e-books in the 1990s - Sony's Data Discman

[@UpLateGeek]

Now I know why cargo pants were so popular in the '90s, it's because people kept on saying you could fit all this stuff in your pocket, and clearly the clothes designers took the hint!

[@kheddeepojanatus5648]

Best comment6

[@anononomous]

It would have sold better if they printed *DON'T PANIC* in large, friendly letters on the cover.

[@Ropetupa]

I would like this comment, but then I noticed how many likes it has and didn't have the heart to carry on.

[@Somefool669]

@@Ropetupa let me guess, 42?

[@ODeltan]

I'm so happy to be, if not the 42nd like, the 142nd like on this comment

[@Pixel-Days]

241th here, cmon one more

[@eng3d]

If we wait million of years then the counter will return back to 42

[@amb3cog]

Never fails to amaze me when you find stuff I've never heard of that came out while I was alive. Even though I've always been into tech, and am the type that knows about things most normal people have never heard of. And here you are with another. Love it. Thank you.

[@distinctiongifts]

dito that i live work and breath tech and get put to shame by the things i must have missed keep up the good work techmoan

[@shadowaccount]

HH Scott you’re obviously just normal. Sorry.

[@youtubekanals123]

I learned about laser discs and LD players only 5 years ago but it was from AVGN from there got interested in Techmoan, 8Bit etc videos

[@yoshi314]

hey, what do you mean by "while I was alive" ?

[@webchimp]

I've vague memories of this, had just forgotten about it. It's why I like Techmoan and 8-Bit Guy/LGR/Nostagia Nerd/RetroManCave. So much stuff I'd forgotten about or missed.

[@Kumimono]

What my Kindle doesn't have is that rather satisfying kliketi-klak of inserting a physical media. I miss things like that.

[@MonoChorMe]

Watching a lot of Techmoans videos - I realize that I miss how things used to clunka-clunk/kuchunk-kuchunk type effects... Now a days its just plain soft touch, touch sensor OR really most annoyingly -- plastic buttons with a short travel (example: aftermarket install-your-self car radios, so called "DIN-1" radios.) That plastic button sound is so dreadful and really yucky >_

[@thebravegallade731]

Andrey Ivanov that being said, movable parts break.

[@ZGryphon]

Yeah. I think it's for that exact reason that, at least for players of a certain age, the animation of sticking a Holotape into the player on your Pip-Boy in the first-person _Fallout_ games is one of the most viscerally satisfying things ever put into a computer game.

[@learnwithberryafaithfulser5565]

not to mention less radiation . Healthier gadgets!

[@kbhasi]

This reminds me of a weird dream I had, where I imagined some company making an experimental e-reader prototype (≈ 10" display) that used a board from a regular prototype but without flash storage and was instead modified to run off a 1.8" or 2.5" hard drive, along with a hard drive activity indicator as part of the debug indicators.

[@querydelacroix2919]

I have a feeling that part of the reason it did well in Japan is due to their character system. Nine lines of characters might be half a paragraph in English, but be practically a quarter of a chapter in Japanese.

[@ryjelsum]

I feel like that might have been part of the impetus for the multimedia capabilities as well, since from what I've seen, early computers/games consoles in Japan were often restricted to (one of) their alphabet-analogues, which was still effective enough to communicate fully but did not capture how the language was actually written in normal contexts, since Japanese also has a lot of logographic characters. If you have a device with a screen of a decent resolution that can display arbitrary images, you can sell things written in a more traditional form.

[@Ktulu789]

Yeah, but can that resolution show kanjis? Hiragana and katakana may be ok but most complex kanjis would be a mess.

[@madfinntech]

I love how the 1990s electronics look. Something of that era really pleases me.

[@falkerhard]

Looks just like electric car of the 90s. It was a round decade. Everyone wanted to rid themselves of the 80s square image.

[@Jyeah89]

maybe it reminds you of simpler days? does so for me.

[@ChanceKearns]

@@Jyeah89 isnt that also what old people said in the 90s

[@InfiniteUniverse88]

@@Jyeah89 In a way, modern devices are 'simpler.' That is, if simpler means a shorter battery life. The Nintendo Switch only has two hours of battery life. Modern times are so simple, that Sony doesn't even bother making handheld devices anymore.

[@InfiniteUniverse88]

@@ChanceKearns Young people seem to have said the same thing about dedicated handheld gaming devices. Hence why the PS Vita flopped. Sony gave up after that. The Nintendo Switch is primarily a home console, with merely two hours of battery life as a portable device. It seems modern times are simpler than the past.

[@TechnologyConnections]

Hey look! Trinitron!

[@Techmoan]

...and thanks to your videos I now know exactly what that means when it comes to the screen geometry.

[@amb3cog]

I was excited to see the old TV too. I never had a Trinitron, but the last CRT TV I ever bought was a 27" Sony WEGA. Talk about an excellent TV! Everyone thought I was crazy spending $600 on a 27", until they saw it. And for years anyone that came over commented on how nice it was. Usually multiple times too. I'm going to check out your channel now. Very curious what Trinitron actually is.

[@ItsPyrus]

"I never had a Trinitron, but the last CRT TV I ever bought was a 27" Sony WEGA." The WEGA sets were FD Trinitrons though. Essentially a regular Trinitron with a lens on the front that made it externally flat.

[@amb3cog]

Panics Cool. I was wondering that as I wrote it. Makes sense they would stick to what they know best. I've got to get some rest here soon, but I'm going to watch his video on it too learn exactly what the technology is. Can't wait. Thank you for the reply.

[@tarnvedra9952]

Reading you comment on Trinitron, 55 838 hours in operation so far.

[@nameinvalid69]

"INTERNET" "Search Unsuccessful" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@spicyboy8484]

Not funny didnt laugh

[@swiftfox3461]

"ARPANET" might yield better results. The Internet was still a niche thing.

[@MichaelBerthelsen]

People here in Japan spend a lot of time on trains, so this is convenient and portable. And they've long had a focus on learning English (academically, not for actual use. Tests and impressing bosses matter, communication with foreigners, not so much), as well as it being a 'toy' for studying kids, learning Japanese or English. I suspect they (and I) still use them a LOT, but as electronic dictionaries (that always come with various other tools and encyclopedias, etc.), stored on digital solid storage (don't know if they use something like flash storage, now you can upgrade with SD-cards), rather than discs. I suspect it was THAT that killed these in Japan, not that the concept went out of fashion.

[@yrobtsvt]

I don't think they were killed off, the format simply got upgraded. I have seen a sales pamphlet for the new devices that looks a lot like the one shown in this video

[@MichaelBerthelsen]

@@yrobtsvt And it doesn't use flash or something, but actual mini-CD's...? I'd love to see the add for this, if you have a link somewhere...

[@yrobtsvt]

apologies, it's the standard dictionary on flash memory, but the advertising is similar enough that i think the general product type may be similar as far as the company cares

[@MichaelBerthelsen]

@@yrobtsvt I've never seen ads for ones as bulky as this, but yes general flash memory digital dictionaries are flip-screen. I own 3 myself, those are the ones I'm talking about in the original post.😉

[@dj_paultuk7052]

Reminds me of the days of using Microsoft Encata to research and find out info about literally anything. In the days before internet. All on a few CD's !. It was the homework tool of choice back in the early 90's.

[@Gumpa2]

We had Ecarta in the School library. It was great fun searching for random stuff in the breaks.

[@AtomicBoo]

I had Encarta put preffered to use my 30+ tomes enciclopedia Británica Haha

[@Gambit771]

I first thought of Encarta too. Probably the first cd used in the cd drive of our new PC. 75Mhz I think its speed was

[@mAcCoLo666]

Encarta was my goto-source for anything school related on my sparkling new pentium 2 333 MhZ

[@uselessDM]

I remember using it at school in the mid 2000s, probably just a few years before wikipedia really made it completely obsolete for the most part. I think we also had a cheap version of it at home around the same time, but I don't remember using that one much.

[@MarioManTV]

The ability to print arbitrary screenshots of composite video to thermal paper seems remarkably fascinating, versatile, and almost useless, all at the same time. I would've loved to see that printer work with other video sources, had it been working.

[@webchimp]

Wouldn't have been any different from any other of these gimmicky thermal printers, see the Gameboy printer. Closest I've seen in person was the TV with a Teletext printer from Philips in the '80s.

[@JeffDeWitt]

I had the printer for my Sinclair ZX81. It worked pretty well except that after a while the print would fade away.

[@frankschneider6156]

Thermo printers are awful. They were quite common in the early 80s, but every needle printer is far superior (albeit somewhat more noisy). There were some for the C64. Worst were thermo sublimation printer (thermo color printer).

[@Milamberinx]

If it would only have integrated with the device in some way to send the whole article/chapter at a time it could have made the Data Discman into a more useful reference gadget.

[@ian_b]

@@frankschneider6156 None of them beat the Sinclair ZX printer for awful, which charred your program listing onto an aluminised paper till roll using a spark electrode.

[@Agamemnon2]

Sony sure loves trying to invent new proprietary formats, doesn't it.

[@theshankman8682]

@@zazzvc memory stick pro duo atleast gave you an option to use an micro SD card in adapter as opposed to PS Vita wanting to devour your pocket without having such adapter. the UMD was neat at the launch but it got slow and loud after time

[@kitfagan2027]

@@theshankman8682 There are specific adapters for the PS Vita to use a micro SD card in the cartridge slot but you need custom firmware to access it. Not hard to install but simultaneously not intended

[@annother3350]

They hated having to share profits with Phillips for SP/DIF. There was a surcharge on minidisc players with SP/DIF. I got one of the few models.

[@heavy0119]

@@renakunisaki although, it had much more storage space than early SD cards. The one I have is 1GB.

[@rajvinder89]

Often to the detriment of the product they include them on. Just look at the PS Vita, fantastically capable handheld mired by the bone-headed decision to *not* use MicroSD for expansion. Probably one of the things that killed it (along with Sony forgetting that it existed).

[@MasticinaAkicta]

Yeah, modern ebook readers certainly are more comfortable. But to be fair, much of modern technology had janky and blocky beginnings. So it is nice to see they tried something, even if it was before its time and a bit expensive.

[@webchimp]

"But to be fair, much of modern technology had janky and blocky beginnings" Those first Kindles were awful.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

The early days of ANY technology can be rather yanky at it. First e-ink screen... not that good. First digital camera, a huge machine for a tiny amount of pixels, But yeah, happy we have very good ebook readers these days. So good that making a better model is harder, once you got the ability to survive in water, automatic backlight and so on what do you need more?

[@Jamie-kg8ig]

Or once other technologies make your's obsolete. For instance, why would I ever need an ebook reader when I can just load up a huge amount of PDFs on my phone and just read them through Adobe Acrobat?

[@PixlRainbow]

Jamthis or better yet, just use the web browser, and get books that have new chapters that get published every week, and have a real-time updated discussion forum attached to each chapter.

[@AtomicBoo]

Pixl Rainbow we get e-books because of the ink screen tecnology that mimics a real page of a book, for me reading on a computer is really really tireing and my head starts to hurt but in an ebook, that doesn't happen at all

[@mazda9624]

Man I was so happy when you switched the TV to 4:3

[@ArtiePenguin1]

Well I think a lot of people were happy because the images were being stretched. The portable data discman had a 4:3 aspect ratio screen.

[@TCWordz]

*TRIPLE JAY:* Surely just because 4:3 is the original output format of the device and therefore doesn't require horizontal stretching to fill the screen? Most modern devices these days output a 16:9 signal but you should switch it to 4:3 to get an accurate representation with an old bit of kit like this data discman or a VHS tape. Remember to change back to 16:9 mode afterwards of course, otherwise everyone on TV will look very tall and thin indeed!!

[@Deveron4]

Too bad it isn't sponsored by audible. 😉

[@PC3Pointless]

The production value on these videos are really above and beyond now. You must put some much time into these, great stuff!

[@HannuPulli]

The printer makes more sense with Japanese text where writing down complex kanji characters isn't that quick

[@DoubleMonoLR]

I also wondered if it was possible to print multiple 'screens' on one sheet(as it's using a roll of paper), which would make it a lot more useful.

[@spokehedz]

Alright... Who is going to "port" Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to this?

[@JeffDeWitt]

Or you could load it on a Kindle or other tablet and get a "Don't Panic" tablet cover.

[@spokehedz]

Jeff, I appreciate the thought, but sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

[@JeffDeWitt]

Indeed it is. I drove to LA in April, I couldn't care less about LA, it's where Route 66 ends and the journey down Route 66 was what that trip was all about.

[@fordtechchris]

Dang it. Now I`m going to have to buy one.... "The techmoan effect"

[@JeffDeWitt]

That's how I wound up with a Gakken World Eye.

[@TheRetroFuture]

Would be neat adding a new screen in that thing! Shouldn't be too hard as it has AV out built in! I may try pick on up and give it a go. Great vid!

[@SianaGearz]

Perhaps there isn't too much wrong with the old screen. It might have debonded on the conductive glue and just needs ironing on the connector.

[@zaprodk]

The player has the same "sickness" as the printer. Leaky surface-mount electrolytic capcitors. The screen doesn't work since the boost-converter for the high LCD-drive-voltage is dead.

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

+zapro_dk Now you're talking my language. Nothing gets me more excited than leaky electrolytic capacitors. Btw, what is considered 'high voltage' in this context? Certainly not as high as something like a CRT would use.

[@benryves]

-20V seems a fairly common bias voltage for graphical LCDs but a lot of LCD modules will have a bias voltage generator on-board.

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

+benryves 'Bias voltage generator'? What's that, a transformer? A battery? I do not understand.

[@cjmarsh504]

I remember seeing this on a show Beyond 2000 back in 1992. Now, we have e book readers, and other portable devices today. It's unbelievable that thing was the birth of it all.

[@ChrisG3253032]

Oh Beyond 2000! I was 12 in '92 and used to love watching that show, albeit with high expectations of the future as the year 2000 to a 12 yo seemed a lifetime away. I put it down to movies like back to the future 2, blade runner, total recall etc expecting to see holograms, flying cars and all that widespread, but alas no flying cars. Seems most energy has gone to phones and tablets/computers.

[@Lofote]

Would have been interesting to look INSIDE the files. Should be opened in a HEX editor or something on a real PC to check if the text is encrypted or actually saved in plain ASCII or Unicode .

[@eekee6034]

Or even just Notepad.

[@BobofWOGGLE]

The ideal distribution for these would've been rewriteable discs that customers could bring to library kiosks to put new books on. Like the Famicom Disk System but for books.

[@facundopignanelli]

I just love how you went to all the trouble of getting all of this ebook readers that are absolutely useless today just to make a youtube video. It really shows your love and dedication to technology. An amazing video as usual, thanks for sharing!

[@joat150]

I can't believe how thorough you were, acquiring so many units just to show us what they look like and how they operate. Thank you so much. I really love watching this series.

[@usagi_hase]

I think it's safe to say that these devices are the grandfather of the modern Denshi Jisho that are still sold very well in Japan. For study and for general education it's pretty common in Japan to have dictionaries and encyclopedias in the household. And here were these devices shine: Their search capabilities are a big upgrade for normal books, they can cross reference information and you have a very compact device to hold much information. The value of those devices for a Japanese student are immensely. If you would buy the dictionaries and encyclopedias separately, they would cost a lot more and would take a lot more space. The Sony Data Discman went obsolete not by a smartphone, but by solid state devices (today's Denshi Jisho). Todays devices have high resolutions screens, multimedia capabilities, great curated content and hand writing recognition.

[@RobFisherUK]

Amazing. It just reminds me how rubbish everything was before the Internet. And what a dramatic leap forwards the Internet is. If I wanted to look up details about old tech when I was a kid, I'd have to travel a long way to a bigger town with a bigger library. My kids get to watch you in ultra-high definition on their smart devices!

[@dingdongbells3314]

The text looks surprisingly crisp on your LCD, I've seen text in PS2 games that looks far, far, more fuzzy with video out a dozen years later.

[@bazza5699]

there is something so comforting about your videos.. :) thank you for all the effort you put into them

[@friedchicken297]

Again, does anyone seriously not like the puppets?

[@Techmoan]

I’m not a massive fan.

[@Austin.D]

I like them

[@BLY99]

Techmoan, be grateful that they allow you to post your videos on their channel, you are basically just filler for the puppet content.

[@HistoricaHungarica]

I can bet that those people who hate the puppets for "being the same joke over and over again" love other shows or reality television for the same reason. #wewantmorepuppets

[@butters_147]

I think they're hilarious! It gives Mat a chance to vent his frustrations about silly comments and the voices are very! I don't like seeing that Mat isn't a fan though. I've been bugging him to bring them back for the past couple of months and now I feel bad. Almost like I'm forcing him to do something he has no interest in. I know he doesn't do it just for me but my comments are heavily muppet positive so I'll back off on that then. 😉

[@vxrdrummer]

Cor blimey this channel gives me so much joy. I feel like being a kid again looking through catalogues and in Dixons and wanting all of this stuff.

[@3DSage]

You always find the coolest and most interesting old tech.

[@peterleather6866]

As always...incredibly detailed, informative and, above all, fascinating! I can't imagine how much research must go into all of your videos. Thank you.

[@FrontSideBus]

Anybody remember Microsoft Encarta that you used to get on CDrom?

[@visionist7]

We had that at school. We never had the second disc and half the files pointed us towards the nonexistent second disc. The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia from 1997 I think was fully featured

[@sand0decker]

Still have a copy somewhere

[@SianaGearz]

ACTUALLY, i remember there was some kind of portable device in mid 2000, the sole purpose of which was to display Wikipedia offline. I wanted to buy one but never managed to. Can't be arsed to go on Wikipedia to double-check, and you'll laugh at me anyway.

[@Fluteboy]

WikiReader. You'll have to go on Wikipedia to read about it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiReader

[@Gigator]

A friend of mine had a PDA before touch screen smartphones were big (2004 / 2005, when Windows Mobile and Symbian were wide spread) and he used to download the offline Wiki every Friday.

[@SianaGearz]

I didn't particularly care, because by that time, i could just access Wikipedia online on my phone. It just seemed like a great target for hacking and repurposing it, being an open-source device. In hindsight, it wouldn't have been that great. Zipit Z2 would have likely served better, but i didn't get that one either. I did however get a Psion 5 around that time. In fact writing up something to load Wikipedia articles from CF card on that would have been trivial, except i never cared for that.

[@TheDimsml]

Just install Kiwix or XOWA on any cheap Andriod tablet with a microSD slot and you are good to go.

[@JuanesJamon]

I still have one and it is great, a very relaxing device that is not very much up to date anymore, so using the Wikireader means David Bowie is still alive and basically makes me feel like I'm living ten years ago. I think there are some websites that offer updated content, should you get one and prefer living in the present.

[@asteroidrules]

That keyword system on the "adventure" book really takes me back, that's still a fairly popular way to index plaintext files. I remember spending much of the early 2000s reading video game strategy guides which were stored just as txt files and categories/chapters were identified with a keyword system so you'd jump to a specific chapter by checking the table of contents for its keyword, then using your reader's find feature to search the file for that keyword.

[@Videoneer]

I can trully say that I absolutely love Techmoan's work and his channel. Thank you for everything that you do!

[@DarthTella]

I'm sad that the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy wasn't packed in with this...

[@Fellipe2k5]

Sony GBA SP

[@kylereese5869]

More like Sony GBA CD.

[@scotthannan8669]

I still prefer to use the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, the small, thin, flexible lap computer known as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The entry on Earth is especially concise and informative.

[@truckerallikatuk]

That's a mostly harmless retort. And you did obey the cover. Could you look up my Joo Janta 2000 peril sensitive sunglasses? Mine have gone all black and I can't see....

[@RaccoonHenry]

you win the internet, good sir, hats off to you

[@jmalmsten]

I hear that the new edition expanded on the entry.

[@andrewgwilliam4831]

Belgium!

[@frankmorrow5080]

Don't Panic!

[@YGroadcapitain]

i love the puppets!!

[@kevwang0712]

The later Japanese models and the titles in the Japanese catalogue remind me of the electronic dictionary machines we have here in Taiwan even today; these types of machines have always been very popular in East Asia for language learners because it sure beats having to carry an entire dictionary around with you at all times. Aside from the very basic models, most of these machines are expandable, with new titles nowadays (still mostly reference-type stuff) coming on SD cards, but back in the 1990s and early 2000s they usually came on PCMCIA cards.

[@SianaGearz]

Would you review some of those magical units or know someone who has?

[@kevwang0712]

Well I'd hardly call them "magical", not just because electronic dictionaries are quite common here (some people prefer them as opposed to a smartphone app because it has less distractions), but also because there's really not that much to talk about - sure, maybe there's some novelty as regards the actual hardware if you've never used one before, but beyond that it's just a regular dictionary, except that you type your query instead of turn pages to find it.

[@SianaGearz]

I actually have some electronic dictionaries. One is Ectaco made (Russian) and it's HORRIBLE, and the company support is horrible, and another is by Franklin and it's actually quite good, except the lid had a stupid 1cm thick 4-function calculator stuck to it - WHYYY. I just had to cut and sand it off, because that's the worst idea i've ever seen. Oh wait, i have a third one, one of these toy $15 ones with 7 languages. No idea where that one is. I bought all of these 20 years ago and the Ectaco was ridiculously expensive - a device produced entirely with painfully unreliable COB chips on FR2, sold for hundreds of dollars, and it's bad, in no way comparable to an actual well-written dictionary. All of these are simple 2-line text display affairs, nothing fancy. Franklin is extensible with a cartridge connected by an anisotropic conductive rubber strip, the rest are not extensible. Also a SONY E-Book Reader with dictionary/reference mode and a touchscreen with on-screen keyboard. And i guess i can use my Psion5 or Casio PocketViewer as a dictionary, though by the time i got either, i didn't really need dictionaries any longer. This is the first time i hear of any using a PCMCIA socket, because that just seems excessively expensive to make, and i'm surprised that it's not just old devices but they continue updating them. I can see the advantage though, that you have a keyboard and they don't eat through batteries, for the same reason one would use a electronic calculator. I'm actually sad to see power-frugal and sunlight-friendly monochrome LCDs go on modern electronics. Wouldn't mind seeing the tech behind them. I guess if i was developing an electronic dictionary, i wouldn't have much trouble cramming the functionality of reading SD-Card and rendering on monochrome LCD into a cheap STM8, STC or Holtek.

[@yunchentian]

This video was very enlightening, particularly because it actually highlights the rise of portable electronic dictionaries (denshi jisho) in Japan. They remain a staple of student's bookbags from middle school (and sometimes primary school) onwards. Casio strikes me as the biggest manufacturer nowadays, tho.

[@newbielives]

Not going to lie I love my smart phone and the fact that it does literally everything instantly, but there is something focused and satisfying about a device meant to do just one thing. Even being forced eg to listen to music, you would have no choice but to be absorbed into the music without distraction, because that is all that the device could do.

[@johnolson2216]

I've been thinking about that lately. Might go back to an MP3 player for music, film camera for pictures, and build a cell phone capable of only calls and texts with a Raspberry Pi

[@myfavoritethingschannel7610]

I like to think that after 15 years from now people will look at us and said that was stupid

[@eekee6034]

@@johnolson2216 Build it with a Pi and everyone will want to know why it doesn't run Doom. XD I used to really hate single-purpose devices, but I'm starting to see the advantages as I get older. I was wrong about one advantage though. I thought a single-purpose device would automatically be easier to use; the interface would be less complicated. These Data Discmans with their paper manuals are a strong counterexample.

[@stainjr]

This might be my favorite episode. An obscure tech nobody's heard of, but well researched and thoroughly presented. Well done.

[@Air-Striegler]

For people learning or even having mastered Japanese in the 90ies this machine was the powerful precursor of modern electronic encyclopedia with one of the standard Japanese Japanese encyclopedia, the 広辞苑, available as ELECTRONIC version. My professor was very fond of his and allowed us to occasionally play with it. It was futuristic Japanese technology that made us marvel. This thing was made firstly for a Japanese audience, since they have a far more developed lexicographic tradition, culture and public awareness. That thing was a Japanologists wet dream at the time .

[@otopico]

I had the model you show at 21:20, the DD-8, and it was used exclusively for the English to Japanese disk I had for it. It served me very well through 3 years of college, but developed a problem where the screen contrast went so low that you couldn't see anything. The video out worked fine, but after a while, I replaced my DD-8 for a small paper dictionary. I was always sad the line never really went anywhere. The search function worked well, plus, it felt incredibly futuristic to have one of these out in class. Compared to what we have today, it looks primitive, but in the early 90s, it was pretty amazing. So glad to see you cover the Data Discman.

[@DeLorean4]

Thank you for spelling it " '90s ". So few people get it right and it's worth recognition.

[@hydorah]

Seconded! Nice positivity - On a similar note did anyone else spot the apostrophe abuse from the past in the passage of text shown at 19:02?

[@BartekSzzz]

Techmoan, big respect for searching and owning so many data discmans. You shocked me every time you showed newer model, and again, and again. That's impressive!

[@darrenkrivit6854]

Wow, I completely missed this tech in the 90s-very interesting; I'm guessing that the Japanese had a much wider distribution of new tech in all areas (audio, video, data, etc) and tech we never even saw here in the west

[@portland-182]

Is it just me or does it looks suspiciously like Star Trek The Next Generation's Tricorder from 1987?

[@mmaster23]

You know you've got issues when you know the glitchy sounds in the outro by heart. Awesome content as always Mat!

[@RMoribayashi]

A good example of Sony developing new uses for available technology is AM Stereo. The IC they developed found its way into the classic ICF-2010 shortwave radio. It wasn't there for receiving AM Stereo but to improve the sound of shortwave broadcasts. The stereo circuitry was able to select the left or right sideband of a broadcast (useful if there is an interfering station to one side) as well as replace the fading carrier that gives shortwave its distinctive sound with a clean steady one created by the stereo AM chip. The improvement in audio quality was so great that for over a decade and a half it successfully competed with more expensive radios with more memories and features. The ICF-2010 was in production for 17 years, from 1985 to 2002. How many Sony products have been produced for as long with little or no change?

[@zaprodk]

The DD-P1 printer might be possible to salvage. I'm sure it's surface mount leaking electrolytic capacitors that are the culprit. Contact me if you want it fixed/want to give it to a good home.

[@izimsi]

Ideal video length to get to work while watching. Nothing to add really, great video as always.

[@Techmoan]

I just hope you’re not driving.

[@izimsi]

Techmoan I use public transport :)

[@frank6842]

izimsi he was on ya!

[@RichardWraith]

Watching these videos always takes me back to when I used to watch Thomas the tank engine. Keep expecting Techmoan to say "Here comes the fat controller"

[@fryode]

I found one of those at a thrift shop a decade back. I never found any discs for it, though. On a related note regarding the number of floppy disks that can fit on a CD-ROM disc, I've been encoding old videos and burning them to DVD-R discs lately and did a bit of math. Were I to fill my entire monster CD/DVD wallet with the 288 discs it will take, I'll have just over 1.3TB of data in that wallet... which would fit in a corner of a cheap external hard disk drive. Oh well. There's something to be said for having physical copies. What that something is, however, escapes me.

[@gasfiltered]

A properly cared-for optical disc will last several times longer than solid state storage or a magnetic hard drive disc. It’s the closest we have to stone tablets right now

[@fryode]

You're partially-correct. Stamped optical discs, sure, but "burned" discs generally use a laser to darken dyes. Those are nowhere near as resilient. M-Disc is the exception since the laser is used to physically melt a layer of the disc. Granted, I have CD-Rs I burned back in 1999 that are still perfectly fine, not to mention trivial to store via other methods... such as an M-Disc.

[@gentuxable]

Fryode you're completely right. I have some CDs from 1999 which work perfectly fine, others were stored in the same Folder but have visible holes on the reflecting data layer where you can look through the poly carbonate like it was a piece of glass. Guess the oxygen is enough to deteriorate the important thin plastic film. I think DVDs are a bit better as they have two poly carbonate layers and the data layer but it'll take some time until I can see the results, my first DVD I burned in 2004 as I had no DVD writer before.

[@fryode]

DVD-Rs are more resilient when it comes to mechanical damage on the top layer. I've never had the top layer flake off of a DVD-R, while it happens easily with CD-Rs. There was a time when I had a CD-R in a portable player I mounted in my car. The player had a clear window in the top. Since I usually listened to the radio instead of a CD, I left the player turned off for weeks. When I played the CD again, it messed up halfway through. I took the disc out and saw a darkened patch in the shape of the window on the data side, except for where the black silk-screened lettering was on the top side.

[@tomlee80]

Around this time my dad used an electronic personal organiser called the Sharp IQ. I remember this had software cards that slid in to a slot next to the screen with a transparent window enabling you to press extra buttons on the face of the cartridge. This software also contained reference books (and games too!). Alas my dad only used the default built in organiser features and absolutely loved it as worked perfectly for him. He went through two models, over a number of years. I'd recommend trying to get hold of one to review as the later models, had large screens decent sized keyboards.

[@10p6]

It is strange they did not include a version that used the 'Memory Stick.'

[@strangulator42]

The later Japanese models you showed are very similar to a product I was using when I was taking Japanese in college around 2002 or so. It looks identical except what I had was smaller, and it didn't read discs. What I had was essentially a dedicated Japanese/English dictionary, that could also be used as a kanji dictionary that would even run animations on how to write the kanji characters. All my classmates were still using beaten up old paper dictionaries, but I was friends with all the Japanese exchange students who used the digital version, so I went online and found one. I don't know if that's a direct descendant of the devices in the video, but they seem very much alike! Great video!

[@BillyNoMates1974]

love the 80's fake beard

[@bryede]

That hairy bloke needs a KZbin channel!

[@tentringer4065]

bryede he looks like my old Geography teacher.

[@Techmoan]

I think he looks like everyone’s old Geography Teacher. Perhaps there was only one Geography teacher?

[@Xalior]

TechBeard or BeardMoan? :)

[@Fluteboy]

My first thought was "My arse!!"

[@ethanpoole3443]

I do so enjoy those muppet endings! Thank you for all the work you put into your videos as a good many of us watch, and very much enjoy, nearly ever one of them.

[@nutsnproud6932]

That was a really interesting video Mat. I enjoyed the outro as well. Thanks.

[@sadiqmohamed681]

Interesting video. I remember reading about these at the time, but don't remember ever seeing one "in the flesh". The piece by Barry Fox and his mention of the Psion Series 3 brought back some memories. In my previous life I was a Freelance Video Editor, and used to run into Barry at technical conventions. Some time around '92 /'93 we ran into each other at the NAB convention in Las Vegas. I was demonstration some editing kit for a US manufacturer and he decided he needed to interview me, so we decamped to the bar at the Hilton next door. When we sat down, we both produced our Psion Series 3's to take notes! Very useful devices. I had a 3, a 3a and a 3MX before graduating to a 5a and then two 5 MX's. I still have one of the later, still in working order.

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

I didn't know Sony made tricoders.

[@robrocksea]

I was thinking more of a FO Pip-Boy without the wrist cuff.

[@arjovenzia]

Excellent video. I love you sat on that for so long. Bravo. My first ebook reader was made around the same time. It was a small pda, 240x320 el backlit, palm knockoff. But it wasnt a palm, so one of my first eBay buys, 2001. 2mb of volatile ram, but had a reader inbuilt that handled zip files. I had a pirated cd of ebooks. With max compression, i could fit 3 discworld books on, took 45 minutes to compress. But before smartphones, my school blazer loadout was wallet, keys, pocket knife and ebook. I read so many good books on that thing, on the hour bus trip to n from school. As an adult, i now have a full Pratchett shelf of real books.

[@bpelectric]

Electronic foreign language dictionaries were really popular in Japan all the way through the early 2000s, and frequently cost hundreds of dollars. I'd imagine the relative success of this format there was due to it successfully capturing some of that market.

[@HAL_NOVEMILA]

5:31 - Adventure 101: Intro to Tourist Traps, Dwarfs and Chivalry looks like a text adventure that I would definitely play! (it gives me some strong Terry Pratchett vibes)

[@sweetsapphire88]

I honestly quite enjoy the puppet segments. They make me laugh 😂. Don’t let people and their bull make you stop creating them. You do you!

[@jstagzsr]

im only 34.. this, and many other things you show on this channel, are well before my time.. but even from a very young age i was fascinated with technology. this like this really make you appreciate where we are now. look where the technology has progressed to in such a short amount of time.. in less than one full life time we went from THAT, for 600$, with such a specific use case that i image wouldnt have even been perfect in the use case in which it was built for..... to now where today even generic cheap 20$ cell phones from walmart that can connect to the internet has a virtually unlimited amount of things you can do with it, and with it being able to access the internet you literally have the entire history of the world's knowledge in your pocket... it is mind blowing.. now imagine where our technology will be in 20 years.. in 50 years.. in 100 years.. in 1000 years... in a million years!!!

[@carbon1255]

I feel like Japanese is a denser language so the tiny screen does more work, for one. Couple that with small Japanese homes, particularly in Tokyo, it could be quite difficult to have an extensive book collection.

[@ryan.1990]

Good point actually

[@redsyrup1138]

Thank you Techmoan! I can remember fiddling with these at Department stores in the USA as a child and being completely fascinated. It opened like a 'tricorder', had a larger display than Nintendo's Gameboy (also back-lit) and used CD-ROMs allowing it to hold more data than any portable computer of its time. The feel of the device was also unique. That rubberized coating was more akin to felt, adding a touch of luxury to the device, and was probably one of the first to be coated in such a material. The DD1-EX was a culmination in art and technology. A perfect example of Sony firing on all cylinders during that time. When holding the DD1-EX as a child I could easily imagine the fantasy of Star Trek becoming a reality. More than a decade shy from Netbooks and Tablet computing. I believe the retail cost is what killed this in the USA. $600 dollars was very expensive back then and still is today.

[@generaldisarray]

Techmoan 2050 - way back in the 2020's people were obsessed with 4K which is now completely obsolete. However I have a few 4K TVs around, so let's take a look at one. Well you can see that it's really hard to look at as it's very blurry and you can hardly make out any detail at all....🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@octap79]

Amazing effort for a format that someone would have thought it will only deserve a 10 minute video. So many information and real devices shown in this one. Thanks!

[@lowdefal6306]

Your first cd-rom was Day of the Tentacle? Good choice.

[@Gumpa2]

Your channel will be an encyclopedia for people even in 20 years, to learn about the times "before the internet" :) Excellent Video as always!

[@Liz_ArdE]

I find it funny that you looked for games for the format, it reminds me the reason I looked into getting a nook back when they came out. I was about 10 or so and of course phones weren't allowed out during school, but e-readers were. Some nooks had the ability to download apps, including games on them. I didn't end up getting one, but length I went to not pay attention in class is astonishing.

[@marcobyrdi6632]

Liz Ard what about the ti 83 calculator I messed around with one in class because you could type stuff and mess around

[@Liz_ArdE]

MARK BYRD I didn't know the wonders of the ti yet sadly, that didn't come until high school. Since then though I have wasted a lot of time typing messages to the people next to me and playing with the probability simulator.

[@ergleburgle8882]

You know, a lot of people make videos about tech, but nobody does fashion quite like you do. Thank you for another great video. :D

[@Crash1155]

$599? Seems Sony didn't just limit that price to the PS3.

[@TH3C001]

I'd really appreciate more similar skits like the one with the guy on tv talking about the library on a disc, that was pretty good. Along with more puppet skits as well, I always love those.

[@pedrotski]

I Moan for Techmoan

[@ElusiveMasquerade]

This is one of the best channels on KZbin. I’m always learning something new about the tech of yesterday.

[@zoogoo404]

Sponsored by Audible. Oh wait.

[@Lippdinos]

I absolutely love the concept of a printer based on RCA video input! this would actually be really neat to try out with the computers of the time which probably had similar limited resolution from 40 to 80 columns of text each and graphics that had every range of capabilities. Pitty your machine conked out or else you could have made some interesting tests. I, of course, immediately made a worldwide search on ebay, but to no avail.. all it brought up were several manuals for the device and it suggested the papperang printer which is another device I am truly in love with, for bringing me the functionality that I have been looking for for so many years!

[@Lurker1979]

Back in the 2000s. I would read e-books on my palm pilot. The screen was not much bigger.

[@metamorphicorder]

I read many books and even wrote a book on a blackberry.

[@SianaGearz]

I read on a Casio PocketViewer. Taller screen than early Palms, same resolution. Wouldn't call it unpleasant. As long as the book could be zipped under 1-2MB in size. I liked PocketViewer a lot more than Palm, and yes it's not a viewer, it's a fully programmable PDA.

[@knmonlinemedia]

Read and created ebooks on my Palm Pilot. Great times! Had to carry hella batteries 😜

[@SianaGearz]

Pocket Viewer's power consumption was benign, because it had an x86 and barely any RAM at all, the operating system forced the device to sleep basically all the time, and it could sleep with display and backlight on and active. I used rechargeable AAAs and they would hold for a week or two of multiple hours a day of use. My smart charger, AT-1 by IVT Hirshau cost probably an equivalent of $60 or more, i still use it to this day, great device, keeps all my Xbox360 gamepads and lots of other gadgets powered. It's from around 2000.

[@gentuxable]

I had a WinCE device but I had only one 256 MB memory card back then (they were expensive as hell) and would have loved to have the drive attached as storage to put my MP3s and Books on by burning Mini CD-Rs which were quite substantially less expensive than CF/SD-Cards.

[@yannicktube]

i'm 30 years old and i absolutely love the @techmoan channel. Your video's are of golden quality. i love to look at all this weird tech and i'm sure that in 15 years when my kid is old enough to care i'll be showing her your video's too. By then you'll be talking about "this old CD" and "The ipod" as relics from the past. Keep it up

[@brycevo]

This looks so Cool! You have to love classic Tec, it's so fascinating.

[@prodigalretrod]

Awesome! I used to have a Minidisc Data recorder back in around 1997, that's a pretty damn obscure format. Not sure how they were physically different from normal MDs, as they looked the same, but held 140MB per disc. I think there were only about 4 products that used it, and the components themselves were only ever made by Sony.

[@deltaforce5000]

The format is dead however the device type lives on in Japan! There’s a whole class of devices that are used for dictionary and character look ups. Due to the fact that most schools in Japan don’t allow their students to bring their phones, every single student carries this bizarre looking laptop like device for word reference.

[@runrin_]

some of the best content on youtube right here. i get so pumped when you put out a longer video too. thanks.

[@lammy1234567890]

Watch you don't get a copyright strike from the BBC for that original footage from Tomorrow's World :)

[@realmichaud]

I don't know how BBC can copyright anything since its owned by the taxpayers, but thats a discussion for another day

[@danielarmfield8226]

@@realmichaud because it's owned by the government not the taxpayers. And it's owned only by the British government. You think anyone around the world should be able to steal BBC material?

[@benhatto]

I enjoy watching birds, and those bird calls made me think that this would have been a useful device for someone who doesn't want to carry around a usually heavy bird book.

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewic7203]

9:32 INTERNET 9:34 Search unsuccessful

[@goishikaiganmademou]

27:36 title: Majikaru 頭脳 Pawaa = Magical 頭脳 Power = Magical Brain Power 28:05 Majikaru(magical) Fureezu(phrase); two meanings; Q2 23:13 そばのびるよ = the adjacent building 28:15 残念でした！ = Sorry! / (Bad luck!) 28:19 おみごと！ = Splendid! / (Well done!)

[@ig33ku]

That crappy vidcam you reviewed sure comes in useless once in a while eh? EH? ;) On another note.... looks like a great prop for a scifi

[@ExpertScientist]

I love this channel! Thank you for making videos about stuff like this.

[@finn464]

"The parents' Game Boy advance SP"

[@HaswellCore]

@@KairuHakubi Its weird why Sony got so late into video games even tho they already had the technology.

[@kylereese5869]

@@HaswellCore It would be the Sony Playstation Discman.

[@LightTheUnicorn]

No idea why, but caddy-based CD drives are brilliant, just so cool and classic-futuristic. Wonderful video, what an interesting series of things!

[@RobertSzasz]

With a minidisc drive this would have been the ultimate retrofuturism fail device

[@webchimp]

As Sony did a MiniDisc drive for PCs also NetMD in the late '90s which allowed direct connection you could have downloaded books to the discs and built your own collections.

[@RobertSzasz]

webchimp owned, and did just that, even used the hi-md

[@webchimp]

When I bought my Vaio laptop about 15 years ago I very nearly got the MD drive upgrade (you could hotswap the floppy with MD or a second battery) but it was about £200 more and I was already pushing my budget. I was tempted by Hi-MD (brilliant bit of tech, but too late to market) but ended up with an NW-HD5 instead.

[@DoctorWhy777]

Every time i watch your show i can't help but think of Connections by James Burke. I love your show please never stop

[@themaritimegirl]

Much of Sony's equipment from the early 1990s is notorious for bad capacitors - that's probably what happened to the displays on the two early units.