of my first discs was Fox's Japanese Special Collection "Return of the Jedi." It was 3 discs, CAV, and included a demonstration of the difference between letterboxing and pan-and-scan. Eventually I got the other two, as well as CAV widescreen versions of "2010" and "Brainstorm."

[@benji888578]

This is good, but, the reason LaserDisc didn't make it big is more complicated than content price. The guy over at Technology Connections has a more complete explanation that I just watched titled Laserdisc's Failure: What Went Wrong.

[@artamussumatra6286]

Ironically, in the very early days of the format, Laser Discs only cost about $15.00, to $25.00 while the same movies on Beta, and VHS would be anywhere from $50.00 to $120.00. It was definitely the superior format in the pre HDMI SD CRT era, but alas, even the most expensive players eventually only got up to S video outputs, and to really look good on modern HD TVs, you need at least an RGB component output. I'm not sure if newer sets even have those inputs anymore. I have about a hundred LDs, and my player only has composite outs.

[@Sanne3D]

Laserdisc is just composite video, so there's not really any need to split that beforehand. However a good scaler can do wonders on a modern screen delivering it as yuv rgb hdmi or whatever to your modern setup.

[@coolspot18]

This is a great history of LaserDisc! I was blown away by it when I was a kid - truly futuristic for its time. Also, a lot of early DVDs were actually remasters of LaserDisc releases ... purists would prefer the LaserDisc version because there would be video degradation when it was converted to DVD format by the studio. Also, I remember in Canada prices for LaserDiscs were >$80 - $100 in the early 90s? That was probably around $50USD+?

[@cubdukat]

Especially the first version of "Twister." A lot of the reviews knocked the DVD version because of the encoding. The early encoders were easily fooled by things like film grain and the wind storms in "Twister." Audio-wise, though, it at least matched the Dolby Digital track on the LaserDisc.

[@solarias2583]

In reality, the VHS/Betamax vs Laserdisc did end up being a format war of sorts (add in Video2000 for EU countries) initially Laserdisc and VHS/BM weren't in competition. Early cassette based formats did not offer prerecorded media during to this was not their original purpose. The purpose was to time shift (think modern DVR). The reason it didn't catch on was that Home Video was a completely new idea, and one that, at least initially, wasn't worth the price.

[@jeamelagger]

you really know how to fill up a technology channel. great content man, I've been subscribed since 2011 and I'm glad to watch the channel take off again

[@snazzy]

jeamelagger Thanks a million for your support!

[@gaz312]

I always wondered what it would be like if they made a format where the full laser disk was taken up with audio information read by a dedicated audio player and how that would compare to CDs. I think the analog vs digital analog would be a closer run thing if a dedicated laser disk audio format were a big thing. I still would like to see it and would be interesting to see a comparison between a dedicated analog audio laser disk vs a cd.

[@JacobVossFilms]

My dad has a collection of like 50 of these, pretty cool to hear the history. He even had a Pioneer player (although his was a consumer version).

[@fireup081]

Jacob Voss Is it one of those that plays both LDs and audio CDs, because I still have it till this day.

[@nazhif1]

I still have my dad's old Pioneer CLD-D702 player. It's actually a Laser Disc AND CD player. And I remember watching Antz on it when I was like 5

[@snazzy]

nazhif1 Yup. Those were neat!

[@claytonberg721]

I had the CLD S201. It didn't output 5.1 or DTS, but at the time when I bought it 5.1 was a very high end thing and not many people were running it. It also had a dedicated cd tray, it was bascially the stripped down version of the CLD-d702. I got a lot of enjoyment out of that machine.

[@jojep1737]

We had this as kids growing up! Thanks for the memories!

[@cubdukat]

Every failure should be this successful.

[@LuisGomez96]

I'm glad you are back Snazzy Labs! the whole retro videos was what got me hooked to your channel when I first started watching KZbin videos. Thanks for the content man!

[@snazzy]

Luis Gomez Glad to be bring them! Thanks Luis. :D

[@scottscheetz]

Grew up with LaserDiscs. Thanks for the nostalgia! So much better than VHS.

[@cengawer]

Very educational video... Learn a lot... Thanks 👍🏻

[@musicman257]

I love my laserdisc player and have few hundred titles some of brothers friends are blown away when they see this format there in there young 30s so few of them never seen it

[@9210-k8v]

Basically it was prices of the laserdiscs and players, AND it could not record. And most folks had small TVs, so the picture quality wasn’t as noticeable as on a big screen. By the time laserdisc was at its height DVD superseded it, and for much cheaper for the masses.

[@zakbutler2683]

a lot of concerts were released on laserdisc, perfect example, most of Tina Turner's concerts are on Laserdisc, and the 1993 documentary The Girl From Nutbush

[@cubdukat]

Concerts were where LaserDisc thrived in the beginning. At least half of the LD market in Japan were concerts and music videos.

[@fizzyfuzz5878]

Crazy how a huge thing PlayStation 1 had over Nintendo 64 was, it's CDs could hold way more data than a cartridge. But the mega ultra disc, Laserdisc couldn't hold that much.

[@d3xbot]

I like to think that in an alternate universe, LaserDisc became the defacto standard for video and its quality improved such that 4k video with 7.1 high-res audio could be stored on it. Can you imagine a PS4 that used 4k LaserDisc rather than BlueRay?

[@michaeldickens1101]

The discs are a bit unwieldy compared to a Blu-Ray, but it makes you think, how much data, digital or analog, could fit on a LaserDisc using Blu-Ray technology I believe, using both sides of a regular sized LaserDisc, triple layer, using Blu-Ray technology, we could possibly get at least 1TB on one disc

[@peabody66]

LaserDisc seems to be a precursor to today's DVD.

[@coolspot18]

+peabody66 I was, but it was far ahead of its time - very popular in Asia and also widely adopted by Asian communities in North America. The quality of the video and features were way ahead of its time. Problem was the price of the disc - they were routinely $80 to $100+. so most people just rented them from local stores.

[@MAXIVINILElCanaldelVinilo]

Hi. Can you tell me what video camera use to do this videos? Thanks!

[@param9888]

laser disc are the best still have more then 1000+ in my collection

[@howellwong11]

It makes my 300 disc collection looks puny. Remember the Criterion Collection?

[@joestradamus75]

there was also different video disc formats. There was a weird one that actually played like a record. I forget what it was called, but the disc player would have a needle actually touch the video disc, and play the movie. I can't remember if the the disc was made of vinyl or some other thing.

[@michaeldickens1101]

You're thinking of CED

[@Wonderlaust]

Wow, same size as an LP. Love these types of videos, a nice surprise in my sub box. Keep it up!

[@Glooomyy]

aye thank you so much for this!! i recently came across some LD's for one of my fav series but had no idea what it was. but now i know and it's REALLY cool!! i'm thinking of getting it now even though i won't be able to play it cause it's just so gosh darn cool!

[@AMathMonkey]

The thumbnail *did not* lead me to believe that the disc would be that size. Wow! It's like the vinyl of video.

[@snazzy]

AMathMonkey Yep! Same size as an LP!

[@benji888578]

yes, but, those formats did much worse than LaserDisc. Those discs had the same vulnerability as vinyl for audio, scratch and then it skips and such. LaserDisc was much more durable, not as susceptible to having problems dealing with scratches, (like, much less vulnerable than DVDs).

[@DennisTamayo]

For me, I don't think Animaniacs was ever released on LaserDisc in the 1990s.

[@Mike_cuomo]

Loving the content your putting out man!

[@kevinthetruckdriver353]

*There was a Disc War.* Pioneer's Laserdisc vs RCA's CED (vinyl disc).

[@garirry]

I really like how it looks and somewhat works like a vinyl, but with a CD texture on it. Nice video!

[@snazzy]

Garirry Thanks for watching!

[@magicpickle7621]

Another awesome video! I love your retro reviews!!!

[@codycbradio]

Did I just see "Clear and Present Danger" at 3:30?

[@Elemino]

Excellent video! One of the best run downs on a piece of tech I've seen in a while! I didn't laser disc was analog, but I knew you had to flip them... FM huh? So basically it was like excellent cable from a disc. Good stuff!

[@jonasrasmussen1692]

Really excellent video! Keep up the good work Quinn!

[@JonasAndStuffDK95]

Great video! You're also very good at keeping the viewer hooked. :)

[@tdcattech]

Really enjoyed this. Interesting to hear the history. Thanks.

[@jameslaidler4259]

The aluminium reflects the pits and lands on the plastic. On the plastic is a layer of protective varnish. So please get that right. CDs were a derivative of Laserdisc technology and use similar, though improved manufacturing techniques. Also laser rot was an issue because the glue used to affix the two sides together would seep through. Google laser rot with The Eraser. That one is an interesting story.

[@dimasprajoko]

Its such a shame to lost a media that can record analog audio without having to convert it to digital with its compression and what not. A true analog audio as it is meant to be reproduced. Perhaps with the advancement of current track sizes of a disc whether it be dvd or cd we can reinstate the technology of recording audio in analog, would that be something studio or enhanced listener be interested in?

[@TheMGMfan]

7:32 Actually, the VHS was arguably more durable than any optical disc for the same reasons as cartridges: if you drop them, they aren't gonna shatter (unless you drop it too high), you can slide them across the floor without them being damaged without them in their case/box, you don't have to be careful when handling it (which in that size is a little hard to do very comfortably), etc. They also couldn't record tv, which could've been involved too. VHS is actually my favorite format, probably a mix of how much or a novelty they are and the fact that they are easy to find at thrift stores and really cheap.

[@Rome.Monroe]

I'm loving this new format!

[@Crlarl]

Can you do a video on CED?

[@michaeldickens1101]

+1, I thought it should have slightly been mentioned in this video as it did technically compete with LaserDisc

[@Garvm]

Is that because you want to skip the 5 parts os 30 minutes each in the Technology connections channel?

[@Crlarl]

@@Garvm Why would I ever want to skip the 5-part "trilogy" epic of Technology Connections? That guy gets way into the weeds and I love it! However, that didn't exist 4 years ago when I commented.

[@Garvm]

Carl Siemens I didn’t see the time stamp of the comment :)

[@CitiesAndColours]

Great video Quin. Very inciteful. Keep up the great work and more videos along this line would be great. Mini Disc? HD DVD vs Blu-Ray? Digital formats like FLAC vs MP3 or MP4 vs xvid or alike? Could become a great series! Thanks again

[@snazzy]

Mikey Ormerod Will do. Thanks a million!

[@tupchurch]

He forgot the biggest downfall and that's the fact you couldn't record on it so you would still need a VCR even if you had a laserdisc

[@SebisRandomTech]

I do miss these type of videos, where you focus on tech other than Mac and PC. I’d love to see you bring these kind of videos back, maybe a review of the new Technics SL-1200MK 7!

[@SiyathWidyaratne]

Absolutely awesome video! Informative and delivered well :D

[@randomrazr]

quins videos on my subscription list is always "expect the unexpected" type videos XD

[@snazzy]

randomrazr You betcha! :D

[@JonathanCruz-rj2ys]

Fantastic video! Thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to see more like it :)

[@RCPhotosVideos]

I still watch my Star Wars movies on Laserdisc it is the best and most pure way to watch them

[@themidnightracer9937]

How did you get english versions of laser disc?

[@barebarekun161]

After few years with Vinyl I think I would have no problem flipping Laserdisc at least it was and is seriously cool to have while DVD and Blu-Ray I never feel cool or proud to own any one of them. The thing with both DVD and Blu-Ray is that they're too damn boring too cost effective so presentations suffered.

[@Langkowski]

The only movie technology that was both analog and optical

[@thatguyontheright1]

In the 80s, Laserdisc was cheaper than VHS. In the early days of VHS, a tape would cost $80 to $100, while a laserdisc would be $20...but Laserdisc players were more expensive than a VHS or even a Betamax deck due to more manufacturers producing VHS players which drove the price down. Pricing wasn't the cause of people not buying Laserdisc in America. If that were the case, CED would have had a longer foothold than 4 years since it was considerably cheaper to get a CED player and disks. The main cause was Laserdisc (and CED) was read only at a time when people in the States wanted recordable media, this was not an issue in Japan. This is one big reason why VHS won out over Beta, since VHS could record for 6hrs while Beta was limited to 4-5 hrs. DVD didn't take complete foothold over VHS till affordable set top DVD recorders were available as there were still pre-recorded VHS tapes being produced commercially till 2007 with Borat being the last one.

[@Rtr1966]

I always thought that laser disc was exactly the same as a cd but biger and from an earlier time so I never understood why people did’t still use them

[@SSteelification]

I don't own any laserdiscs but quite frankly they're awesome with a nice TV and S-Video if the tv has it. Flipping the disks reminds me quite a bit of VCD with changing it for the next part of the movie.

[@MGSBigBoss77]

Excellent Laserdisc review man! Think you practically got the best review of Laserdisc out there. Although it would've helped somewhat if you put some videos up as examples or narrated through clips while explaining Laserdisc's advantages over VHS when i was commercially available. But you didn't mentioned Laserdisc's uncompressed superior audio and colour schemes over DVD & Blu-ray. While DVD and Blu-ray have Laserdisc now beat over picture resolution, Laserdisc has the advantage when it came down to its audio quality. I just think you should've highlighted this fact way moreso is all. It also failed in Europe for the exact same reasons you outlined already, again you should've stated this however.

[@abs2fast2furios]

My family still has a Pioneer Laserdisc player and I remember watching the first Toy Story movie on it. I always used to wonder why the hell did I like it more when I watched on Laserdisc only now to realise it was a much better quality.

[@UrielX1212]

The metal does not have the pits, the plastic does. The metal is there for the laser to reflect off of.

[@JReynolds09]

Great overview!

[@DennisTamayo]

Animaniacs wasn't on LaserDisc back in the 1990s.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I don’t remember any of these, because my family was too luddite-ish to have HD DVD or Blu-Ray, as we were still using VHS, and I was too young for any of the older format wars. But I know about most of them now, and the one I know the best is the VHS vs Betamax Format War, I even know about Video2000, which came third in a two-horse race.