1 00:00:00,140 --> 00:00:01,140 Laserdisc. 2 00:00:01,140 --> 00:00:05,319 A product with an unknown purpose that was both a few years too late and way too far 3 00:00:05,319 --> 00:00:06,589 ahead of its time. 4 00:00:06,589 --> 00:00:10,210 That’ll make more sense later on, but I want to begin this exploration of the format 5 00:00:10,210 --> 00:00:13,110 with my personal astonishment when learning of it. 6 00:00:13,110 --> 00:00:17,350 Being a child of the nineties, I fondly remember our first DVD player. 7 00:00:17,350 --> 00:00:21,550 It was amazing, you could freeze frame in perfect clarity, search by chapter, change 8 00:00:21,550 --> 00:00:25,080 the soundtrack, and enjoy vastly superior picture quality over VHS. 9 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:27,519 Oh, and you didn’t have to rewind. 10 00:00:27,519 --> 00:00:32,189 It really was the coolest thing, and I remember the entirety of my fourth grade class considering 11 00:00:32,189 --> 00:00:37,100 our teacher a hero for buying a DVD player so we could watch Schoolhouse Rock. 12 00:00:37,100 --> 00:00:40,510 Fourth grade was also when I learned what a Laserdisc was. 13 00:00:40,510 --> 00:00:44,260 Our class took a trip to the school library to watch a laserdisc teaching us about being 14 00:00:44,260 --> 00:00:46,289 safe around electricity. 15 00:00:46,289 --> 00:00:52,340 I fully expected “Laserdisc” to be a weird non-specific way to refer to a DVD, and was 16 00:00:52,340 --> 00:00:57,390 really surprised when the librarian grabbed this absolutely giant disc from a box and 17 00:00:57,390 --> 00:00:59,980 put it in this weird machine to play it. 18 00:00:59,980 --> 00:01:03,460 Somehow that memory stuck with me, and in seventh grade I researched what Laserdisc 19 00:01:03,460 --> 00:01:05,320 actually was. 20 00:01:05,320 --> 00:01:07,150 And boy was I surprised. 21 00:01:07,150 --> 00:01:11,299 Laserdisc was THE first optical disc format, providing high resolution analog video, with 22 00:01:11,299 --> 00:01:14,170 nearly all the features of my beloved DVD. 23 00:01:14,170 --> 00:01:17,860 You had chapter search, you had multiple audio tracks, you had the better picture, you had 24 00:01:17,860 --> 00:01:20,770 trick play features on some discs, and more. 25 00:01:20,770 --> 00:01:24,030 And you had this starting from 1978! 26 00:01:24,030 --> 00:01:25,939 Why hadn’t I heard about Laserdisc before? 27 00:01:25,939 --> 00:01:27,740 Why weren’t they more popular? 28 00:01:27,740 --> 00:01:31,520 To find out, we need to go back in time to when it was released. 29 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:35,330 Laserdisc was the culmination of the work of many people and companies, with the earliest 30 00:01:35,330 --> 00:01:39,540 work being credited to David Paul Gregg in 1958. 31 00:01:39,580 --> 00:01:40,940 Maybe. 32 00:01:40,940 --> 00:01:44,460 I’m gonna go on a slight tangent here and address some apparent patent and date confusion 33 00:01:44,469 --> 00:01:48,299 on Wikipedia’s part that seems to have migrated elsewhere. 34 00:01:48,299 --> 00:01:52,409 Although 1958 is referenced as the year Gregg invented it pretty much on any site talking 35 00:01:52,409 --> 00:01:57,160 about Laserdisc, there are weird inconsistencies in many places. 36 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,439 For example, The Wikipedia entry for Optical Recording 37 00:02:00,439 --> 00:02:05,630 again tells us Gregg invented a transparent video disc in 1958, and that it was patented 38 00:02:05,630 --> 00:02:09,509 in 1961 and 1990, bizarrely. 39 00:02:09,509 --> 00:02:14,840 Now when you scroll down to the actual patent citations, the years right there are 1969 40 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:16,690 and 1970. 41 00:02:16,690 --> 00:02:17,690 Hmm. 42 00:02:17,690 --> 00:02:22,489 And the filing date of the videodisc patent was 1967, but that’s good six years off 43 00:02:22,489 --> 00:02:24,120 from 1961. 44 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:28,890 The rather sparse article on Gregg himself references a completely different patent. 45 00:02:28,890 --> 00:02:34,439 This article says Gregg was “inspired to” create the disc in 1958, so that’s different, 46 00:02:34,439 --> 00:02:38,489 and the referenced patent is the earliest one we’ve yet seen, being filed in 1962 47 00:02:38,489 --> 00:02:41,830 (though it’s referenced in the article as 1961). 48 00:02:41,830 --> 00:02:45,950 But further muddying the waters, that patent wasn’t too specific on what he intended 49 00:02:45,950 --> 00:02:48,150 his technology to be for. 50 00:02:48,150 --> 00:02:53,610 Though Wikipedia references US patent 3350503 as being for a “videodisk”, there’s 51 00:02:53,610 --> 00:02:59,370 nothing in that patent that exclusively defines it either as being for video or indeed a disc. 52 00:02:59,370 --> 00:03:03,660 That patent mainly describes his work using an electron beam and a medium which can modulate 53 00:03:03,660 --> 00:03:08,870 a signal by inhibiting secondary emission from that beam as a new means of media storage, 54 00:03:08,870 --> 00:03:13,299 different from the then conventional use of ferrous particles in magnetic tape. 55 00:03:13,299 --> 00:03:17,130 While video reproduction does seem to be the main goal of this system, the patent drawing 56 00:03:17,130 --> 00:03:20,980 and explanation of operation applies this encoding technique to a tape. 57 00:03:20,980 --> 00:03:26,099 However, the patent does discuss the possibility of a disc using this new recording technique, 58 00:03:26,099 --> 00:03:27,830 and perhaps that’s why it’s referenced. 59 00:03:27,830 --> 00:03:32,260 In any case, although this patent doesn’t really relate to Laserdisc that closely, the 60 00:03:32,260 --> 00:03:36,750 patent’s main point was that using an electron beam as a scanning method could store information 61 00:03:36,750 --> 00:03:39,020 more densely than magnetic tape. 62 00:03:39,020 --> 00:03:43,080 It seems likely this revelation led Gregg to his next patent, which is the one we really 63 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:44,170 want to see. 64 00:03:44,170 --> 00:03:50,519 US Patent 3430966, filed just over 5 years later in April of 1967, is the one we really 65 00:03:50,519 --> 00:03:52,010 need to talk about. 66 00:03:52,010 --> 00:03:56,319 This patent describes a transparent disc which reproduces video or other signals by modulating 67 00:03:56,319 --> 00:03:58,620 the strength of a light beam shining through it. 68 00:03:58,620 --> 00:04:00,329 That’s more like it. 69 00:04:00,329 --> 00:04:04,060 Gregg’s concept from this patent is nearly exactly what Laserdisc does. 70 00:04:04,060 --> 00:04:08,599 I know patent dates can be confusing, particularly with the differences between priority date, 71 00:04:08,599 --> 00:04:12,950 filing date, and actual publication, but there seems to be some very questionable info floating 72 00:04:12,950 --> 00:04:15,010 around being regarded as fact. 73 00:04:15,010 --> 00:04:19,640 It seems the 1958 date comes from Gregg’s own words, and I did find a source courtesy 74 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:23,330 of the source material from the Today I Found Out article accompanying their recent video 75 00:04:23,330 --> 00:04:28,020 on this subject that suggests as much--links are in description for a lot of this. 76 00:04:28,020 --> 00:04:32,320 In short, Gregg’s video disc used a light source shining through it to recreate a signal. 77 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:33,660 To quote the patent, 78 00:05:01,950 --> 00:05:05,230 Now a funny little fact that I’d like to throw in here is that a somewhat similar system 79 00:05:05,230 --> 00:05:09,550 had been in place for audio signals on motion picture film for decades. 80 00:05:09,550 --> 00:05:14,170 Lee De Forest, that’s right, the radio guy, had developed a sound-on-film system that 81 00:05:14,170 --> 00:05:17,280 first came to commercial use in 1923. 82 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:22,530 In this system the sound signal is photographically etched on the film, and a light source through 83 00:05:22,530 --> 00:05:26,940 it with a sensor on the other side, can reproduce honest-to-goodness sound. 84 00:05:26,940 --> 00:05:31,770 This very much is the sound waveform with a tiny sliver of light projected through it, 85 00:05:31,770 --> 00:05:36,470 and the light sensor on the other side will produce an output which can drive a loudspeaker. 86 00:05:36,470 --> 00:05:41,130 And in the ultimate gesture of backward compatibility, later digital sound formats would squeeze 87 00:05:41,130 --> 00:05:45,560 their soundtracks between the sprocket holes in the case of Dolby Digital sound and in 88 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:50,180 the tiny space to the left of the sprocket holes for DTS Digital Audio, still leaving 89 00:05:50,180 --> 00:05:54,050 room for a stereo analog optical track where it always had been. 90 00:05:54,050 --> 00:05:58,100 Now this isn’t to say that Gregg’s work was a rip-off of sound-on-film technologies. 91 00:05:58,100 --> 00:05:59,950 Not even slightly. 92 00:05:59,950 --> 00:06:03,630 Sound-on-film generally used the width of the track to determine amplitude, and its 93 00:06:03,630 --> 00:06:06,200 information density was pretty poor. 94 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:10,780 By confining a light beam to a single spot, a very fine spiral groove could be made, which 95 00:06:10,780 --> 00:06:12,560 is much more space efficient. 96 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:16,860 Gregg’s patent image is similar to the pits and lands system that would be incorporated 97 00:06:16,860 --> 00:06:18,350 into Laserdisc. 98 00:06:18,350 --> 00:06:21,360 The light was either completely blocked or completely unobscured. 99 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:26,210 There were no grey areas, so a half-strength signal would be recorded with a section repeatedly 100 00:06:26,210 --> 00:06:31,550 going high-low-high-low, almost like an analog application of pulse-width modulation. 101 00:06:31,550 --> 00:06:36,430 In fact, his patent states “optical recordings representative of video signals formed on 102 00:06:36,430 --> 00:06:41,630 at least one side of said record member in the form of an intermittent opaque deposit...said 103 00:06:41,630 --> 00:06:46,330 opaque deposit selectively interrupting the transparency of said transparent material 104 00:06:46,330 --> 00:06:48,380 along said track”. 105 00:06:48,380 --> 00:06:49,900 Patent language is fun. 106 00:06:49,900 --> 00:06:54,610 MCA, the Music Corporation of America, bought Gregg’s patents in 1968. 107 00:06:54,610 --> 00:06:59,350 MCA owned the largest collection of motion pictures at the time, and saw this system 108 00:06:59,350 --> 00:07:02,870 as a way to potentially sell movies for home use. 109 00:07:02,870 --> 00:07:07,380 The electronics company Philips was simultaneously developing their own system which used a reflective 110 00:07:07,380 --> 00:07:08,410 disc. 111 00:07:08,410 --> 00:07:12,220 Philips and MCA would team up to produce the first commercially produced system, which 112 00:07:12,220 --> 00:07:13,590 was called… 113 00:07:13,590 --> 00:07:14,590 Discovision. 114 00:07:14,590 --> 00:07:17,080 We’ll need a moment to process that. 115 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:22,180 I..I mean it’s clever, Disc-o-vision, but they went all out on the Disco thing. 116 00:07:22,180 --> 00:07:27,140 The original disc jackets featured the movie poster behind a V-neck Disco suit. 117 00:07:27,140 --> 00:07:28,140 Ugh. 118 00:07:28,140 --> 00:07:31,760 Discovision was released in one test market, the metro area of Atlanta, Georgia, at the 119 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:33,600 tail end of 1978. 120 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,570 It would slowly creep out to the rest of the country, but it had a troubled history from 121 00:07:37,570 --> 00:07:38,940 the very beginning. 122 00:07:38,940 --> 00:07:42,741 The MCA-Philips partnership didn’t last, in part due to production issues that we’ll 123 00:07:42,741 --> 00:07:47,840 look at later, and Pioneer of Japan bought the rights to the format, mercifully renaming 124 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:49,040 it Laservision. 125 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:50,040 Not Laserdisc? 126 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:51,040 You ask? 127 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:54,790 Well, Laservision referred to the format’s standard, with all discs and players bearing 128 00:07:54,790 --> 00:07:58,390 this mark (similar to the Compact Disc logo). 129 00:07:58,390 --> 00:08:02,610 LaserDisc was technically Pioneer’s brand name, with any discs or players featuring 130 00:08:02,610 --> 00:08:06,480 the LaserDisc logo being manufactured exclusively by Pioneer. 131 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:10,860 However, the LaserDisc name quickly became a catch-all term for the format, and so it 132 00:08:10,860 --> 00:08:13,630 was nearly universally referred to as Laserdisc. 133 00:08:13,630 --> 00:08:18,770 But you wouldn’t find Pioneer’s classic beam-split logo anywhere but on their machines. 134 00:08:18,770 --> 00:08:21,250 Laserdisc improved upon Gregg’s work in two ways. 135 00:08:21,250 --> 00:08:23,290 First was the reflective nature of the discs. 136 00:08:23,290 --> 00:08:27,370 The most impactful thing this allowed was a double sided disc, although Greg’s patent 137 00:08:27,370 --> 00:08:31,470 did suggest a double sided transparent disc would be possible via changing the the focal 138 00:08:31,470 --> 00:08:35,330 point of the projected light beam, sorta like Dual-Layer DVDs. 139 00:08:35,330 --> 00:08:39,570 But Gregg hadn’t yet come upon the laser concept, probably because lasers were brand 140 00:08:39,570 --> 00:08:43,740 new experimental technology at the time he filed his patent, and this new approach dramatically 141 00:08:43,740 --> 00:08:48,230 increased the density of the recording because a laser can be focused down to a tiny tiny 142 00:08:48,230 --> 00:08:49,230 spot. 143 00:08:49,230 --> 00:08:52,820 Also a minor change that would remain in place for all optical formats going forward was 144 00:08:52,820 --> 00:08:57,080 the decision to read the disc from the inside out, unlike conventional records of the time. 145 00:08:57,080 --> 00:09:00,560 A Laserdisc is read just like CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs. 146 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:04,500 A laser focuses a beam of light on a tiny spot, and this beam gets reflected back to 147 00:09:04,500 --> 00:09:07,310 an optical pickup, basically a light sensor. 148 00:09:07,310 --> 00:09:11,300 The surface of the disc is covered in pits that move the beam’s reflected path away 149 00:09:11,300 --> 00:09:13,010 from the light sensor. 150 00:09:13,010 --> 00:09:17,090 And these pits create a signal in the optical pickup by continually varying the amount of 151 00:09:17,090 --> 00:09:18,520 light it receives. 152 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:22,550 The odd thing about Laserdisc, though, is that the pits produce an analog signal mixed 153 00:09:22,550 --> 00:09:24,900 with a whole bunch of other stuff. 154 00:09:24,900 --> 00:09:29,830 Digital formats use the pits and lands, lands being flat spots, to encode either zeros or 155 00:09:29,830 --> 00:09:30,830 ones. 156 00:09:30,830 --> 00:09:34,900 That means there’s only two different results--either the beam is reflected into the sensor, or 157 00:09:34,900 --> 00:09:35,900 it isn’t. 158 00:09:35,900 --> 00:09:38,690 But the pits of a Laserdisc aren’t encoding zeroes and ones. 159 00:09:38,690 --> 00:09:43,240 This is one of those things that’s really mysterious about Laserdisc, particularly when 160 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:48,130 you keep in mind that this stream of pits and lands somehow encoded analog video, two 161 00:09:48,130 --> 00:09:52,370 discrete stereo audio tracks with 4 tracks total, indexing information to tell the player 162 00:09:52,370 --> 00:09:57,710 where it is along the disc, and later digital sound and even 5.1 channel surround sound. 163 00:09:57,710 --> 00:10:00,240 All in a single stream of pits and lands. 164 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:04,060 To roughly equate to analog terms, bright portions of the image will reflect the beam 165 00:10:04,060 --> 00:10:08,470 back to the sensor more often, and dark areas won’t reflect much of it at all. 166 00:10:08,470 --> 00:10:12,380 Don’t worry too much about what all is tucked into that signal besides the video, because 167 00:10:12,380 --> 00:10:14,190 your brain will start to hurt. 168 00:10:14,190 --> 00:10:17,272 But one of the coolest side-effects of this analog encoding scheme 169 00:10:17,272 --> 00:10:19,420 is that CAV discs, which are the standard play 170 00:10:19,420 --> 00:10:24,510 length of 30 minutes per side, allow you to see the structure of an analog video signal. 171 00:10:24,510 --> 00:10:28,360 Each of these blocks is an individual scan line, with the gap between them being the 172 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:30,000 horizontal blanking interval. 173 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:35,210 Twice along the disc you see this chunky portion, and this is part of the vertical blanking interval. 174 00:10:35,210 --> 00:10:39,031 The scan lines in the vertical blanking interval are all at the blacker than black pulse intensity, 175 00:10:39,031 --> 00:10:43,190 and that’s why it stands out so clearly from the rest of the disc. 176 00:10:43,190 --> 00:10:47,180 CAV laserdiscs complete one revolution per frame of video, which is why this pattern 177 00:10:47,180 --> 00:10:48,560 appears so nicely. 178 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:51,770 You can learn more about analog video through my playlist on Television. 179 00:10:51,770 --> 00:10:55,210 Now that you know the basics and early history of the format, it’s time to take a look 180 00:10:55,210 --> 00:10:57,850 at one of the earliest Laserdisc players. 181 00:10:57,850 --> 00:11:02,430 Ever since I found out about the format, I’ve been transfixed by this particular machine. 182 00:11:02,430 --> 00:11:06,740 The Wikipedia article shows a Magnavox player which just looks so radically different than 183 00:11:06,740 --> 00:11:11,030 any piece of A/V equipment out there, and I’ll link to a very strangely thought out 184 00:11:11,030 --> 00:11:15,020 promo video featuring Leonard Nimoy promoting this new product. 185 00:11:15,020 --> 00:11:17,880 Someday I would have to own one of these players. And now, 186 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:19,200 I do! 187 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:20,660 And, uh, it doesn’t work. 188 00:11:20,660 --> 00:11:21,660 Which really sucks. 189 00:11:21,660 --> 00:11:27,710 But these Magnavox players are notorious for being incredibly unreliable, and I never expected it to. 190 00:11:27,710 --> 00:11:31,470 It shows some signs of life, it will spin a disc and its laser works, and it can produce 191 00:11:31,470 --> 00:11:35,160 an very unstable black and white image, but that’s it. 192 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:37,060 It’s trying so hard! 193 00:11:37,060 --> 00:11:40,890 That’s OK, though, because what I really wanted it for was a display piece, and to 194 00:11:40,890 --> 00:11:42,760 make this series of videos. 195 00:11:42,760 --> 00:11:45,750 Perhaps I’m the only one with this opinion, but I think this machine is the one of the 196 00:11:45,750 --> 00:11:48,760 most beautiful pieces of A/V equipment ever produced. 197 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:52,590 I love how they styled the lid to make it obvious that this plays a disc. 198 00:11:52,590 --> 00:11:56,530 It’s simultaneously simple, elegant, industrial, and Starship-Enterprisey. 199 00:11:56,530 --> 00:12:01,510 And in a time period filled with simulated wood grain cabinets, its silver and black 200 00:12:01,510 --> 00:12:05,970 color scheme set it apart and also in my opinion makes it easier to appreciate today. 201 00:12:05,970 --> 00:12:09,920 I’m going to cheat and pretend that this works so you can see how to use it. 202 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:15,130 This machine is a top-loader, another plus in my book, and discs are placed inside like this. 203 00:12:15,130 --> 00:12:18,750 The discs, by the way, are 12 inches, or 30 centimeters, across. 204 00:12:18,750 --> 00:12:22,640 And MCA likely had a large part in that decision, as it meant the same packaging could be used 205 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:26,690 for Laserdiscs that was already in circulation for 12 inch vinyl records. 206 00:12:26,690 --> 00:12:31,630 When the lid is closed this machine automatically beings, trying anyway, to play the disc, and 207 00:12:31,630 --> 00:12:36,710 being an early player, it takes a little while for the nearly half pound disc to get up to 208 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:42,680 the almost unsettlingly fast 1,800 RPM, or 30 revolutions per second. 209 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:53,960 (Slow building whirring sound with increasing intensity) 210 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:00,480 The controls on the front all do what they say they do, and this machine enjoyed most 211 00:13:00,560 --> 00:13:05,160 of the high-end features Laserdisc had to offer, like video split into chapters, 212 00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:08,000 213 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:12,480 Freeze frame on CAV discs, which also allowed smooth slow motion and fast forward capability, 214 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:22,560 and instant random access to any part on the disc. 215 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:30,352 When you put this machine next to a VCR of similar vintage, 216 00:13:30,352 --> 00:13:32,960 the VCR seems almost laughably primitive. 217 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:39,480 And yet, very few people ever purchased a Laserdisc player, well at least few people 218 00:13:39,500 --> 00:13:42,980 outside of Japan where the format did achieve modest success. 219 00:13:42,980 --> 00:13:44,150 But why? 220 00:13:44,150 --> 00:13:48,230 What would make a format with most of the features of DVD, which in case you forgot 221 00:13:48,230 --> 00:13:52,860 quickly killed VHS sales once players reached a competitive price-point, fail to capture 222 00:13:52,860 --> 00:13:55,610 the imagination of consumers of the time? 223 00:13:55,610 --> 00:13:58,470 The most often cited problem was cost. 224 00:13:58,470 --> 00:14:02,780 This was very true later on, but initially a laserdisc player was actually much cheaper 225 00:14:02,780 --> 00:14:06,089 to own than a VCR, either Beta or VHS. 226 00:14:06,089 --> 00:14:09,640 Stay tuned for the next video where I’ll do a deep dive into these two machines, and 227 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:14,020 you’ll soon discover that they never really were competing with each other at all. 228 00:14:14,020 --> 00:14:16,180 Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video. 229 00:14:16,180 --> 00:14:19,990 If this is your first time watching Technology Connections, please subscribe so you won’t 230 00:14:19,990 --> 00:14:21,170 miss the next ones. 231 00:14:21,170 --> 00:14:24,470 This video has been brought to you by supporters on Patreon, and I’d like to give a special 232 00:14:24,470 --> 00:14:28,210 shout-out to these patrons who get their names in lights. 233 00:14:28,210 --> 00:14:31,540 Patrons of the channel have allowed me to spend more time bringing these videos to you. 234 00:14:31,540 --> 00:14:34,630 And if you’re interested in supporting the channel as well, please check out my Patreon 235 00:14:34,630 --> 00:14:37,850 page through the link on your screen or down below in the description. 236 00:14:37,850 --> 00:14:40,400 Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll see you next time!