TIL TIL: LaserDiscs were first marketed and sold in 1978 — and they were originally called DiscoVision!
TIL TIL: LaserDiscs were first marketed and sold in 1978 — and they were originally called DiscoVision!
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.
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.
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 :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg8tK1LpLS8
There's our favourite midwestern's take on it.
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.
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.
Still have my laserdisc collection. It is just collecting dust. But I do not have the heart to part with them.
Both are good
Man that person in the thumbnail has really small hands. (joking.)
They’re holding a GCN disc.