And, they were analog!
CDs, DVDs, and of course BluRays are digital, but laserdisc was analog.
I didn’t know that. Always assumed it was like a big CD.
Laserdisc had 4 audio tracks 2 digital and 2 analog. The digital tracks was what later became the cd. The analog tracks was often used by audio commentary along the movie and such.
I think digital audio was only added in 1985
I think true, but most discs i have, has digital audio.
Right??? I learned that about a year ago. I’m impressed they even made it work.
Wait until you learn about SelectaVision, the vinyl record that played videos and still used a stylus.
30 cm diameter
450 rpm for NTSC, 375 rpm for PAL
Oh so it’s a helicopter
LaserDisc ran at up to 1800 RPM also in a 30cm form factor
In the Tech Connections video on them, they sound like they’re taking off when they spool up.
A very good friend of mine had one of these when I was a kid. We called it laserdisc. I couldn’t tell you how that started.
So, when I got to high school and they were using actual laserdiscs I said, “Where’s the cool outer shell? Is this just like, a school laserdisc setup?” Some kids argued with me that I didn’t know what I was talking about.
I clearly remembered watching Star Wars on them and being mesmerized by that case.
Years later I got to thinking about it and googled “laserdisc with hard casing, mechanism removes disc when played”. Nothing. I chalked it up to it being some kind of false memory. Maybe I was just remembering the sleeve and my buddy was putting the movies in the player in a way that made me think it worked like that.
It wasn’t until years later that I seen a techmoan video in my feed and I was like, “THAT!! That’s what I’ve been talking about all these years!! It’s fucking vinyl! NO WAY!”
I was always tech obsessed so it nearly drove me crazy anytime I thought about it. He’d been dead for years so I couldn’t ask him. His dad and sister had no idea what I was talking about. “He traded a lot stuff around so there’s no telling what he had. There was mismatched technology all over this place.”
Woah! Crazy that something like that existed.
A brilliant idea ruined by some dingus at RCA insisting on an hour per side. Y’know. Like how records aren’t.
Also, they whiffed on the cotton-gin problem. They spent ages formulating metallic vinyl. But… the signal is just pits. Same as Laserdisc. All they had to do was press normal vinyl with a shitload of tiny holes and then put metal in 'em. Nontrivial! Probably a hideous cancer risk. But metal powders and some kind of glue are easier to work with when they don’t have to withstand a ten-ton press and still act structural.
And genuinely - the consumer hardware was so cheap. It’s just a flake of metal in a stylus, which changes capacitance when it’s over a pit, and if you amplify that wiggly line, it’s a standard TV signal. That’s all! Even with 1960s technology, that could’ve been pocket-sized, if not for the stupidly tiny grooves that skipped over any micrometer of dust. Lasedisc does the same analog-binary video signal, but it needs a laser and laser tracking and electrical conversion and yadda yadda yadda. RCA’s solution was like a phonograph, but simpler. They could’ve sold Star Trek TOS episodes as soon as they aired - if only they’d told people to flip them in the middle.
Disco Stu likes DiscoVision!
Beat me to it lol
Bit of a late entry, but since you took the time: first LD I watched was “Raising Arizona”. Art teacher in high school was an enthusiast.
ITT: people who watch technology connections and techmoan
It was weird, I wasn’t old enough to have SelectaVision and only barely knew about LaserDisc. But I love dead tech formats and learned about them later. I have a modestly big collection of Laserdisc and CEC disks and several players. About 10 years ago you could find lots of them for sale for relatively cheap, too.
So it was super gratifying to see the Techmoan/Technology Connections videos not terribly long after I got into them :)
s/o to LaserDisc for being one of the many sources of de-specialized Star Wars
one of the many sources of de-specialized Star Wars
What are the others? I mean besides VHS? I was under the impression that the laserdisc rip was the only decent quality release of the original trilogy.
MySpleen has it, I think 60GB for all three. Tough to get in now, though D:
- 2011 Blu-Ray release with fan color correction
- 2006 DVD bonus content from 1993 Laser Disc, upscaled by fans
- 720p HDTV rip of 2004 DVD version
- Digital TV capture of 1997 Special Edition
- Various high-quality film scans and special effects elements
- Team Negative1’s 35mm film scan of Mos Eisley sequence
- 16mm film transfer of original 1977 theatrical release
The sheer amount of work…
When you have nineteen minutes, check this out! Really well-made overview of this whole Harmy business.
That’s frigging crazy as well as awesome. Last I went looking was probably like 15 or 20 years ago. And back then I didn’t learn about Harmy. Thanks for letting me know. I really believed that the laserdisc version was the only way to get rid of the crap Lucas added when he discovered Adderall and cgi in the late 90s.
As a stand up law abiding citizen I will of course refrain from seeking out these unlicensed materials ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg8tK1LpLS8
There’s our favourite midwestern’s take on it.
And Anders Enger Jensen made a brilliant synth song remixing the an instruction video about DiscoVision:
I sold a player on eBay last year, mfw the buyer also bought the aftermarket warranty.
at this point “discovision” is a trigger word for me, instantly my brain is consumed by that one song
When this red light comes on…Simply press “STOP”
Both are good
Still have my laserdisc collection. It is just collecting dust. But I do not have the heart to part with them.
Man that person in the thumbnail has really small hands. (joking.)
They’re holding a GCN disc.
