Laserdisc's Failure: What Went Wrong

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Laserdisc didn't have an easy start. In this video, we take a look at the first few years of Laserdisc's existence. Though many articles or videos talking about Laserdisc will blame the high cost of discs and the inability to record, those problems are only partially to blame.
Here's a link to the entire playlist on Laerdisc:
• The Story of Laserdisc
The ad mentioned in the video:
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Link to the previous video:
• Laserdisc: An Introduc...
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[@KayoMichiels]

Laserdisc is not a failure... it paved the way for DVD and Blu-ray

[@Rainer67059]

And for the CD.

[@TechnologyConnections]

Laserdisc was a failure in that it was intended to be a mass-market product. Its contributions to technology are certainly important, but its creators never wanted it to simply fall into the niche that it did.

[@eng3d]

daro2096 is 2% of the market not from the entire population

[@liteoner]

Failure leads to success, but it's still failure.

[@doug.newton]

a failure is a failure, it failed, it doesn't matter what it gave birth to when it itself failed, yes it's children were great, those that developed laserdisc don't give two f's about cd's, dvd's, or bd's. laserdisc itself never took off the way it was intended, it was a failure.

[@davidhough7070]

In 1986, I rented VHS movies from a small town store. They also rented Laserdisc players and movies. On a whim, I rented a player and a couple of movies. Being blown away by the picture, I was impressed. A few months later, they announced that they were selling their stock of players and movies for the princely sum of $10 each...so I bought a player...and a few movies...still have them...

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

david hough I remember being able to rent VHS players, but not a LaserDisc

[@zephyr332]

Cool!! I was born in 1986 - the year of the Tiger. Lol. Hang on to those. Old, failed formats are and will be worth something one day. I still have 78 rpm's that ORIGINALLY belonged to my great-grandmother. When my grandmother passed away in 2012, I came into possession of those 78's that belonged to MY grandmother's mother! Some are close to 100 years old, in MINT condition and continually going up in value as they become rarer.

[@thecandyman9308]

@david hough *Napolean Dynamite voice* Lucky!

[@devox3291]

Lucky bastard!

[@lucasrem]

david hough Failure? This was the 70', Technology Connections lost the link with time, back then this was the best way to watch movies! Found Star wars for cheap too, many more content, still kinda nice.... Till 1999, this was the best! Philips was a local company, that was a deal breaker too, i owned Sony.

[@BradiKal61]

You have to keep in mind that companies used laserdiscs for training. They offered the durability and option of non-sequential chapter reading. Training discs were still being produced into the late 1990s.

[@cheapmovies25]

They used cdi for that too

[@veryslyfox]

... and didn't need to be rewound unlike video tapes

[@derekheeps1244]

Feature Films were still being released on Laserdisc beyond that ; I have James Cameron's Titanic on Laserdisc ( cinematic release 1997 , and the LD came later ) and it was far from the last laserdisc I bought ; in fact I also have the Grease 25th anniversary laserdisc ( in the original cinematic aspect , unlike videocassettes of the time ) , which would have come out in 2003 ...

[@Great-Documentaries]

Very, very, very few companies used Laserdiscs for training. It's hardly worth mentioning. 100,000 companies used videotapes for training for every company that used Laserdiscs. I really don't understand why you even mentioned that.

[@Robert08010]

As an AV guy, I can't tell you how many times (even recently) I have been asked to digitize VHS tapes of training videos, tapes barely playable... so they could go on using training materials created in the '70s and '80s. So far, I have never seen a "training disc" although it seems like a logical use.

[@cmdrjanjalani]

My dad bought a Laserdisc player and there were two rental stores near my place so I never really felt the format had problems. All I cared about was how much better movies looked and sounded on LD.

[@alanguages]

During the advent of dvds, I saw a laserdisc store and asked about how good their business was doing. The guy working stated I would be surprised how well laserdisc has a market in a 200k populated city. Three months later, the store was out of business. I think he lied, as he did not want to say, we will be out of business soon. Similarly, some years later how a movie store named Movie Gallery was opened up and I asked a worker, if they truly believe the store will be around in two years. The worker said, the company is huge from Alabama and it will be around for a long time. The store was closed less than two years after it opened.

[@jacktastick]

I remember seeing one of these in 86, I was 5. I was completely blown away. The giant rainbow disk looked so cool. I watched goonies that night and had nightmares because of skulls.

[@mafiaboy4925]

Bruh. 😂

[@salvie777]

That’s such a pleasant thought, I wish I was able to truly appreciate the cool aesthetics of that era of technology. It’s because I was growing up when it was already common place for people to have dvds and I think at that point media files and mp3 were coming about

[@hoeven_ryder_jr4042]

💀

[@rafasimsim]

😂😂😂😂👍

[@jamescoulton5138]

I bet you still do

[@StudlyHunk]

My dad got a laser disc machine in the early 90's and we watched Terminator 2 on it. The video quality is stunning and the sound is crisp and clear.

[@edjackson4389]

They are great. One of my friends growing up back in the 80's wasn't allowed to watch regular TV , but his parents had a killer movie watching room with a laser disc player and projector. It was the first time I had experienced true HD level movies. It was amazing

[@miguel360kmc]

Right but the mindset was so much different back than..

[@ZaHandle]

What else do you expect for analog audio quality

[@transfo47]

Now compare that to the UHD Blu-Ray!

[@frankbizzoco1954]

I first saw T2 on laserdisk, and the picture was awesome. Pair the player with some awesome surround sound and it's the closest thing to being at the movie theater. I was always blown away by the sound, especially movies like T2 snd the star wars THX boxed set. My dad was the only one I ever knew who had one though lol.

[@alphasia91]

When your elementary school teachers brought out the laserdisc player you knew you were in for a good time

[@FelixO]

The elematary school i went to still uses VHS up to this day. If there is one thing germany cant do its winning a war. Wait. no i mean education, sorry.

[@jaredt2590]

That's where I saw it, everything was tape. You could watch the whole movie in a sitting without getting up, that's why people didn't buy LD's. For tv shows if they sold seasons like they do now LD's would have done better.

[@blazerocker1734]

Guess different schools had different ideas on how to show content. I remember watching a movie on VHS in second grade in 1985 and I had never heard of Laserdisc until about 1992 or so. When I did I thought it was a brand new format so I soon wanted one with which to build my movie library. Not sure when I finally got mine for Christmas but I later discovered my parents paid $300.00 for the player, which was about $50-75 more than a VHS player at that time. There were fewer movies available for it and the laserdiscs tended to be a few dollars more expensive by that time as the mass production of VHS titles finally advanced to be the cheaper and better alternative. - Whoopsie!

[@trevorharmon1]

Lol my 4th grade teacher Mrs farley busted out that laserdisc of MLK I got a dream speech lol

[@pixelatednate4864]

Let's not forget about good ol' Reading Rainbow. That theme song is still stuck in my head to this day.

[@russellsidell]

I love his appreciation for these obsolete technologies. He shows respect to the equipment & has an deep understanding of how these things work! You've just earned a subscriber.

[@j2323j]

He’s a boss 🎉

[@i_am_gohan9232]

Same

[@gryfinryder]

I remember, growing up in the 80’s and one of my friends dad had laserdisc. He was always talking about how amazing it was and how it was the future of home movie watching. It was super expensive at the time and everyone else I knew used VHS. Ten years later as I was buying DVD’s I thought about that guy.

[@gm2349]

I still don't understand why anyone would want to listen to the same song or watch the same movies , or play the same games over and over...... Dvd's never made sense to me. Kinda a major gimmick thank god for Spotify and Netflix

[@gryfinryder]

@@gm2349 lol.. I would baffle you then. Im a bit of a film buff and my DvD collection is over 1,500 strong. Getting close to 2,000. I like having direct access to things I love if I want to revisit them. But now digital libraries make far more sense. But I understand your thoughts, I suppose its all about what you care about and what you want to spend your money on. Cars for instance, I have no interest in cars beyond traveling in comfort and independence. I have friends who have like $75,000 tied up in drag cars that aren’t even street legal. To me that is a bizarre waste of funds. But they love it. I play D&D and collected Magic cards. Other kids spent thousands on video game consoles, I had a PC. And all of it is arguably a waste of time or money. As long as you enjoy what your doing and not hurting anyone, to each their own, I say.

[@gm2349]

@@gryfinryder I wouldn't say its a waste of time or money. Just that you have to be insane 🤣🤣😆. My gf watches the nightmare before Christmas literally 10 times a year and loves it everytime. I want to blow my brains out everytime she makes me rewatch it. I don't understand how people listen to the same 10 songs on a playlist either. There's so much more amazing and unique music out there it just seems so simple and closed minded to do that. But I agree the car thing is also crazy. I honestly don't even think they enjoy it its just more of a "look what I have" flex like owning expensive art or cards you never use *cough* because you have it sitting in a display case instead of playing with it. 🤣😆

[@sarpkaplan4449]

@@gm2349 i dont get why wouldnt you want something you watched to be permanently available. If you rely on netflix you are at their mercy for what you can watch

[@gm2349]

@@sarpkaplan4449 Well from my perspective if I've already seen it who cares. I dont need to ever see it again. So doesn't matter if netflix has it or on a dvd. Idc I dont wanna watch it again. Haha

[@stevejohnson1321]

Actually laserdisc got used a lot in nightclubs, as the resolution worked better on projection screens.

[@Angie2343]

And Chuck E. Cheese's used them for showtapes.

[@Xezlec]

My only encounter with Laserdisc was at a karaoke pizza place we used to go to all the time way back then. Their karaoke videos were all on disc.

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

The CAV form factor also allowed for frame specific access. All 54000 of them. Great for the early karaoke days. I had a NASA disc with a Lear Jet 40k ft overflight photo shoot. WAY before Google. I had city shots of the entire US. Now we gotz high resolution from space, and google walk arounds. What a world.

[@astralislux305]

@@Angie2343 Makes sense because they didn't significantly degrade upon every play, unlike VHS.

[@johanliljegren4759]

It also worked out for some computer programs and interactive video games.

[@SaraBearRawr0312]

That laserdisc player is gorgeous. Somehow looking both retro from the 70s and newage at the same time.

[@bobbyb6053]

Thought the same thing. Normally i dont like golden stuff but this thing looks marvellous.

[@jarrodanderson4825]

Retro futuristic is the term you're looking for :)

[@Poglavnit_Pferdefuhrer]

The official term is "Zeerust" so it depends on what you're looking for. Zeerust will bring up more specifically sci-fi stuff, but retro is usually applied to decoration and clothing.

[@Takeshi357]

It's not golden, it's silver. It's just the lighting that makes it look gold.

[@deathstrike]

That was the first commercially available LaserDisc player. Philips always had a flair for designing it's products in a very appealing, less appliance like design. However, it's less than stellar features (digital display, clock, index etc: ) and complex HeNe (helium neon) laser made it a pain to repair, needing more man hours and expense. But it really was very nice, it's a shame they did not make LD players like this, opting for the squat, often rectangular design used ironically by its rival VCR designs. If you want to know about this Magnavox player, look up on KZbin the Magnavox demo with Leonard Nimoy. You will really enjoy it.

[@TodayIFoundOut]

"I'm looking at you Simon Whistler..." *shots fired* 😋 Love your channel. :-)

[@AlixFlemmer]

I was wondering which of your 30 channels would post the reply. Was wrong but not disappointed.

[@nyguesswho]

@@AlixFlemmershould’ve put a bet pool out in the comment section.

[@jamesmasters3316]

I was a small child in the late 70s, but I remember a close family friend had a laserdisc player. He was so proud of it, and watched Apocalypse Now the first time I saw it. But for some reason in the early 80s, NASA came to my small town elementary school for some presentation. With them they played a laserdisc about space exploration. The later in the 90s, one of my friends use to work for a video rental store, and he was allowed to have some laserdiscs that they didn't want anymore, he didn't have the player but he framed them and hung them on his walls. They weren't a common sight, but I had several interactions with them over the decades. I still remember being amazed by the size of the discs the first time seeing them. When compact disk players hit the market I knew that would replace the video cassette players and audio cassette tapes. And when the DVD burners finally made their way into the US market, I was all over that. Burning movies and mixed CDs. I'm not really on board with this new electronic download formats. No physical platform to own means you don't actually own anything, even if you buy it. You are at the whims of the IP owner's discretion, if they choose to stop your rental option, you lose it. If they choose change the edit of the viewing copy, you have no choice or input. In the modern digital format the consumer is not allowed to own anything. Is it really a purchase, if your not buying to own.

[@sisters8a]

With how the Nintendo DS online store will get removed by next year. All the games you bought will be gone. People ask why we keep buying physical formats anymore when they are more expensive, and my mind comes back to what's happening with Nintendo. Sure, you get a few dollars off with digital. But the game could be gone at any moment. Whereas with physical, you can have them for far, far longer if you take good care of your games.

[@OldMateBlue]

@@sisters8a the shop will be gone, but every game you bought will stay

[@danpetitpas]

You can download them from the Internet and keep the files forever.

[@alomonwo]

I remember the coolest thing of the laserdisc was the ability to fast forward to a certain chapter and not having to rewind when done watching. This was awesome back then.

[@Milesco]

That's what I liked (and still like) about the DVD format. :-)

[@nafnist]

Omg rewinding, yes.

[@MarcosRobertoDosSantosJF]

@@nafnist I was a kid during the 80’s. I still remember that we had to pay a “no rewind” fee for rented VHS.

[@perfectsplit5515]

@@MarcosRobertoDosSantosJF Yeah, remember the label, "Bee Kind - Rewind"? And in that one parody movie, "Serial Mom", Kathleen Turner is the serial murderer and she kills someone who does not rewind her rental videocassettes. After committing the murder in the victim's living room, she rewinds the rental videotape and angrily says, "REWIND!" (As if the inconsiderate behavior of neglecting to rewind - "justified" the murder)

[@lellius]

It's odd to me how nobody ever seems to mention premium cable like HBO has a top use case for the VCR. For the price of a monthly subscription it was relatively easy to build a personal home video library with unedited commercial free Hollywood films and much more convenient than renting.

[@TheEddieStilson]

It’s what we did when I was a kid. We had HBO and Cinemax and most of our home movie collection was recorded off those two channels.

[@j0nnyism]

So long as you don’t lend them out

[@BigSeanH]

I recorded Terminator 2 on HBO when I was like 8 years old and watched it so many times until eventually the tape wore out.

[@mycatsaliberal3848]

@@j0nnyism why can’t you lend them out? Tape trading was a huge thing

[@lockandloadlikehell]

I thought everyone did that

[@jeremiahchamberlin4499]

You did an excellent job of putting the laser disc within the context of the times explaining the choices facing the user in practical terms we can all understand and relate to (and some of can well remember).

[@malibustacy3606]

You can only use the term "within the context of" if you're name is Elizabeth Holmes AND you're employed by the Theranos Corporation.

[@BKDDY]

About 15 years ago I went into a record store and someone brought in all their old Laserdisc collection. I ended up buying most of it for just a few bucks each. Among them was a Hayao Miyazaki Laserdisc that was autographed by him & also had a sketch on it he did.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Life before Videorecorders and VideoDisc players really was a troublesome time. My uncle even used to take stillframe photos from shows or a movie on TV. That way he pretty much covered most scenes of a film and afterwards had a nice photobook of the movie. And that was his primary source to re"watch" that film over and over again without a 16mm/8mm or Videotape to play back. I think a lot of people also did that with Dr. Who as well. As a kid without video recorder i simply recorded movies and TV shows onto audio cassette and had the audio. While playing that i had to use my imagination and watch the film or show that way again.

[@SWLinPHX]

KRAFTWERK2K6: in the 1970s my sister and I would “record“ a TV show by holding up an audio cassette recorder microphone to it the whole time. Having it on audio cassette it was our version of recording a TV show.

[@electrictroy2010]

Dr who fans recording audio helped resurrect several lost episodes. BBC had still photos but not audio, so fans donating audio restored a lost story.

[@chuckwilliams3003]

It was too big

[@mistaelfboi]

ah yes that was the problem 💀

[@TheRoflcopter84]

I really appreciate the depth of this video. I always wondered why my dad was never really interested in laserdisc when I was growing up (born in 1984 so early to late 90s). We had vcrs, same as all my friends. There was always one kid in elementary school talking about how cool their uncle’s laserdisc was but nobody else understood. There was that mysterious laserdisc rack at the local video store that promised something more than vhs but it kept its secrets. The titles rotated out but I never saw anyone actually stand in line to check out a laserdisc. It’s also funny how you point out the time shift aspect of vhs. My parents used it to record. I only used it to watch prerecorded movies and shows. I didn’t even think about this until this video.

[@MrMannyhw]

VHS was for the poor masses while LD was for the rich and wealthier people. As a kid I had VHS only and barely rented VHS cassettes. Only my wealthier friends had LD players and rented the disc. The LD are ultra durable and I wouldn’t be surprise if LD people are buying the vintage stuff to keep and rewatch them.

[@SpongyOLlama]

I was a child in the 90s and remember taping my favourite shows and movies. I deeply appreciated the internet as a teenager, giving me much smoother access to the content I had learned to cherish due to such scarcity just a decade before. I wonder what children today experience being born into how much access there is now?

[@DL-kc8fc]

Today's children view current technologies as common and simple technologies that they say are not a problem to produce and acquire. Therefore, contempt for old technologies prevails in these children, which arises in the family rather than in the children's heads. But in your case, two technological epochs intersected, when the old technologies of other systems were replaced by new systems, and therefore you can appreciate the benefits of new technologies. Today's children did not have this option.

[@perfectsplit5515]

Today's kids do not appreciate the advanced technology they are "spoiled" with. Schoolchildren rudely slam laptop computers closed without even shutting them down properly. With complete disregard for how much research and technology went into making the machine that the school provides for them.

[@EyesMalloy]

This is a tremendously informative video that answers all of the questions I had about LaserDisc and its complicated history. This is also the first time I’ve stumbled upon your channel, but I look forward to seeing much more of your work in the future. Thank you very much for a job well done!

[@leonardstilwell1894]

Dude ... seriously cogent and compelling analysis. Wonderfully done! Subscribed!

[@911Truther69]

*_I remember that, in the 1980s, New release (a year after theaters) movies 🎥 were $89.00 ($100.00 with tax). When blank VCR tapes went 'on sale' for $10 - $15 each, my family jumped into the vehicle and raced to the store 🏬 to snap up many of them! Life was so exciting back then (of course, I didn't realize it at the time). I miss those days._* 🥺

[@louisvillaescusa]

The thing about laserdisc was that it had four channels of audio, two analog and two digital. (But the video was always analog.) When Disneyland did Fantasmic!, digital audio was still in its infancy. Disney wanted eight tracks of digital audio for the show so they used laserdisc players and a DOS program called the "LDC" (Laser Disc Controller) to sync the four laserdisc players to SMPTE time code. (The audio was also duplicated across the analog tracks of different players as a backup in case of failure. If laserdisc player three failed, you could hit a switch and grab that audio from the analog audio tracks of a different laserdisc player. ) This ability to sync laserdisc playback to an external controller was also used in arcade video games like Dragon's Lair. Another thing about laserdiscs is that Philips actually had the ability to burn custom laserdiscs. Star Trek the Experience had lots of custom laserdiscs for their attractions. (I actually had some of them, which I got after STTE shut down, and gave them to the unofficial archivist of STTE on facebook to digitize and save.)

[@klausstock8020]

Lots of people could record "custom LDs", not just Philips. When RLV came out it 1984 (write-once media which could be played back on any LD player, $100 per blank), it just wasn't marketed towards the general public, so it went largely unnoticed. Nice move to give your STTE collector pieces away to be preserved!

[@tbonethemann3525]

Fantasia

[@Shamino0]

The funny thing is that for a long time (before DVD, of course), a lot of us thought LaserDisc would become popular. I actually bought a copy of Disney's Fantasia on LaserDisc, even though I didn't have a player, because I assumed I would eventually buy one and Disney is known for producing their movies in limited runs. Then DVD came out. LaserDisc players never got cheap enough to be worth buying and I had a movie that I could never watch. And I couldn't get rid of it because every friend with a LaserDisc player already bought his own copy of Fantasia. So I've got this single movie, in mint condition, which I only played once (at a friend's house), sitting on my shelf alongside all my vinyl records. :-)

[@theRealtensigh]

Dude, I TOTALLY did the same thing but I got my LD player a year later.

[@allensidebottom5942]

That's probably worth alot

[@johnwaters2657]

I still have the multi disc deluxe LD presentation of Fantasia. Man, we would light up, turn the hifi up and throughly enjoy it on a 25" color console.

[@jukeboxdude]

My school still used laser discs with educational programs on them well into the early-mid 2000's. We all knew they were ancient, but at the same time were a strange marvel never seen anywhere else. I'm certain my parents watched those same discs - they were obviously that dated.

[@lucasnn2008]

It fits perfectly for the purpose since laserdiscs are almost DVD quality, specially when comparing with earlier pressings of movies in DVD

[@mosfet1780]

I discover your channel for the first time, it is amazing in clarity of explanation.

[@pateralus9]

When you said "it's an entirely different kind of content altogether" I didn't even skip a beat. I said it in unison along with all of the versions of you. 😃

[@fanbladeinstruments]

I heard him say it, looked up from my lunch, 5 of him said it, and my sandwich came back out at speed. I actually snorted😁

[@ar2d21]

You did? Surely you can't be serious.

[@pateralus9]

Stephen Fenton I am serious. And you know what not to call me.

[@pateralus9]

Stephen Fenton I would like to add that one of my favorite other lines is: Flight attendant: "A hospital?! What is it?" Dr: "It's a big building with patients. But that's not important right now." I couldn't think of a way to incorporate that naturally, so I shamelessly just quoted it instead. But I'm not ashamed.

[@andrewgwilliam4831]

pateralus9 Cigarette?

[@TechnologyConnections]

Our most recent memories of the videocassette recorder seem only to be of the pre-recorded tape experience. I cringe each time I hear it, but the term "VHS Player" seems to have eclipsed "VCR" in modern usage. But in 1980, that was a small part of the picture. These less distant memories of VHS seem to have clouded the history of Laserdisc, suggesting they were in competition with each other. But in this video, you'll see that they really weren't.

[@gingernutpreacher]

still don,t get how dot and dash can be analog

[@vwestlife]

Even more cringeworthy is millennials calling a turntable a "vinyls player"...

[@PainterVierax]

I personnally didn't watch/have more than 20 pre-recorded tapes and even if I had DVDs, my VCR went to the attic only when ADSL came at home.

[@G-Confalonieri]

Technology Connections I agree. Thanks a lot for the review. Regards from Argentina.

[@JacGoudsmit]

It's the length of the dashes that's analog.

[@A_Person5280]

Getting up to turn over the disc in the middle of a movie, while making a good intermission/baffroom break, made for an annoying movie experience. Even if you had a fancy player that flipped the disc for you, there were still movies that took up multiple laser discs

[@malayangrago5628]

After so long, this is the first time I see and hear a good, clear and well presented subject matter without unnecessary frills and music distractions.

[@Scott_B1029]

Good analysis. Two things caused me to pull the trigger and buy my first VCR in 1984. The price dropped below $400 and the home rental market was established.

[@5roundsrapid263]

Scott B That’s about when my family got one. A couple local video stores had just opened, and my Dad saved up $400 to get a VCR.

[@aussieguy1012]

My dad used to rent the vcr from the video store in the mid 90s.

[@shockcoach]

We picked ours up used for $100. I'm pretty certain it was hot.

[@tommykarrick9130]

Imagine how the movie studios of the time would have reacted to finding out that in just a few decades their entire catalogue of movies would be being distributed for free and repeated viewings on streaming services for a small monthly fee And that they would be the ones hosting the services

[@rangerjones5531]

And they would still be making good coin, too!

[@johnmaurer3097]

They watched what happened with mp3s and file sharing, then promptly turtled up and fought against technology for over 20 years. In 2022 we are just now having all major studies on streaming - something the music industry did a decade earlier.

[@demonchild8452]

@@johnmaurer3097 yea, shortly after Metallica sued Napster they all sold out

[@JayBuccola]

They always new. They squeezed as much out of it as possible.

[@veryslyfox]

You can thank Apple for that. The music industry initially fought tooth and nail against streaming. When Apple introduced the iTunes store, the major records did not put their artists songs on it. They wanted to release songs only on physical media like CDs. Eventually, iTunes became a success and the recording industry waved the white flag. Without disruptors like Apple, Netflix, Google, etc, we'd be stuck in the old ways. Old world industries never change until they're forced to

[@popixel]

I absolutely love what you have done with this video, it really got you to put yourself in the early 80s. Growing up we knew someone with LaserDisc, but I didn't own one until I was an adult. But the LD was such an amazing technology back in the day, way ahead of its time.

[@MichaelJohnson-yw6du]

I just came upon this randomly, and I was hooked! You have a subscriber!

[@TheEastBlocLLC]

and now im watching on a 7mm thin glass slab boy do the times change

[@unclestarwarssatchmo9848]

That 'Airplane' reference is pure gold! Love it! Keep up the stuff man!

[@DrNickBailey]

Shirley you can't be serious?

[@unclestarwarssatchmo9848]

@@DrNickBailey Nick please don't call me Shirley

[@richdouglas2311]

This was OUTSTANDING! The history is solid (from my contemporaneous recollections) and the logical inferences were spot on.

[@maestroofamore8948]

*"It's an entirely different kind of flying... altogether!"* Didn't expect the "Airplane!" reference from someone younger than the movie. Kudos. Coincidentally, the first time my family saw "Airplane!" was on Laserdisc - many of which we rented before eventually acquiring a VHS player. Laughed our asses off at that movie.

[@geekygirl2596]

I remember when Disney advertized older movies as "Remastered for Home Video!"

[@TheStOne1]

And now they have the worst restorations ever made... Way far apart from their original look and color.

[@chrisakaschulbus4903]

you seems like a fish, bro ;)

[@maximilianmustermann5763]

They would often "pan & scan" the original widescreen movie theater format to 4:3 for television. Basically it totally sucked because they were selectively cropping away big parts of the picture, but the average consumer liked it because their television screens were small and they didn't want black bars covering half the screen.

[@electrictroy2010]

NOW it’s the opposite effect when watching SD content with wife: “Why are bars on the left & right?” Because it’s old content. “But it should fill the screen.” No it’s old video & it was originally made square. “I don’t care I’m changing it.” And thus my wife chooses “zoom” to chop heads off, or “stretch” to make everyone fat.

[@electrictroy2010]

I cannot understand why people don’t see that video has different shapes & often does not fit the screen exactly (requiring black bars)

[@WalnutSpice]

I'll never forget in 6th grade my science teacher wheeled out a CRT and a top loading laserdisc player like the one shown. I looked down at it and said "Aye why's that VCR so huge". He says "Lemme show you somethin" and pulls out starts wielding a huge disc. Had never seen one before then, safe to say I was amazed. Especially when he said that disc was from 86', totally interactive and damn near DVD quality. Still had that VHS analog softened image look

[@ZGryphon]

I had a similar experience, except I would guess I'm about 15 years older, because the device in question was, I kid you not, a U-Matic machine.

[@ZergrushEddie]

I love how he emphasizes putting yourself into the minds of a 1970's consumer. As a kid of the 90's who saw the rise of DvD it seems weird that LD was not successful. But if the idea is "you can buy TV shows", I am just gonna think "well hell, those are free" and get the less cool device that lets me catch who shot JR even when I work nights.

[@toriless]

Unless it is Seinfeld or The Big Band Theory do you every really watch a TV show again. You might with a movie but are much less likely with a TV show. Even today, all my DVR activity is still about time shifting,

[@MegaZeta]

Plus, at 30 minutes a side, or, tops, 60-70 minutes a side, releasing seasons of TV on LaserDisc, back when you'd have ~20 episodes a season, didn't work. People might buy famous, two-parter episodes that way, but a giant, shrink-wrapped bloc of VHS tapes was more viable in the market.

[@bobcobb3654]

I’d think movies would lose a lot of their immersive quality if you have to get up every 30-40 minutes to flip or change the disc. Sure, VHS copies of 3-hour plus movies stretched over to 2 tapes, but you only changed the tape once at about an hour 45 in (and that usually worked, as it gave everyone an intermission to go to the restroom or reload on snacks). Having to stop and flip 3 times for an average movie would get old.

[@gdavisloop]

@@MegaZeta All the episodes of ST ToS came out on LD with an episode on each side. One hour discs were actually pretty good for 54 minute TV shows. It was movies that were annoying! I'll always remember where the disc flip came in "Robocop" (right after the now robot-cop watches the home-sales promotion video). And the sped up some movies - including Star Wars 5 & 6 - to make them fit on one disc (2 hours).

[@daryllamonaco3102]

Thank you for such a detailed and well put explanation, as I really never got it until I saw your video.

[@brycevo]

VHS just checked more boxes with the mainstream, so it just clicked. The Laserdisc is still really cool

[@jaredt2590]

At the time it was movies and select episodes of tv shows, maybe 2 on a tape.

[@kasperkjrsgaard1447]

VHS offered more porn movies. If Laserdisc had done the same it would have been a succes.

[@jaredt2590]

On a technical level yes but it's big and doesn't hold much data.

[@nthgth]

@@kasperkjrsgaard1447 tapes won before there were pre-recorded tapes. Unless there was pre-recorded porn early on. Which makes sense, if camcorders came out early enough. In which case, Laserdisc never had a chance because you can't record onto it in a shady back room.

[@fatalvision2]

Kasper Kjærsgaard people underestimate the influence porn had on formats

[@LenTexDIY]

Thank you very much for putting so much time and research into these videos. You are doing an awesome job!

[@f1jones544]

Great video. My dad and I had this conversation for about two years. He really wanted to go for the disk player but I always made the argument there's only so many movies we'd want to see, much less own. But we could record all the shows airing at times we weren't watching. It was a no brainer after you got past the novelty of "perfect" picture quality on a TV having 484 display lines... My dad might have thought our TV had a good picture, and I might not have known what a screen resolution was at the time, but I knew nothing could actually look photographic on TV, no matter the source, so ultimate picture quality should not have been the deciding factor. Features and versatility meant more value in the long run. I actually won that argument. It all paid off when a certain sport that might be referenced in my nickname was broadcast on ESPN in 1982, the same year we got our VHS player (cheaper than Betamax). I wanted to study the events because there was so little print media at the time, even newspapers rarely carried the results. Strangely TV was all a fan had. So I bought every new tape with my allowance and I still have them all along with as VHS player, even if I now have all of the events in digital format from other sources today as well. Those recordings were so important to me that I even used to rent storage units into the 2000s in order to keep them while I lived in small apartments lacking the space to house so many tapes that were still being added to at the time. It's safe to say VHS had an enormous impact on me for well over two decades, and that's not counting the several years I spent managing a VHS rental counter at a home electronics store in the late 80s.

[@davydatwood3158]

Algorithm threw this at me, and it was really interesting - espcecially because I'm currently in a place where I've run out of room and hard disc space to store movies, run out of money to buy them anyway, and there's so many things I want to see that re-watching older entertainment mostly feels like the wrong choice. A few favourites aside, of course. So... interestingly, having grown up through the 80s and 90s with the idea that a movie should be watched over and over and over until the tape fails, I find myself shifting to more of a 1970s attitude of "watch it once, enjoy it, and move on to the next thing." I hadn't put that thought together until I watched this video. Which is why I like your channel - it's not just full of interesting information, it stimulates tangental thoughts!

[@jm0lesky]

I'm kind of surprised that he didn't mention that the laser disk helped save the video game market by releasing games like Dragon's Lair, Astron Belt, and Cliff Hanger into arcades in the early 80's.

[@ianhuxstep211]

Repaired many dragons lair arcade game

[@perfectsplit5515]

Dragon's Lair was so much more advanced than the vast majority of video games of that era. It was hard as hell, too.

[@glenwhatley4125]

I was repairing the pioneer Laser Vision players when they first came out in the late 70's when the laser was an actual helium neon tube. A big initial issue that made many consumers shy away was that the original Laser Vision discs had playability problems until Pioneer realized that they needed to produce the discs in a clean room environment. Given the nano size dashes on the discs, they had huge issues with playability that was blamed on the players. It turned out the issue was from contamination in the disc manufacturing which resulted in skipping as well a getting stuck in one spot with the only way to get past the laser skipping back was to power it down. After they fixed that issue the players were much more reliable.

[@deathstrike]

Very true!! And if you would let me add to your opinion, the LD players got better when the LED lasers (similar to CD player lasers) were added reducing some complexity and improving reliability. But truthfully? The HeNe laser was stronger, and could really punch through and play a disc that LED lasers either wouldn't play, or played so badly the disc was a loss due to that damned laser rot. The bane of many a videophile, when the rot gets your disc, that's it. And with LD media commanding a premium, it's good to keep an old HeNe player for salvaging rare discs.

[@drewgehringer7813]

from what I read Pioneer was always using proper clean rooms; it was MCA who didn't understand a clean room means CLEAN, and you need to punish employees for doing shit like eating their lunch in the cleanroom, popping their bag of potato chips

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

My first player (a Pioneer) came from a Mach III arcade LaserDisc video game. It would no longer work to access the addresses on the disc called for by the video game program (probably the disc, actually). It played my movies just fine though. When I got my Pioneer after that, I took her apart. I had that laser and the PS for a decade after that. I piped a sine wave into one mirror (it has two movable mirrors on a micro laser bench) and music into the other and put lissajous based music patterns on the ceiling in my room with it.

[@renakunisaki]

@@deathstrike I actually had a similar problem with VHS. I had worn-out tapes that the weak motor in a newer VCR couldn't cope with, while an older one still played just fine.

[@electrictroy2010]

LANE. The CED videorecord also had dirt problems, but it was programmed to just skip forward one track (rather than get stuck). Laserdisc should have been programmed to do the same.

[@stevephlyer]

Your videos are an excellent source of historically valuable technological information. Good job.

[@dotapark]

Oh my god, your explanation of VCR actually bring my memory back! I remember when I was young there’s TV show I like and I couldn’t watch, my mother recorded it on VHS tape so I can watch it later! One time I cried so much just because I couldn’t watch it live while it’s on TV! Thank you this video for this.

[@franciscochase4893]

Thank you for your videos, found a new channel to binge. I love how much detail and explanations you give. The analysis of the engineering, and mindset of creators for things you are analyzing is fantastic. Also, shirley, your sense of humor tickles my funny bone. You're my new favorite channel to binge in airports or after my girlfriend falls asleep next to me on the couch.

[@StinkFingerr]

Are you putting her to sleep?

[@ghostgang3847]

@@StinkFingerr by punching her

[@Soothsayer_13]

"It's an entirely different kind of content" Lol. Airplane.

[@mctv6486]

i noticed that too (actual line) "Its a intirley diffrent kind of flying"

[@fhs4137]

I didn't catch that reference so that part just scared me lmao

[@nthgth]

@@fhs4137 lmao. And your name is hilarious too!

[@apetersenALT]

It's at 4:57

[@stevesstuff1450]

@@apetersenALT : And so funny, and some brilliant editing to make the gag work! "Airplane" shot into my mind the moment I saw that.... So good, I had to keep rewinding and watching over!!

[@jfrish1]

Great channel, great presentation! Fascinating 20th century technology innovations. Keep the great work 📺📀.

[@manfredgesink8514]

Well thank you for this deep yet comprehensive overview, always wondered what was the issue with laserdiscs.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Honestly if I grew up in the 80’s, I would be taping every TV show I watch on VHS. I hate seeing things go away forever, so I would be saving everything. I’m the kinda person who would live in a house full of shelved VHSs.

[@knock-offnerd7675]

Just Another KZbin Channel exactly what I did . Eventually found torrents of my favourites to replace them, but for a while I had a solid 80s vhs tv collection

[@JimBob-ky8sm]

I used to have two VCR's and would rent movies and copy them. Had to have an older 4 head model VCR for recording too beginning in the 90's because the newer units had what they call colortrack which was an anticopy deterrent at the time. it would fuck the colors all up and screw with the tracking and make the copy pretty much unwatchable when you dubbed from another machine but recorded live TV just fine.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Knock-Off Nerd I’m surprised so few people did that.

[@BlueWizrobe]

I did this for a long time. I even taped a movie that's considered lost media now. Unfortunately I was dumb and decided to impulsively throw out all my tapes when DVD started gaining traction and now that movie is lost forever 😥

[@Myke_thehuman]

@@BlueWizrobe what's the name of that movie?

[@twig3288]

The relative popularity of LD in Asia may have been their suitability for Karaoke, because of the stereo sound and ability to quickly skip to the required song track.

[@johnyindigo8932]

Lol

[@donandremikhaelibarra6421]

I know why,they hit the wrong “corner” of the market

[@mysticpuffy]

Thank you for the "Airplane!" reference. Made my morning!

[@Maloveciri]

I love how much this is going to blow people's minds that didn't live through it. It wasn't that long ago. Thank you for your analysis and your presentation.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

The US Army and US Navy bought a lot of laser disks and players. I remember 'checking out' a laser disk and player when stationed at Ft Eustace Va to watch on one of the recreation centers projection TVs with a bunch of buddies. Total theater experience. My brother also talked baout how the USS Saratoga had the same technology on board for 'movie nights' while on cruises.

[@MartinRosol]

We ordered our Pioneer laserdisc player from the Army Exchange (PX).

[@perfectsplit5515]

"The US Army and US Navy bought a lot of laser disks and players." That would be congruent with the events in the miniseries, "G.I.Joe: The Pyramid of Darkness", where a member of the G.I.Joe team obtains a laserdisc with critical information about Cobra's plans. Unfortunately, they have no electricity (due to Cobra's weapon), and Gung-Ho (I think) says something to the effect that they can't run the laserdisc on candle power.

[@ytsux9259]

Did you guys often have "special nights" with each other?

[@oodoodoopoopoo]

4:56 okay, gotta admit the quadruplets scene freaked me out a bit.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

It was damn funny though...

[@albertodominguez4136]

Is that a tribute to Airplane movie? It's amazing! 😂

[@That_AMC_Guy]

Good thing he didn't make a joke about being on instruments only!

[@LMacNeill]

Excellent “Airplane!” reference. :-) Now you have to work in, “Surely you can’t be serious? I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.” ;-)

[@ryantkelly]

I appreciate the effort that went into that gag

[@mjc11a]

I have fond memories of the superb audio and video quality of LaserDiscs. Especially when fed through my Marantz home stereo system. Thanks for posting and be safe 🙏

[@tbonethemann3525]

The audio was fantastic. The video was barely better than VHS. Don’t kid yourself, Blu Ray is so much better than Laserdisc. In its day it was state of the art but now it’s nostalgia.

[@jd9119]

My family had a laserdisc player, beta and VHS player in the 80s. Pretty much the way it worked was we bought VHS tapes to record with and watch shows. The laserdisc and Beta players we almost exclusively used to rent movies with at the video store (until stores stopped stocking them) and then we ended up buying their movies that they were liquidating. We got the players as Christmas gifts from my dad's work during their Christmas parties (as I imagine how a lot of people got them), except for the VHS player. Even on the smaller sets of the day, you could easily see the difference in resolution between Laserdisc and the tape formats. Even with the tape formats, you got a much better picture off beta. The real throwback was that you usually had to have multiple tapes and discs for longer movies.

[@jetwind72]

Facinating history of this technology. I remember in the 80's how I wondered how laserdisk technology would pan out. Now I know. Well done Sir.

[@boyinlove2k]

A very well researched and critically analysed peice. A pleasure to watch, thank you very much.

[@seattlejayde]

Happened on this channel by accident. Excellent content! Liked/subbed

[@mixroomonestudioengineerin2176]

I love your videos because its obvious you know more about tech than myself. I can learn from you and i respect your videos because they are actually intelligently made and enlightening. Thanks for making these! 😊

[@catloverkitten10]

I remember when VCRs came out. Having young children then, being able to record my favorite shows and watch after they were in bed was wonderful.

[@one4allall4one91]

VHS was king in the 80's. My father had shelves full of vhs tapes. He recorded tv shows and movies. Movie rental houses were everywhere. Even when the dvd came out vhs was still being sold. You couldn't record a tv show on a dvd at the time. It was still alive through the 90's.

[@randallcooper3559]

BOY! Does this bring back memories! I got into the Laserdisc world in 1986. And stayed with it until 1999. There was a store in L.A. called "Daves video". I met Kevin Smith among other celebrities there.. Thanks for bringing back those memories.

[@Aexorak]

My dad bought a laser disc player when i was a kid. Good memories watching The Land Before Time on it.

[@xxxnelsonxxx1]

New to the channel. Very informative and interesting stuff! Also very well presented filmed & edited. 🖒

[@rockie8254]

My father used to be rich and very very rich in 90's CHina, we live around Shanghai. One day he bought a LD player, played Terminator 2 without CC (i think on our 28 inch panasonic tv). I didn't understand the dialogues, as I didn't learn english back then, but the movie blew my mind. First Hollywood movie that left a impression of a child that was me. Best memory of my father, later he got bankrupt and kind went crazy....such as life.

[@kaohsiung99]

Interesting story. I hope your father is doing okay.

[@ArnHaz]

Fantastic timeline video. Learned a lot.

[@user-ib2zv5ol7k]

Great video! I never understood before, why this machine was named "recorder", not "player" in English. Now I understand. Thank you.

[@Felixicity]

I laughed out loud at that little clip at the end, whether it was an outtake or not. It just caught me off-guard. This was super neat--I did wonder a bit why laserdisc didn't entirely die off, and I'm really looking forward to the next video!!

[@TheMoeP]

My grandma still has that exact same vcr alongside a huge wood tv

[@christophertaylor9100]

We had one when I was a kid, they had excellent picture and sound and I liked the album size; lots of people had storage for albums already. They had a pretty good range of movies too, Tron was great on the laserdisc

[@robertoaguiar8082]

I still have mine, in functioning condition! Sound was so much better than first DVDs

[@jeanwagner1977]

AIR LEARN MORE

[@ManahManah77]

From what I know about video gaming history, the laserdisc players were notorious for breaking down for various reasons such as but not limited overheating. Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Cliffhanger, Mach 3, I remember many of these from my childhood. I also remember how often the machines would be out of order. It turns out that from time to time the owners of the places would simply turn off the machines for a day or so, even if they weren't broken down, just to give them a break and prolong the life of the equipment. The lost revenue was nothing compared to the cost of repairs added to the long term shutdown of the machine while it is being fixed, and also the machines being off would create anticipation for their return which would bring in more players. It was a glorious time to be alive and into the arcade scene, I'm so grateful to have been a part of it.

[@richvandervecken3954]

Laserdisc did not like impact forces such as people pounding on the machine when they died! That probably caused many dragons layer machines to get broken! LOL

[@kargaroc386]

Now hear me out... Laser Cylinders!

[@chevyfan7930]

Laser cubes

[@edwardmartin6052]

Laser cones

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

Laser Tape. Do none of you remember the movie "Brainstorm" ???

[@chevyfan7930]

@@edwardmartin6052 laser triangular prisms

[@RU-zm7wj]

Read More. Read More.

[@saulgoldfarb]

It’s an entirely different kind of content, altogether. Love it!

[@rolandomorales7255]

Good presentation! 👏🏼

[@RazorFoxDV]

I started attending anime conventions in the mid-90s by which point LaserDisc was effectively dead here in the US, and yet, one of the hottest, most sought-after items in the dealers' room, much to my surprise, was anime LDs imported from Japan. I'm curious how much of that 2% share of the US video market who were LD owners were also anime fans.

[@Rosseboi]

I'm one ;)

[@MisterAutist]

I bet there were plenty of Ranma ½ LaserDiscs

[@Rosseboi]

@@MisterAutist omg I never saw that but yeah it was everywhere!!!!!!!

[@MisterAutist]

@@Rosseboi oh and I actually saw a listing (I think it was eBay) of some English dub LaserDiscs of Ranma just recently.

[@Smarties.]

​​​@@MisterAutistthe reason I'm watching this video is because I just bought a laserdisc copy of Urusei Yatsura Remember My Love Urusei Yatsura was made by the same person who made Ranma 1/2

[@jcee8493]

When I was a kid my parents rented laserdisc's, they also had to rent the machine whenever they did. No idea how much this cost but I remember watching Chariots of Fire and The Clan of the Cave Bear on a machine like this. I'm sure there were others but those are what I remember most. lol

[@miketheburns]

Thanks for turning me on to Ray Lynch! The Kaleidoscopic Vibrations by Perrey and Kingsley is also a welcome addition to my collection.

[@eduardopaz659]

I Love you're Videos / thank you for all the information you give us.

[@Clay3613]

LaserDisc had a lot of exclusive titles like tourism and educational films. Even some concerts released on LD still haven't made it to any other format due to license issues.

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

Clay3613 if not for KZbin, all I'd have of Journey's "Frontiers and Beyond" would be badly degraded VHS tapes.

[@riderofthewhitehorse]

Back when my neighbors had "premium cable" I asked my friend to record the movie ALIENS for me on VHS. Sweet memories.

[@artkingofwholefoods74]

I had one. Loved it. Looked AMAZING for it’s time.

[@AlanG58]

Very good an informative video. I have an MCA DiscoVision player in the basement. I worked at an old GM dealer and it was being tossed out. It was part of an old GM sales display of some kind.

[@BrisLS1]

I worked in a VHS style video store in the 1990's (before DVD existed) and remember seeing the management go to extra trouble to try to provide folks with Laser discs. They seemed to have trouble getting a lot of titles. Thanks for explaining the whole history again here. I remember playing the same cable-downloaded movies over and over again on our VHS player in the early 1980's.

[@id104335409]

That Magnavox was how the future was suppose to look like! We steered in the wrong lane somewhere down the road. And now we live in the wrong reality with no flying cars with dome shaped glass. No ocean cities, rocket ships or robot helpers. In this reality we have SUVs and I phones and Facebook.

[@dovstruzer3610]

YOU'LL HAVE ROBOT HELPERS SOON,ONE OF THEM IS THE REBOTIC VACCUM CLEANER,AND ROBOTIC MOWER MACHINE

[@Aiijuin]

Dov Struzer 💨WOOOOOSH!!! 💨🤯💦

[@3therspark63]

underrated comment!

[@petermgruhn]

I suggest that the lane didn't exist to steer into.

[@WildBluntHickok]

Fun fact: we could've had flying cars in the 70s. The only catch is you would need your pilots license, and most people who got that wanted to fly a plane not a flying car. Supposedly we'll get them once self-driving cars are commonplace.

[@Edwards-Videos]

Thanks for this informative video!

[@Greasyfingers60]

I had no idea laserdisc was analog! I first saw one in 6th grade, 1991, in science class. The player and disc were probably purchased with an educational grant, and I remember how excited our teacher was to show us. I was amazed at the giant size of the disc. At that time, CD’s had been out, and I knew they were digital, so I assumed these came after, and needed to be larger to contain all the extra information for the video. I see I was way off, and couldn’t believe it when you said this technology started decades earlier! Thank you for your channel.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

I was a typical consumer in the mid 70'ties and remember we got laser discs in the shops and how exciting it was, only, it was too expensive, ridiculous expensive so I think almost nobody of the people I knew bought that system, but one collogue of me told me he had bought a lot of those disks, he claimed he had a stack of 1,5 meters of them, this was some 15 years ago

[@DanTaninecz]

A great case study for product design. It often isn't the tech specs/production costs that count, but the needs/desires of the user that ultimately matter.

[@protonneutron9046]

not for this. It was the price tag. The equivalent of $5,000 in today's money.

[@gabbar51ngh]

Subscribed. Great channel and video.

[@MmmmMmmm-yc5we]

Great video. Bonus points for Deep Breakfast by Ray Lynch. 👍

[@JonathanTash]

7:15 Oh! Shots fired! You just opened up a whole world that I had no idea even existed.

[@danek_hren]

What