Laserdisc's Failure: What Went Wrong

[@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

[@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.

[@toriless]

Yes, some of my few laserdiscs could play may chapter.

[@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..

[@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.

[@dannythompson1948]

Oh great movie.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@sunburnfm]

@@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.

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@TheEastBlocLLC]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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)

[@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.

[@mjwbulich]

"Entire catalogue" None of the heavy hitters- Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount- offer more than a tiny fraction of their film catalogs.

[@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.

[@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?

[@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!

[@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!

[@tbonetnt33456]

Fantasia

[@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.

[@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.

[@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)

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@KnockOffNerd]

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.

[@Lee-Yut-Lung]

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]

@@Lee-Yut-Lung what's the name of that movie?

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@jmalmsten]

"You had no control over what was broadcast." Unless you're Howard Hughes of course and could just call up the tv channel you owned and order them to change the film on demand. . :P

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

"These are not the broadcast controls you are looking for..."

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!!

[@bloodymarvelous4790]

I saw the title, and was like: I'm gonna watch this, and I'm gonna debunk it IN YO FACE!!! Cuz I was a LaserDisc enthousiast. Aaaaand then... I had to admit you're right on every single point. Well constructed argument. Kudos.

[@marveloussoftware4914]

Not every single point, lol. You could change the channel on a TV just like the radio. Maybe not the first tv, but by the time most people had them, there were choices.

[@bertdowns8186]

@@marveloussoftware4914 he said that you could change the channel on TV

[@marveloussoftware4914]

@@bertdowns8186 of course. But you missed the point, lol. Watch it again and if you still don't get it then I'll spell it out for you.

[@dylanadams9465]

@@marveloussoftware4914 I believe you are the person who needs to re-watch the video. As Bert Downs stated, the statement of "you cannot control the content on TV" is stated to be in the context of being unable to decide *what is being broadcasted*, even though you can change the channel between different broadcasts. Home video allowed people to watch what they wanted, when they wanted.

[@marveloussoftware4914]

@@dylanadams9465 LOL, which is the exact same situation as the radio, no different. Not sure what you're complaining about but it's quite evident you are not getting that. If you watched the video you will see he tries to differentiate between tv and radio when in fact that are pretty much identical in nearly every aspect except tv has a video component. I suggest you watch the video before you comment otherwise you will keep making the same mistake. But you do provide me good comedy!

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@nicholastotoro7721]

Laserdisc still has anamorphically-enhanced unmolested versions of the Star Wars OT and nothing else does, so it wins in that sense.

[@tomservo5007]

wasn't the LD version released on DVD (or Blu Ray -- I forgot which one) as bonus disc?

[@Objectorbit]

DVD. I had 'em. :3

[@mdm5216]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3jViYJoh6mtgsk

[@morsteen]

The despecialized stuff is another alternative

[@gyflies]

What about the despecialized edition?

[@nicks_mix]

I only knew one person who ever bought a Laserdisk, he did so because his top-of-the-line Betamax "Wasn't sharp enough" through his Sony CRT RGB monitor! He only played his record albums on his Planar turntable once, and that was to record to his Teac reel-to-reel, he was the only person I ever heard of who bought a Sony Elcassette (giant cassettes that ran at a faster speed). he was a techno-snob and an early adopter with too much money, and there aren't enough people like that to sustain things like Laserdisks.

[@liteknight]

Was his name Nick E. Cushing? 😉

[@danieldaniels7571]

But... people like him sustained LaserDisc for over 20 years.

[@electrictroy2010]

Philips never intended LD to be a 5% niche product

[@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

[@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).

[@riderofthewhitehorse]

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

[@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.

[@Asiansxsymbol]

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

[@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

[@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

[@TheMoeP]

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

[@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!!

[@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.

[@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!

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I grew up in the 2000’s, and my family still uses VHSs these days sometimes. Of course, almost everything is digital now, but we collected VHSs after they peaked and started getting cheaper and cheaper as people threw them out and now we still watch the tapes we own.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

John Fisher I’ll buy them off you if you want to throw them out. I don’t have any storage space either, but I still collect them.

[@mikethebloodthirsty]

I brought a video player for nothing, then found most VHS tapes I brought are unplayable... They used poor quality tape.

[@CelestialWoodway]

@@mikethebloodthirsty I have VHS tapes from the 80s and they still play perfectly.

[@thelichisdeath]

i see where is this going... LGR and Techmoan mix... love it!

[@Jordan-zk2wd]

thelichisdeath oh shit I watch all of them, and that's actually pretty spot on

[@crashbandicoot4everr]

You forgot the 8 bit guy.

[@5roundsrapid263]

Don’t forget Oddity Archive, either.

[@masterandservant8021]

techmoan is an arrogant british guy...! and nothing more..!

[@electrictroy2010]

I see nothing arrogant about British people. And certainly not techmoan

[@boyinlove2k]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@Giblet535]

I have the complete "Police Squad" series on LaserDisc. Yes! Let the envy flow THROUGH you. And, "stereo"??? LaserDisc did full AC3 surround sound from the design stage.

[@Maskddingo]

Yup. I have an external AC3 decoder for my LD player. "The Fifth Element" sounds fantastic, and the clean video signal up-converts well. Comparable to a DVD IMHO. I also have a copy of Star Wars Episode I from Japan (no region encoding here!) that has a Dolby EX 6 channel soundtrack. It's enough to make me want to watch the movie!!!

[@gormster]

From the design stage? You mean fifteen years before Dolby created AC-3, Philips designed LD to include it? Wow, they really were prescient. If only they’d thought to include it in such a way that it didn’t occupy one of the analog audio channels!

[@richiow68]

Police Squad “In Color” Still makes me laugh so hard even when watching today.. Series that came before “The Naked Gun”😎👌

[@WildBluntHickok]

@Go MGTOW The Naked Gun movies were remakes of the Police Squad tv show (which got canceled after 6 episodes for "being too funny" ie too fast paced). Or rather they recycled all the jokes for the movie, the actual cases they were investigating were new.

[@electrictroy2010]

Any format that had stereo could carry Dolby surround. Dolby designed it that way on purpose. So laserdisc, VHS, Betamax, even lowly audiocassette or record player….. they all had the ability to carry Dolby surround on the stereo track.

[@Barbarapape]

Laserdisc pushed the available technology to it's limits, there were many problems with just making the discs and trying to align the players to keep them working. Thankfully Pioneer took over where Philips left off, and gave us some great players. The features we now have on DVD and Blu-ray were all developed on Laserdisc. To call it a failure is not correct in my opinion. It was highly popular in the USA, and mostly in Japan where the market was far greater than in Europe or here in the UK. I think it was the price of the players and discs that held it back, plus the movie studio's were fearfull of people making perfect copies of their films, that is why any domestic recorders and discs were never made. When DVD was first released the early players and discs had blocky pictures and the sound quality was and still is poor compared to Laserdisc's CD quality sound. Now it is Blu-Ray's that are no longer popular due to all the streaming services that are now so popular. Modern homes don't have the storage space for large collections of films on discs. RIP the spinning disc, it has served us well.

[@johnnyb980]

Laserdiscs were never highly popular in the US. It had a cult following.

[@Barbarapape]

@@johnnyb980 Japan had the largest market, they also had the best players.

[@johnnyb980]

@@Barbarapape I’m not talking about Japan though. I was talking US market only. You said it was highly popular in the US & all I was saying that simply wasn’t true.

[@Barbarapape]

@@johnnyb980 In that case for a product with only a cult following, there are a lot more for sale on auction sites than any other part of the world. As i said the UK market was small, The USA had a far greater choice of players and discs, Japan had the best players. The format was still a niche one due to the price of players and discs, at least it paved the way for DVD and now Blu-Ray.

[@johnnyb980]

@@Barbarapape I lived through the laserdisc era here in the US. It was a niche/cult following. I knew of no one that had a player. I agree with your other points. Plus I’m not shitting on the format at all/it was definitely ahead of its time.

[@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.

[@HandyAndyTechTips]

Still listen to terrestrial FM radio? Check. Still buy physical albums at a record store? Check. Still watch movies on free-to-air with all the annoying ad breaks? Check. Wow, the start of this video makes me feel old-fashioned :-)

[@daveidmarx8296]

I have one more radio than I need. I call that one my "extra" terrestrial radio. You're welcome.

[@troodon1096]

Terrestrial FM radio still has one benefit over play on demand technologies; you can listen to it in your car without having to interact with it, other than turning it on/off, adjusting the volume, or changing the channel, leaving you free to you know, drive. That's why most broadcast radio assumes that most of its listeners are driving while listening.

[@jacksonsoloist5929]

Still spending outrageous amounts of money on downloads speeds from your ISP provider for your new entertainment needs like a millennial instead of being more practical... . Check.

[@Myrtone]

Does anyone also resent the widespread practice of music albums offered (effectively) at choose-your-own-price? If you effectively give it away for free, it basically makes it seem pointless to buy it, and I want a there to be a clear point in buying it.

[@Immorpher]

I try to listen to FM radio as I did as a kid, but all those iHeartRadio stations push out music that is not my style. Maybe I haven't spent enough time to find a station I like.

[@smallmoneysalvia]

It’s an entirely different kind of content.

[@Kitros360]

4:54

[@Myrtone]

Recorded music was also a new kind of content when phonographic records were introduced. Movies were also once a new kind of content. Computer and arcade games were also a new kind of content around the same time as Laserdisc was introduced.

[@Stoney3K]

I figure LD was pretty much more a status symbol for the rich people in the 1980s than it was a mass market format, much like audiophile HiFi gear and large projection televisions. If you had a LaserDisc prominently displayed in your living room, it was a symbol you had money.

[@paullangland6877]

A good ol reference to Airplane! lol.

[@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.

[@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.

[@KALASgodpills]

For anyone interested, I bought a VHS bootleg of ALIENS from sdcc in the early 90's that I believe was a European laser disc copy that has all of the cut scenes including one that has not been included in any version I have been able to find elsewhere. When Ripley is going back for newt, she finds burk (sp?) Cocooned and he asks Ripley to kill him . She leaves him with a grenade , with dialogue about how even he doesn't deserve die this way. The quality of the picture was , in my understanding, purposely grainy by Cameron for effect, which didn't help sell laser disc becouse it went against the sell for picture quality.

[@steviegbcool]

it wasn't purposely grainy it was a result of using high speed film stock that just came out which made films easier and cheaper to shoot as you didn't need as much lighting. the side effect was a little bit more grain. However the grain was magnified as the film was not shot in real widescreen but 4:3 with black bars covering the top and bottom of the image to then make it look widescreen. This was done as it made it easier to shoot minature special effect shots which there were a lot of in Aliens. When the video was transferred to home video the film was pan and scanned meaning you zooming into the negative even more again which increased the effect of the grain even more. So the result was a super grainy look which works kinda well but was just a result of Aliens being shot on a surprisingly low budget and James Cameron has experience with it having shot lot of roger corman movies the same way. Later james cameron films where shot on super 35mm meaning slighly more image was available making the grain less apparent. and also the films where shot open matt meaning they were shot and edited 4:3 with the home video market in mind so that they looked less grainy when watched on a 4:3 tv

[@locobrown]

@@steviegbcool Very true. I would have hated a widescreen version back in the late 80's but in hindsight, consumers always going to seek cheaper effective alternative. None of this matters now, Aliens 2 is too much of a badass that we still celebrate today for it to matter.

[@immortalsofar5314]

I remember a comedy/sci-fi program in the '70s that ended with: "This program is also available on video disk. on video disk. on video disk. on video disk."

[@TheMamaluigi300]

Immortal SoFar I almost thought you were talking about the thing on video disk on video disk on video disk, in that case it was probably the surface being damaged there causing it to skip like a vinyl

[@thedrawerkring]

BAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

[@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.

[@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.

[@dontmesswiththeman]

Laserdisc wasn’t a failure by any means, it was just a high-end format that most of us regular people didn’t ever see. I never even saw a laserdisc player until I was in high school in the mid 2000s and they still had a couple players on the TV carts for science videos and such. I grew up in a town that had 2-3 video rental stores(until Family Video came along) and not one of them rented laserdiscs. Ironically, that movie theater shown in the “movies” sliding clip is in my hometown.

[@toriless]

I remember when DVDs came along and the president of Blockbuster declared "we will never rent DVDs" within half a year they were and do so until they died, thanks Netflix. You took them out.

[@iantheinventor8151]

I worked at the factory where they were made, told by a technician that attempts to perfect the system in other countries had failed. One of the jobs I did was removing a film off the plastic discs before they were processed, static electricity was a pain. Another job I did was cutting the discs from sheets, the last job I did in the factory was destroying the faulty discs.

[@michaelprice7005]

That's how I saw Pulp Fiction the first time. On a laser disc player from a Ford dealership..

[@NorthKoreaUncovered]

Michael Price I hope you didn’t buy a Pinto.

[@sambradley9091]

@@theenzoferrari458 Jesus Christ calm down

[@compzac]

@@NorthKoreaUncovered I get the Joke in their but Pulp fiction came out in the mid 90s the Pinto was taken out of production in the mid 70s

[@nthgth]

Hope you bought a Mustang SVT Cobra

[@leonardstilwell1894]

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

[@joearnold6881]

Judging by what shows up on oldies playlists these days, you should get ready to make a video on the ancient technology known as... Napster (As to what’s on the oldies, my father, an old-timer of a trucker who still listens to the *radio* as he drives no matter what I do to teach him, he got an enormous kick yesterday out of telling me he heard Nirvana on the Oldies station. That was on my 37th birthday a few days ago, no less. Thanks, Dad. I was only just old enough to be a huge fan of them ( probably because teenage angst, as it was just after Cobain passed).

[@WildBluntHickok]

Didn't napster transition into a pay streaming service after the lawsuit?

[@marioalexanderski9598]

@@WildBluntHickok Especially from Metallica, yes.

[@satmax8576]

I had a Pioneer single-side player back in 1993. My pride and joy was the Aliens limited edition set which had like 7 discs. I don't care if I had to get up and flip the disc every 30 minutes. That disc set WAS THE BOMB.

[@Aetharn]

Did that just come in a Vinyl disc sleeve? Or was it multiple sleeves?

[@bartonlynch]

"Why buy another home video format?" (in regards to LaserDisc) Well Dude, it did make sense to me and to other film buffs who appreciated a much better picture and sound quality that dramatically enhanced the early days of home theater enthusiasts even before the term was a market. A niche? Yes, absolutely, but we didn't care if it was expensive and unpopular, neither did it matter if flipping sides was less convenient than tapes, it was better and worth it. I used LaserDiscs as my primary pre-recorded home video format for 25 years up until DVD showed up, and within that time I enjoyed premium theater like experiences while the average Joe was renting worn tapes and rewinding them before watching a movie… in low-res mono most of the time. A tradition I kept on through the DVD years up 'till today with Blu-ray.

[@duanethamm4688]

"Why buy another home video format?" is indeed what the mainstream thought. You were not mainstream. You were classier. I myself choose quad 8 tracks.

[@zephyr332]

I actually agree with you. It's just that LaserDiscs didn't get the publicity, advertising and promotion that VCR's and video cassette tapes were getting in their day. If anything, I think the marketing techniques of LaserDiscs were the fly in the ointment, and not really the format itself, because the format was quite revolutionary and perhaps ahead of it's time. People just weren't READY for the digital format at that time, and even if they were, the television sets of that time weren't as equipped as they are now to produce such flawless picture quality. The timing was off, if anything. It's all about "convenience" at the end of the day. VCR's were more practical and convenient. It's like MP3's vs turntables. Personally I'd rather give up the "convenience" and opt to sitting at home listening to my records in a much more warmer and beautiful tonality. I don't MIND getting up and down to switch up my 45's - BUT I also have a good sound system, my records are CLEAN and well kept and I have a quality stylus and cartridge. It's sad, but the "mainstream" always chooses convenience over quality. Some things will never change.

[@nigelnightmare4160]

The good thing about Discs is you don't have to REWIND them, which should have been a selling point for the Rental market.

[@xbioman7882]

I worked at one of the larger stereo chain stores in the mid to late 70's (back when a stereo salesman was about equivalent to a used car salesman - not a time of my life I'm proud of). In 1977 Pioneer held a big event in the Universal Sheraton to demonstrate their latest technology. Laserdisc was one of the devices. The Pioneer folks made a big deal of the quality of the audio associated with the discs, and for the time, they were right. The movie they used in the demo was "One Trick Pony" with Paul Simon. The audio was as good as anything any of us had ever heard from a "mid-fi" system (we used to privately say that we sold mid-fi, not hi-fi. 99% of what we sold was Japanese brands like Pioneer and Sony). I remember turning to my friend and saying, "they should dump the video, make the disc smaller, and just play the audio".

[@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.

[@prairiebrewer6630]

KZbinrs need to strive for your level of quality, and entertainment value. Great job, keep it up, I love your videos!

[@andrewwebb7584]

I got my first laserdisc player yesterday... I regret nothing!

[@thingsdemystified]

What are you gonna do with it?

[@andrewwebb7584]

Content Updating, collect laserdiscs! They're nice items to own 🙂 Plus, I just think it's a fun way to watch movies. Makes it a bit more of an experience than just pressing play on netflix!

[@thingsdemystified]

How is that different than watching a DVD? And what resolution are they?

[@andrewwebb7584]

Content Updating, much better than VHS quality, but not quite at DVDs... I'm not trying to suggest that it's in any way a logical thing to use in 2018, but I do enjoy it!

[@thingsdemystified]

What are you watching them on? A Trinitron? =)

[@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

[@saulgoldfarb]

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

[@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.

[@QuantumRift]

I can tell you why. "LASER ROT". I bought a Pioneer LaserDisc system in the mid-late 80's. I lived in Hawaii a the time. I'd accumulated many movies at substantial cost, and by 1989, ALL of my movies and disintegrated due to the poor quality of glue used to glue the two halves of the discs together. The glue allowed humid air to creep into the metal surface, which in turn corroded the disc and destroyed the data. Pioneer initially paid to replace a couple of my movies but later refused any of the rest of them, so at that point, I ditched LaserDisc as a viable technology, even though they supposedly fixed the 'rot' problem. Here, this is from Wikipedia's entry on LaserDisc: ..."Main article: Laser rot Many early LDs were not manufactured properly; sometimes a substandard adhesive was used to sandwich together the two sides of the disc.[citation needed] The adhesive contained impurities that were able to penetrate the lacquer seal layer and chemically attack the metalized reflective aluminium layer, causing it to oxidize and lose its reflective characteristics. This was a problem that was termed "laser rot" among LD enthusiasts, also called "color flash" internally by LaserDisc-pressing plants. Some forms of laser rot could appear as black spots that looked like mold or burned plastic which cause the disc to skip and the movie to exhibit excessive speckling noise. But, for the most part, rotted discs could actually appear perfectly fine to the naked eye. Later optical standards have been known to suffer similar problems, including a notorious batch of defective CDs manufactured by Philips-DuPont Optical at their Blackburn, Lancashire facility in England during the late 1980s/early 1990s. .."

[@WildBluntHickok]

I know PDO cds as late as 1994 had the problem. Some first printings of "Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works volume II" for example. I hadn't realized PDO's cd rot problem went back as far as the 80s though.

[@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.

[@BobbyOsborneII]

I'm a sucker for Airplane references. Thank you!

[@bbsonjohn]

Laser Disc is a failure in the sense that it's an immature technology. It paved way for the commercializable DVD.

[@Colwubkid2019]

@Pan Sixty Six Plus Laserdisc had a good 23 year run of consistent movie releases which couldn't be said the same for other formats like CED or HD DVD or hell even Betamax. Laserdisc was a niche format but it certainly had a market that kept it relevant up until DVD hit the market, otherwise it probably would of gone the way of Beta and CED long ago. I have a small library of a little under 100 movies on Laserdisc and it is a lot of fun collecting for the format.

[@Colwubkid2019]

Pan Sixty Six If I had the money to do so I wanna go after more rare releases like South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut or get my hands on a nice collection of anime on laserdisc

[@compzac]

Laserdisc is an entirely different format From DVD though... Laserdisc uses an infared laser to read analog video from a disc DVD uses a red laser to read digital signals, what your statement would pretain to more would be the CD Video as that was immature and you had to put up with a lot of downsides in terms of quality, at least until DVD fixed it, Laserdisc wasnt a failure cause it was immature as in the Scheme of any other home video format of the time it had the best quality

[@alanrogers7090]

From living through "the laser disc" era, I can tell you what went wrong. 1 - it was expensive, and 2 - it couldn't record new programs, only play pre-recorded movies.

[@cyrollan]

Yet now here we are in an age of vinyl, DVD, and blu-ray...where new programs can't be recorded again 😂

[@klausstock8020]

RLV was introduced in 1984, six years after LD. An RLV would play back in a regular LD player. Yes, RLV was expensive - $100 for a blank which could be recorded once (like CD-R), but if RLV had been successful, prices would have dropped like the prices for CD-Rs did. RLV went largely unnoticed, as it was never marketed to the general public. Pioneer also had a re-recorable version, for which they claimed 1,000,000 erase/record cycles (about 57 years of continuous re-recording, assuming you never pause to actually watch whatever you had recorded). Now, at $1,000 for a rewritable blank, you'd probably not consider this for home use. Not even if it lasts 100 years (this time assuming you'd watch at least some of the stuff you recorded). I also doubt that the VDR-V1000 LaserRecorder (priced at maybe $27,000 or $28,000) would last 57 years. Yes, with the rewritable system, your comment about "expensive" is definitely right on target.

[@sherryhannah9262]

@@cyrollan it can be re recorded on DVR

[@bccsivxx-xxivvii]

Porn industry probably had something to do with it too, like it did with beta vs VHS.

[@jimbo913]

You didn't watch the video. He covered those.

[@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 🙏

[@tbonetnt33456]

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.

[@gregdoerr1028]

The only problem I remember with Laserdisc, while working in a video store in the late 80's and the 90's, was Laser rot. The disc would sometimes degrade over time and cause annoying lines and speckling to roll through the image. Other than that, loved them!!

[@ohger1]

Correct, although the laser didn't cause the degradation. We had brand new titles in sealed packages show the laser rot problem just from calendar aging.

[@marcellachine5718]

@@ohger1 improper storage and cheap manufacturing are the chief reasons for laser rot. Time would be a distant third.

[@ohger1]

@@marcellachine5718 Not a storage issue. We never stored any discs in anything except a heated storage area. They just went bad brand new in the package after a few years, and it didn't affect all of them. We had titles out on rental for years with no trouble as long as customers didn't scratch them.

[@marcellachine5718]

@@ohger1 cheap manufacturing. HD DVD suffered a similar problem with discs degrading while sealed. Sometimes a particular stamping plant, or manufacturer was at fault.

[@ohger1]

@@marcellachine5718 Not denying it was a manufacturing issue because it didn't affect every disc, but it wasn't storage which I had direct control of and it wasn't caused by laser exposure because we kept records on every disc we rented out. That was the point in my original post. Discs were good when we got them but several years in the wrapper would show a certain percentage that were degrading at the same rate as the ones that got weekly use as rentals. Regardless of manufacturing, it was the aging that showed the problem

[@aaronmicalowe]

I still sometimes see Laserdisc used today, for karaoke in pubs.

[@motodork]

Aaron Lowe they use a changer called the Pioneer LC-V300. I want that changer!

[@aquaevitae]

Karaoke saved LaserDisc. Otherwise it would have died already in the late 80's.

[@hbp_]

@@aquaevitae I remember seeing karaoke LaserDiscs being used in pubs as late as 2010's

[@ScathingMobile]

By the time my family got a Laser Disc player in the late 80s / early 90s the primary use case was karaoke. The player had the karaoke functions built in (multiple mic inputs, signal processing effects like various echo types). I primarily used it to watch movies in a way higher quality than VHS, and being digital the format was a lot more flexible (e.g. multiple language and subtitle tracks). I thought it was going to be the future. It just never gained popularity down here. I figure it would follow the same trajectory as CD, which supplanted audio cassettes as the format of choice due to the quality even though the former were read only at the time but the latter could be re-used. I'm now imagining an alternate timeline where LD got widespread adoption, and we got home LD burners...

[@cosmicraysshotsintothelight]

Onto an old projection set or plasma. Or even an old crt sitting in front of the singer.

[@brandonb3279]

"We all seem to use streaming services or other.... erhrm, 'means' of getting our music on demand" :-D

[@MasterYoshidino]

Brandon Belanger He did not want to list them all. Vinyl, 8 track, cassette, vhs, cd, dvd, blu ray... there are others but are not as common.

[@aussieguy1012]

I think he was moreso meaning downloading.Which I do and is highly frowned upon but in the 90s I did the same sat at my stereo recording songs.CDs were way to expensive as a teen $24.95 aud for a albumn in the late 90s and early 00s.

[@RavenholmZombie]

cough KZbin2mp3 cough

[@ProfessorYana]

Yar har, fiddle dee dee!

[@brentfisher902]

I'm glad I spend a very long time in the dial-up dynamic IP address days downloading MP3 files before they bugged the line around 2013 or so, therefore I have over 450 1980s songs. Occupy the RIAA for sure!