Recordable 'Laserdisc'
This will be the last video I put out before Christmas, although it might not be my last one of the year on Patreon.
I’ll be fulfilling the usual family obligations over the holiday period, but if I do find the time I’ll put together an extra patron-only video.
If you’ve been a patron for a few months you’ll be aware that earlier in the year I acquired a Recordable Laser Videodisc system - finally this is my video all about it.
I have to thank Dave and Ken here on Patreon who helped me fill out the gaps in my knowledge on this one. Without their input this video would be far less interesting.
As my next video will be out after Christmas, this is the time for me to wish everyone here a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Comments (84)
Always a pleasure to watch your videos. I really appreciate the patience and care you put into each one. I’d never have figured out how to use this thing, but you cracked the code.😊 Very interesting. Thank you.
https://youtu.be/EwB14kIEI2A?t=1033 Was watching this documentary about the Luxor in Las Vegas and saw this!
That’s a nice co-incidence. I think I may have seen that show at the Luxor too when I stayed there. It was feeling a bit run down by then though.
This technology seems similar to the video disk technology used in the movie Rising Sun. It came out in 1993 so would have been more or less contemporary. But it used CD sized disks. Of course, it could also just have been movie magic and just dressed up CD players :)
Another fascinating video, thank you for that! :) In a sort of unrelated matter, I came across a site from the National Archive of Sweden, were they ask the public for different playback devices for unusual media formats. Of course I thought of you first! Could you take a look at the picture of different products they're looking for and see if you have anything to help them with? https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Friksarkivet.se%2Fradda-kulturarvet That would be really sweet of you! If you don't have anything related to what they're looking for, do you know of anyone else you could direct my question to? This is for a great cause, as I think we both could agree it's very important to digitise our archives, so it won't be lost to our descendants. Thanks in advance and happy new year!
There's nothing I could send them - but a lot of the things they are looking for are really common - so I'd imagine quiet a few people more locally could easily help them out. I really don't know of anyone though - I'm not well connected. I know a couple of people who could transfer most things they had to digital files though - so perhaps they are looking at this from the wrong direction. Rather than trying to find rare and unreliable equipment to play one or two tapes - just send the tapes to someone who is set up to do it professionally.
Any chance you want to get rid of the used disk? I LOVE caddy based media and have a little collection forming. Or any idea what to search for on eBay to get one of my own?
Sorry, I’ve already promised the various components to two different people that I’ve had dealings with before.
Really interesting video, thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope you have a good Christmas. :)
That was pretty neat. 😃
Great as always. This must have taken some time, but a very interesting dive into this history I didn't know existed.
GAHH. And now I _must_ have one of those enormous CAVdisc cartridges (or the huge MD cart you mention later in the video).
Great topic! I love these technologies that have (as you pointed out) no reason at all to exist anymore, but were important stepping stones (obviously all disc burners have this as an ancestor). Reminds me of the old James Burke show "Connections", except these links in the chain didn't stick around.
Love it, great video. Having worked in and around video, that sort of technology fascinates me. I never used one of those but the design is so typically Sony Broadcast that it jogs lots of memories. I am really glad to see it will be used. Good to see the hours meter is so low. Enjoy the break; we'll see you again in 2020. SB.
Great video Mat, I loved it. And thanks for a whole year of them, Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.
Although I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in the area of audio/video, I never knew about this product! Techmoan never ceases to amaze me with the content, great job! Wishing you all a Merry Christmas. Looking forward to another interesting year and Techmoan hitting 1 million subs!!
Thanks. Maybe I should retire when I get to a million subs. Then again a million just isn’t what it used to be.
I have a Sony CDW-900E, which is a WORM CD burner. Mine was also made in 1993, as far as I know it still works. I think I even burned a cd with it once (the WORM device type makes it difficult). it has the smoothest tray I've ever seen on an optical drive.
If you're going to bin the unit now that the video is done, maybe check with DextersLab2013 if he'd want it for a teardown.
I know a chap who wants it - and would keep it working, so it’s probably going to him. I wouldn’t like the idea of someone tearing it apart when it’s still functional.
Merry Christmas... Thanks for all your hard work!!
I seem to have accidentally erased my comment... anyway I did some digging and that hour meter is actually a “Mercury Coulometer” which basically uses electroplating to measure the *quantity of electricity* that goes through it. Atoms from the right bead of mercury get carried to the left, “moving” the gap. Here’s a very interesting video about these devices: https://youtu.be/Cxj399LuX1M And the Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_coulometer
Thanks for that - I know Ben on Applied Science, so it’s always good to see one of his explanations. I’ll add that Info into the link.
I'm an outlier cause i watched it since I love your work and thoroughly appreciate every bit you create. :)
Quite an honor for the Patrons to get listed on a record-able CRV disc. I think that goes above and beyond the advertised benefits.
The text scroll was added in editing - it’s just the background that’s running off the disc. That way I could always re-use the video again.
I've finally gotten around to watching it, Mat. Another Techmoan classic, thanks. I can't be alone, surely, in experiencing a slight, curious, pang of desire-to-buy when seeing these dinosaur systems that cost gazillions back in the day, despite having no modern use for, space for or even (to be honest) actual want for it. I think, maybe, it's having grown up through the microcomputer boom of the 1980s, these things still look like something from The Future.
Like my CED player, which worked for about a week before packing up, despite being listed as "fully working". I don't have the heart to throw it out. It's a talking point. I'm probably the only person in a fifty mile radius with one.
Very interesting video indeed. Really enjoyed it. Many thanks and merry Xmas to all !
That giant save icon is comical! Also love the little scifi storyline you had going. It's exactly what I was thinking when I saw that. Merry Christmas, take some time off and enjoy the family!
The flash frame thing reminds me of the Datablast segment from Bad Influence! The BBC1 globe from before that one used its own bespoke device... https://625.uk.com/tv_logos/bbc1_85.htm
The early BBC globes influenced my Reel-to-Reel intro. There’s something about a physical effect that for me adds a lot of character compared to something generated in a computer.
Since I got my LD player in 96 I have wanted to see something on LD recordable discs
Well I’m glad I could assist...better late than never.
Always fun to see old tech and formats I’ve never heard of. I think I’ll take a pass on buying one of these for myself, thank you. Merry Christmas, Mat.
I would say that's definitely a nice Christmas special :-) A few remarks: - I worked at a company that made CD-i productions, and when I started working there in 1994, they had two of the first CD-R recorders and blank CD-R's were stupid-expensive: about $30 per disc I think. So yes that disc you have there was probably much more expensive. - 7:55 That hours-of-operation meter works with a bar of mercury (I think it's mercury) that grows longer over time. The bar is all the way to the right, so this recorder has more than 130,000 hours on it. The measurement is off the scale so I don't know how reliable that is, but 130,000 hours is almost 15 years of being powered on continuously. The bubble is meaningless and is probably a defect; maybe it happened because it was used so long that the mercury stretched too much to hold together. That doesn't mean it was actually working that many hours, it was probably just powered on for that long. - That Philips monitor looks a lot like the CM8833 that I had in those days. It's probably the same chassis but with different details, and it was one of the most popular monitors ever. I think it can display 50Hz as well as 60Hz video (though I don't know if it has an NTSC composite decoder). I see yours (like mine) has the round DIN TTL RGB input that can be used with CGA adapters in PC's. And it takes RGB over SCART of course. Even if you're going to throw away the disc recorders, it might be a good idea to hang on to that monitor. Thanks for posting, and Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the information. I thought I was looking at a red line on the left of the hours meter. I’ll add a correction into the video description text box. As far as the monitor goes - well that’s a bit of a story, perhaps one for the next update.
Very good and instructive video. I always enjoy this videos about forgotten video formats :)
Seeing that green grass outside your conservatory window makes me a little envious as I get ready to remove snow from my roof at the currently "warm" temperature of 0C/32F here in Minnesota USA (birthplace of James Hong btw) while you there at a higher latitude in the UK enjoy all the warmth we here in North America send you via the Gulf Stream. At least Mat pays us back with the videos he sends us. ;)
It’s the rain that keeps things green. There’s always a downside.
What a fantastic video. Happy holidays!!!
Very interesting, I don't get tired of seeing this tech that is usually hidden from us. I also don't tire of seeing analogue video without static as I never saw that growing up. The vase over your left shoulder has given me a thirst for a pint so I think it's time to get a drink, have a great Christmas!
That is a fake pint of beer bought from a prop company. I had ideas about ‘the Moans’ having scenes set in a pub.
Is there any chance that you might upload those museum photos as you sometimes do with camera reviews--I found those short glimpses of them very interesting. Anyway I had a good laugh at your reference to the Sci-Fi movie trope.
I don’t think I can - I’m a little bit concerned about showing them in this video in case I’m showing something I shouldn’t - so better not to push it. I have captured the whole disc though - just in case the museum would like a copy.
Wow!!! What a Christmas special! I’d heard that these things existed from a friend who worked in local TV news in the early 2000s. They’d intrigued me, and the advantages of having a video playback device for video elements that get re-used daily with no wear and drop-outs like tape were immediately obvious to me. But I’d never actually seen one of these — just a little bit before my time. Thank you for finally satiating my curiosity.
'not sure if this counts as a Christmas special'?! Techmoan makes a dead format video is event television (or 'event YouTube')!
I did save this one for Christmas as I wanted to do something a bit special. It’s not everyday I get to show a device that once cost the same as a decent car. I’m not sure it’s very Christmassy (is that a word...it is now) - but I’m happy it all worked out.
in the early 90s, I used a similar system to record my productions in computer graphics, one frame at a time. It was not possible to play a video in real time from the computer, it had to be recorded one frame at a time, to then be played. Here an example of what i made for Nintendo Italia, recorded one frame at a time on a SONY BetacamSP. I couldn't afford the recordable laser disc. It would be great to have it to show in a video, how computer graphics were made in the 90s. https://youtu.be/4WuefL-he0U and Nintendo64 https://youtu.be/qkSg4dtzjUQ
I have to find one at some point. Merry Christmas
I wish to have a system like that to do some video for my Youtube channel, but i think is pretty rare to find, I never seen one for sale anywhere. :-(
If you hadn't mentioned that the end credits would be coming from the CR-V player, I bet most people wouldn't have noticed!
Yes the 28% of people who view on a phone might well not spot any difference.
https://youtu.be/UpqknwKbvDE
£15?! That is lucky. Right now I can't find one of these for less than $2,700... And I'm mostly interested because the top component seems like a more versatile universal video format transcoder than what I can find nowadays.
Oh, I made a small error...it was £25. https://picclick.co.uk/Sony-LVR-6000-LVS-6000-Lazer-disc-recorder-332799452411.html The ‘buyer collects’ might have put people off. Just out of interest, what kind of thing would you be able to use the processor for?
Wow. What a truly fantastic video. So many amazing little details. The part where you explained how they did the BBC news room blew my mind. I remember watching that and thinking "I wonder how they got that glass monolith to look so good against the studio. To find out that none of the studio was there has kind of broken my perception of UK television during the 90's. I bet there is some amazing lost media out there recorded on recordable laserdisc somewhere just waiting to be discovered.
That bit is all thanks to Dave here on Patreon. (I'm not giving out surnames any more after the hoo-ha the other month with ‘John Smith’). It's really pretty groundbreaking stuff, nowadays virtual studios are run of the mill, but for the time it was really very clever.
I actually got goosebumps when the outro started playing knowing it was playing off the CRV. Great one as always Mat!
Have a Merry Christmas as well!
I was dying at your description of the sci fi movie with the flashing images, you are dead on. Should have had the muppets reenact that. Watching the outro and knowing it came from a recordable laserdisc and getting some kind of thrill as a result shows my nerd level is holding strong if not increasing. There is something noble about finding some small use for old technology and immortalizing it. The fact that there was also some small disassembly and troubleshooting in this video gives it an A+ in my book. Merry Christmas to you and your family my friend!
The puppets would definitely have acted it out better, I was a bit up against the wall on this one getting it finished in time.
I too had flashbacks to movies where an AI would sift through all of mankind's knowledge before deciding that we weren't responsible enough to run Earth. (Or the scene from Colossus: The Forbin Project where the US and Soviet supercomputers start conversing through math.) Merry Christmas!
I saw Colossus: TFP recently. I was interested to see James Hong in a minor role. It got me thinking how old he must be now. Turns out he's 90 - and still doing loads of work. He must be one of the oldest regularly working actors in Hollywood since Eli Wallach has passed.
This video was particularly interesting to me. I'd always wondered how TV stations could do things live with overlays and replays in real time, but never put much thought to it. When you explained the uses the BBC had it sort of answered question I'd never asked. So I'm pretty pleased to see this machine in action. Congratulations on your 2019 videos, and here's hoping to a successful 2020 for you and the channel.
At first I thought that Mat had accidentally been shrunk, when he was holding up a laser disk caddy that looked so much like a 3.5 inch floppy disk. It was only when I realised that his voice hadn't suddenly jumped up an octave that knew that all was well.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too and thank you for the fantastic videos of this past year.
That table very stable or those devises not so heavy? Sure look heavy
They're very heavy - the table was at its limits. You can see the wobble every time I put a disc in. Although I decided it was a bit less likely to collapse than my usual counter - that would have been ripped off the wall. So that's why I relocated for this video.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you, too. Thanks for all your efforts. I watch, and will never miss, your videos. Great job!
Superb video and glad you got the machine going!
That thing looks like a huge version of a 3.5” floppy disk! 😋
Usually I don't comment until I actually watch the video, but... Happy Christmas Mat.
I’m trying to imagine the excitement when these chunky bits of kit arrived in a studio, probably with an unhappy looking accountant in the background. I’m guessing you can do all it does and more now on an iPad (other tablets are available) smaller than the disk itself - I love tech. Happy Christmas Mat.
Yes I look at my late 1990s DVD collection with regret - wondering why I spent so much money at the time on SD video of films I'll never watch again. But this puts it all in perspective.
Very impressive setup indeed. If only my house wasn‘t already cramped with DAT‘s, Open Reels, Minidisc-recorders, Tapedecks and turntables. 🤣 Have a nice christmas, Mat.
That setup is enormous! Luckily there was no wind when you were holding that little caddy you could have been carried away. Is Mrs Techmoan still talking to you, or do you have to sleep in the garden now? ;-) Merry Christmas to you too!
She's barely talking to me - but that's normal. This thing isn't staying in the house though, it's the second most useless giant lump of a thing in here.
Very nice video, as always! This solves another mystery of mine: The only time I ever saw a laserdisc in action was in the early nineties, when in high school we made a trip to a larger town with a special library where students could inform themselves about careers and professions. There I watched a 10 minute or so video from laserdisc about computer scientists trying to recover a client's database. I always wondered how they could have a laserdisc for such a niche application. That was probably an RLV then.
More than likely.
Very nice video. Merry Christmas!
Make sure you have a merry Xmas, for X's sake!
Merry Christmas!