HD in '93 - Hi-Vision LD (Part 1)
This video was only made possible by you. Without the generous support of everyone here I just couldn't have taken on such an expensive project.
I think it might be interesting if I go into more detail about this in a future behind the scenes ramble video here on Patreon. But in the meantime. here's my video about the first HD video disc format, Hi-Vision LD.
This is a two parter and the second part will be along in a couple of days. I just need to finish off a few things, but you'll get to see it here first.
Comments (67)
YES. As soon as I saw the title I had to watch it. There's something so fascinating about obsolete technology doing virtually ahead-of-its-time things ... and of course how much you delve into it!
Great video, I collect old broadcast camera's and have a camera from the European broadcast counterpart.. A BTS / Philips LDK9000 HD CCD camera from the early 90s (1991/1992). It's in the 1250/50i format (Double 625 lines, similar to what the Japanese did). It used a 1" format sensor (bigger than the 2/3" broadcast standard).. Sadly can't power it up but it's a beast :)
I always loved those beastly widescreen HD CRT TVs by Sony - particularly the ones with the noticeable Trinitron curve in them. Early Hi-Vision content really fascinates me because the quality doesn't match up with your expectations of what that time period looked like. From time to time Hi-Vision broadcasts from the early days are uploaded to YouTube - particularly by this guy: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/kinnsyachi2012." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/user/kinnsyachi2012.</a> I actually saw a video uploaded by someone else which was a Hi-Vision broadcast of the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games opening ceremony and it looked absolutely incredible (all of it was in HD, including the funky 3D intro graphics), but I think it got taken down by the IOC. Wish I'd saved it. Thanks for the vid, looking forward to part 2!
Wow! What a fantastic first instalment of your Laserdisc HD journey. Your dedication to this has to be admired, although your wallet is much much lighter now. One happy Patreon here. Thanks Matt
In all honesty it did make me feel a bit sick when I added up how much I spent on this. However on the other hand it was something worth doing, not everything is about money. I'll just consider this one to be a loss-leader.
As always, I am in awe of the time trouble and money you expend to make these wonderful videos! That look remarkably like a CX logo in the bottom left of the display panel on the front of the player you are showing - but that wouldn't make any sense - would it? Waiting in eager anticipation for part 2....
It is CX - CX was used in the analog soundtracks on Laserdiscs and CEDs.
Mark from Australia here. I support your decision to break this into two segments of around 20 minutes each. As a viewer, it makes it more manageable. Fascinating history of HD TV, btw.
I’m glad you said that. Over the years I’ve come to realise that 20 mins is really a maximum that I should aim at for one video. Many people who see a 40 minute video running time, will either skip it because it’s too much of an investment of their time or they might perhaps save it for later, but then forget about it when something else pops into their feed. Splitting it in two also helped me out immensely because part one scrambled my brain.
Brilliant. I'd vaguely heard of the MUSE system, but had no idea there was early HD stuff available on Laserdiscs - it's almost an Antikythera Mechanism of HD video. Once again, thanks for this info - and looking forwards to part two!
Interesting -as all of your videos- I was a bit shocked by the cost of theese things. However, I thank you for supplying me with the fact that "JVC" stands for "Victory Company of Japan". I am amazed that you -a couple of times- managed to get someone to tinker with such ancient stuff, to repair/upgrade it. And when was that garage sale of all of your stuff, again?:-) Man, your attic should collapse any minute now. I would consider going over to the U.K. from Sweden for a bargain:-) Thanks, Matt.
I’m so glad our Patreon support allows you to make these videos with technology that is beyond our normal reach. Fascinating information!
Thanks Mat!! Great video as always, looking forward to the next one :)
Thanks Matt - this is truly fascinating. Never encountered this format in the US. Sometimes I wonder how Sony has avoided bankruptcy, when you add up all the innovative formats they introduced, which failed in the marketplace: Betavision cameras and the Hi8 system come immediately to mind, and there are others. I'm gonna check my inbox Saturday morning for part two of the HD-LD story!
Psyched for part two, this was already super enlightening
Mat, I have to say that I continue to enjoy your videos and the progression that you have made in presenting and polishing. Thanks for doing what you do.
Many thanks. I feel that these videos aren't amongst my best, but I did try. Sometimes the planets align, sometimes they're just a bit out.
Great video, can’t wait to see part 2! Breaks my heart that I have a few thousand dollars of LDs that I’ll never watch again because I have Blu Ray versions now :|. Can’t bear to recycle them.
Neat. I used to collect Laserdisc back in the 1990s and even I've never heard of this format.
I remember you mentioning laserdisc before. It was something that I just couldn’t afford at the time. However now, I’m pretty happy that I never ended up so spending my money on it. Although for a while in the late nineties and early noughties I did go all-in on DVD and now have hundreds of movies in a format that now looks far less than impressive on my 65” 4K TV. 1080p is pretty much a minimum for me now.
Techmoan is one of the only channels where I watch the credits every time. There are some really great shots of amazing tech in there.
Thanks, perhaps I should update it and add in a HD LD shot too.
Yay. I've been waiting for a video like this for years. I just have to say, I'm a bit disapointed that you didn't pick up any of the virtual fishtank or other scenic discs. Since those would have been made on native HiVision video equipment rather than transfered from film with early 90s telecine machines, those may be where the best quality examples are.
Should change the channel to TechGeek or TechNerd... love it! And nice teaser by the way. Keep up the good work
Excellent work here - love this type of stuff. If you were willing to send to the states I'm relatively sure my brother could trace and repair the player -- he's as near an electronic genius as I've ever met. First thing to look at closely is any of the capacitors -- they tend to be the first thing to fail. Just a guess w/out knowing more though...I'm betting the caps were failing in your original power supply.
Thanks for all your support over the years.
Muse! I have always wanted a player
I'm fascinated, but the cliffhanger of seeing what the video looks like is killing meeeee. I work professionally with a lot of older content from Japan, and when we get HD masters, they many times have a distinctly analog look to them. I wonder how much content was made/remastered in HD in anticipation of Hi-Vision taking off, only to collect dust on a shelf until a decade later.
I’ll get part 2 out on Saturday morning.
Wow is that a solid block of copper on the board?
Maybe I should melt it down. I think it’s some kind of shield.
In the late 80s when I was working as an engineer (sound) at HTV we had a demo day by Sony of their new HD analogue system at our studios in Cardiff. The kit was huge and experimental but provided a really good image. Forward to the early 90s and I worked with the UK NHK outside broadcast unit to make demonstration content for this format. It used a very fast running 2" tape for capture and was totally impractical. The results were great but had virtually no market here. At least I got paid.
Thanks for sharing that. I guess that’s similar to how they shot the New York In HD in 1993 footage. I also now feel that putting ‘at least I got paid’ on the end of any story has great merit.
I had no idea about this format = another top Techmoan vid Mat. Looking forward to part 2. It’s amazing how much tech the Japanese put out to market without commercial success. Could Techmoan 2038 have equivalents like crowdfunding products and MQA?
Don´ t worry Techmoan. We will continue to donate on Patreon. This video must have used up most of the donation so far, but it is so cool, that You actually got this machine on Your show. Looking forward to part 2. Thanks. :-)
There’s no way I’d have attempted this without Patreon. If a video costs over £300 to make - it usually makes a loss when it comes to YouTube revenue.
Grr, I'm now in the middle of a two-parter from both you and RMC. Guess I'll have to be a bit more patient. Is the machine really beyond repair now? You briefly mentioned it broke again at the start of the video.
I'm going to ask my guy if he could have a look at it again . But considering what's inside it - my confidence in him finding a fix is not high.
I bought my HD-DVD player in 2006, mainly because the players were a bit cheaper and early blu-ray releases, in particular the Fifth Element, were so bad and poorly done I bought the hype that HD-DVD was the better technology. Oh and to show what an dumbass I am when choosing my formats my HD-DVD player was bought to replace my D-VHS player. Also in my younger years I bought a Sega CD and 32x, so my poor choices go back quite a ways.
What software did you use for those timeline visuals? I really like the old-school look. Seriously though, I actually love the physical visual, works really nicely with your videos.
Sweet! Do you have a Hi-vision W-VHS vcr on order too now lol
If there was a big back catalog of W-VHS movies available, I'd have gone for it a while back. However there were just a few demo tapes made. Plus there's nothing less reliable than an old video recorder. Even a British Leyland car would be more likely to work.
I was born and in Florida and we lived in a few places without air conditioning and my elementary school remarkably did not have air conditioning, but geez, that was in the 80s, now I think it's a human rights violation not to have air going 24/7 for basically 350 days a year.
I doubt you've got it in your garage though.
I hope the story at some point concludes with you getting the player fixed and re-sold to recoup a good bit of your costs.
That might have to be a part 3 at some point.
I've never been so happy to be a patreon patron. Documenting the spending of foolish amounts of money is a genre I adore in tech videos. Also, yay for Japanese engineering of first gen 90s technology. The inside of that device looks like a NIGHTMARE. I half expected to see a neon gas laser or an entire wall of discrete logic made out of surface mount components.
This segment is exactly why Techmoan is my favorite channel on YouTube. Great job and I can't wait for part 2! Old Tech4EVA!
This is great to see on Techmoan! Never seen a Hi-Vision player or disc but at the costs involved it unsurprising, only for the uber-rich back in the day. Can't wait to see the next episode!
I have an idea for a video, something you have touched on, but not really done in depth I don't think. Many audio high end enthusiasts are using the old Sony BetaHifi decks from the mid to late 1980's as an alternative to reel to reel, as the fidelity is as good or better, and it's a bit easier to deal with. - I have had a Sony BetaHifi since 1986, and I have never used it for video, but as a super high end tape deck - even the crazy price legendary Nakamichi Dragon cassette decks that were the dream of audiophiles everywhere back in the day, were not anywhere near the fidelity, S/N ratio and dynamic range of these decks. Only 15 ips reel to reel even comes close! - And the timer feature, while intended for video timeshifting, makes recording your favorite radio program a breeze!
A lot of people have suggested similar things with HiFi VHS as well - but whenever I think about the visuals, there's not enough there to show. It would just be a video recorder with the record (or play) button lit. The audio would no doubt sound identical to the source over youtube .....I'm just not sure how I could make it into an interesting video. I have thought a lot about it over the years...but I just keep hitting a brick wall when it comes to showing anything on camera.
Really looking forward to Part 2 now :)
The first whiteboard session could have been a bit shorter if you had left out the audio parts (you get back to them in the second whiteboard session anyway). But I understand if you don't want to go back to the hot garage to record that again, especially not in a single take. I admire that a lot, by the way, that you did the whiteboard scenes without stuttering, hesitations or mistakes or "errrr's"! That makes it super smooth and easy to watch even if it's just a history lesson with text, not even logos or pictures. As always, thanks for posting! ;-) Can't wait for part 2!
I thought long and hard about taking out the audio dates - but they are there to put a very specific pin in the map on when Laserdisc became the Home Cinema format of choice. Without them it just looks like one long timeframe when laserdisc was king...but the addition of AC3 & DTS were really the point when it came back from a long sleep. If I took it out, it might make that segment 30 seconds shorter, but most people only watch 30-40% of each video so it's not like they don't already tune out when they lose interest....and you're right, I probably couldn't do it all again in one take.
"Cliff Hanger" is right! A very appropriate movie to have on the desk at the end. I'm one of the "Never heard of it" brigade, and I'm amazed at the timescales. That video was a tour de force, Mat. Can't wait for part deux. :)
LOL. "MOVIES onadiiiiiisc"
Heh, nice tease! I have lusted after those high end LD players...but I will have to live vicariously through these videos!
Worth every penny! Can't wait for part 2. Trying to write this in a way that doesn't come across as sarcastic but I really like how you used an actual whiteboard with pieces of paper. It may be tempting to use graphics but I really think it's a lot easier to follow along and understand when it's actual physical props that are manipulated. One of the things I also appreciate about watching the TV news here in Japan <a href="https://kotaku.com/cg-japanese-tv-news-doesnt-need-cg-472945045" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://kotaku.com/cg-japanese-tv-news-doesnt-need-cg-472945045</a>
I was originally going to do that section with graphics (that no doubt would have been a bit more accurate and put MUSE LD at the 1993 rather than the 1991 position on the timeline). However it gets very dry just watching video and graphics all the time - even though it’s the same information I think that seeing someone do it ‘live’ breaks things up a bit...makes it more personal.
The video even featured a cliffhanger at the end 😂 - looking forward to part 2
I’m glad you spotted that. It was deliberate, but I thought it might be too subtle for anyone to notice.
Can we expect some HD captures of the content? (I greatly appreciate your time and effort in making the video, but I guess I can't help but be slightly let down when you shoot video of an HDTV video instead of a direct 30i/60p capture of the same material)
Yes there’s a good amount of captured footage that I’m really hoping doesn’t get flagged.
Aw yeah! Been waiting for this video for a while. Great job! :)
Awesome!!
Awesome!! I can’t wait to watch this. 🤓 I have always been interested in MUSE discs but due to the cost I’ve never allowed myself to even think about collecting them.
You are a very wise man. Hold onto that principle.