WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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In the last video, we took a look at the early
history of Laserdisc.

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If you haven’t seen that, you can find a
link down below or up there.

00:00:07.269 --> 00:00:13.150
In short, Laserdisc was the first optical
storage format, storing analog video on 12

00:00:13.150 --> 00:00:18.199
inch reflective discs, and it was released
at the end of the 1970’s.

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Featuring many of the noteworthy features
of DVD, it may seem surprising that it didn’t

00:00:22.119 --> 00:00:23.369
become that popular.

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It’s market adoption barely reached 2 percent
of videocassette recorder sales in North America,

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and was even worse in Europe.

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Its most successful market was in Asia, but
even that wasn’t fantastic.

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Only 10% of Japanese households had a laserdisc
player, and Japan was considered the healthiest market.

00:00:41.410 --> 00:00:46.350
In this video, we’ll find out why Laserdisc
just sorta stayed in the background its entire life.

00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:50.960
Let me begin by saying that the problem is
more nuanced than simply, they cost too much.

00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:54.750
Because initially, laserdiscs were far cheaper
than videocassettes.

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And it’s also more nuanced than laserdisc’s
inability to record.

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I began the previous video with

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--A product
with an unknown purpose that was both a few

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years too late and way too far ahead of its
time--

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Those statements are interrelated, but let’s
start with the first one - an unknown purpose.

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To understand that, you need to put yourself
in the mindset of a consumer in the mid 1970s.

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At that time, there were essentially two types
of media you could purchase to consume at home.

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Print media--that’s books, newspapers, etc,--and
music.

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For nearly a century you could purchase music
to play on a phonograph, and indeed this was

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the first way we could listen to music at
home.

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(Static, buzzing, and tuning sounds)

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(through
the radio) Radio came later, providing a source

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of free, nearly continuous programming.

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But radio was a fleeting thing, and unless
you had the patience to record a broadcast

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with a tape recorder, go back and find the
songs you actually want, dub them onto another

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tape (which requires a second tape recorder),
and then finally enjoy music uninterrupted,

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you would just buy the album from your favorite
artist on disc to play at home.

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Indeed radio was pretty much how new artists
were discovered and albums were sold.

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Some of that still happens today, but we all
seem to use streaming services or other, ehem,

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means of getting our music on-demand.

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Anyway, due to the short nature of musical
radio content--generally only three minutes

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or so for a song--the programming on a radio
station wasn’t usually organized beyond

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an hour of such-and-such music.

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Maybe you’d have a host for the
afternoon drive, but the content being broadcast

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would repeat multiple times during the day,
as after all what’s popular is popular.

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This created little incentive for a radio
listener to record the broadcast, which again

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made the sale of music in record stores a
logical, convenient thing.

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This was especially true for less popular
genres of music, where it would be rare to

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hear it on the radio anyway.

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For all these reasons, the consumer of 1975
was used to buying record albums to play at

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home, and indeed wanted to.

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Now if someone wanted to watch moving pictures,
and I’m being deliberately vague here, they

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had two options.

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For long-form content, you would go to the
the-a-ter to watch the newest releases.

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Movies were obviously not a new thing in 1975,
and the way you watched them had been the

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same for many years.

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A film was a thing you went to go see once,
maybe twice, and wasn’t something you would

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expect to see at home over and over again.

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Only the wealthy and eccentric would shell
out the cash necessary to purchase a 16 millimeter

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film projector and prints to go with it, with
a true 35 millimeter projector and films being

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the unobtanium of home entertainment.

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Television was another story, though.

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By 1975, more than 70 percent of households
in the US had a color television.

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But unlike music, which could be heard for
free through the radio or as desired when

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purchased on disc or tape, television was
only a broadcast technology.

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The viewer of a television had no control
over what was being shown.

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All you could control was what channel to
tune into.

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Movies were often broadcast on TV too, with
a generous amount of commercial breaks peppered in,

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but you still had no direct control over
what to watch.

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You were limited to what was offered.

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But that was about to change.

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By 1975, the public had been teased many times
about a videodisc system which would revolutionize

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the television experience.

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RCA had been developing their videodisc since
1964, and Phillips had demonstrated an early

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laserdisc prototype in 1969.

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These companies along with others were trying
to adapt the familiar concept of a record

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player into a video player.

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And they weren’t shy about it.

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You’ll be able to buy video records, with
movies, cooking classes, and all sorts of

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new programming.

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Imagine, television when you want it!

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Keyword: Imagine.

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While this certainly was a neat idea, it likely
didn’t resonate with many people.

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To compel a consumer to purchase a videodisc
player required you to convince them to buy

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into a new kind of media.

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It’s not as simple as a new format, we’re
talking about something foreign.

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It’s an entirely different kind of content,
all together!

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(In unison) It’s an entirely
different kind of content.

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No one had yet experienced what would come
to be called home video.

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It simply wasn’t a thing.

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The videodisc was a classic case of a solution
in search of a problem.

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Which brings us to the second issue.

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It was too late.

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Though the concept had been around for more
than a decade, it took until 1978 for it to

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be introduced, and it wasn’t available nationwide
for a couple of years.

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But three years before Discovision came onto
the scene, we got our hands on a different

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technology which actually had a problem to
solve.

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Unlike radio programming, television shows
took up a large chunk of your time, and were

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far more immersive.

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They were also scheduled, occurring on a known
channel at a known time.

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Generally, these shows were broadcast once
a week, with over a dozen episodes produced

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in a year.

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The continuity, character development, and
other serial aspects of the shows compelled

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the viewer to watch every week, and missing
your favorite television program was a severe

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disappointment.

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If only there were a device that could keep
that from happening…

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Enter the videocassette recorder.

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In 1975, Sony released the Betamax system,
and JVC followed with VHS a year later.

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I’m not going to cover the format war between
those two formats because I have already in

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previous videos, but at this stage in the
timeline, the format war was irrelevant.

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And yes, there were earlier, unsuccessful
systems, and I know about Video 2000, but

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the existence of a VCR of any kind is what
matters.

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These machines promised to change how we watch
TV.

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If you were gone, you could tape your favorite
shows using a built-in timer.

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And if there were two shows you liked that
were on at the same time, you could tape one

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and watch the other.

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The videocassette recorder had a problem to
solve.

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And it was perfect for the way television
programming worked.

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You knew when your show would be on thanks
to the TV Guide, and there was an incentive

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to not miss any episode of your favorite shows.

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It sounds silly because TV is after all unimportant
in the grand scheme of things, but the VCR

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was seen by many people as a potential way to free up
their schedule.

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The act of recording a show to be watched
later was called timeshifting, and that was

00:07:02.330 --> 00:07:04.180
what sold VCRs.

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If you had a VCR, it took the limitations
of a format you were used to, that’s television,

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and removed them.

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It solved a problem.

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Now, here’s where many discussions on the
failure of Laserdisc get hung up, I’m looking

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at you Simon Whistler.

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When you look back to the beginning of the
two formats, you’ll see that they were meant

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to be used completely differently.

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Take a look at early advertisements for these
machines, and you’ll see that Laserdisc

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wasn’t really ever competing with VHS or
Betamax.

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This ad for this machine describes it as a
turntable.

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A VIDEO turntable.

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And an excellent one at that, making pictures
better than TV itself!

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But you have to buy your video records, and
the ad from 1981 shows that there are a whopping

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120 to choose from!

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Ah, that’s so many!

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Look at an ad for any VCR in the late 70s
or early 80s, and you’ll see it takes a

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different approach.

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This add for the RCA machine’s 4-hour brother
talks about television shows you want to put

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on tape, and touts how easy it is to program it
so you won’t miss a thing.

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You don’t find anything about pre recorded
tapes you can buy.

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That’s because the VCRs of this time period
essentially predated modern home video.

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The videocassette recorder wasn’t being
marketed as a device to play a pre-recorded tape.

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Content distribution of that kind wasn’t
a thing yet, in large part due to the high

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cost of producing video cassettes.

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That’s right, here’s another thing in
the saga on Laserdisc that gets overlooked.

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The idea behind videodiscs in general was
that they could be mass-produced quickly and cheaply.

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Since they are stamped like vinyl records,
with RCA’s ill-fated CED system literally

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being a vinyl record, the discs could be made
pretty easily.

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From an ad linked in the description, the
original cost of Discovision titles was intended

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to be $5.95 or $9.95 for half-hour and hour
long titles, respectively, with new feature

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films priced at $15.95.

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Adjusted for inflation that may seem pricey,
but considering the price chart from Popular

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Mechanics shows the cheapest one-hour BLANK
VHS tape

00:09:01.452 --> 00:09:03.600
--that’s blank, with nothing on it--

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going for $16.95, you get a sense of why
the disc was considered better for content

00:09:08.910 --> 00:09:10.190
distribution.

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The tape used in videocassettes was a brand
new, very specialized fine particle tape.

00:09:15.019 --> 00:09:19.079
It was expensive to produce well over 200
meters of the stuff for each cassette.

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And to mass produce pre-recorded video tapes
in a meaningful quantity would require hundreds

00:09:23.689 --> 00:09:27.759
of separate videocassette recorders, each
spending the entire runtime of the program

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being recorded to actually produce a duplicate
tape.

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One machine could make dozens of laserdiscs
per hour, whereas one video tape duplicator

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would take more than an hour per tape.

00:09:38.660 --> 00:09:40.779
And the laserdisc players were cheaper, too!

00:09:40.779 --> 00:09:44.970
That same chart shows the cheapest VCR costing
$995.

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This magnavision player started at $699.

00:09:47.089 --> 00:09:52.110
And it doesn’t seem as though that cost
was subsidized by potential profit from selling

00:09:52.110 --> 00:09:56.070
discs, as Philips/Magnavox and Discovision
were separate entities.

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So then, say you’re a consumer in 1980 deciding
between these two machines.

00:10:00.339 --> 00:10:04.030
The Magnavision is touted as having stereo
sound and an incredible picture, and there

00:10:04.030 --> 00:10:06.839
are exciting interactive possibilities to
go along with it.

00:10:06.839 --> 00:10:09.579
But there’s not a lot of content you can
watch.

00:10:09.579 --> 00:10:13.790
You’d save a few hundred dollars buying
it, but once you’ve purchased 20 or so movies,

00:10:13.790 --> 00:10:15.679
you’ll have spent all that anyway.

00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:18.050
The long-term cost of ownership doesn’t
really add up.

00:10:18.050 --> 00:10:20.929
The VCR, though, is a somewhat mature technology.

00:10:20.929 --> 00:10:23.399
You know people who use them, and they love
them!

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And while this machine is more expensive,
and so are the tapes, you can’t see yourself

00:10:27.339 --> 00:10:29.259
needing more than one tape.

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You still aren’t sure you need to save a
TV program after you’ve seen it, after all

00:10:32.959 --> 00:10:36.300
that’s not been possible before, so after
you’ve watched the shows you missed that

00:10:36.300 --> 00:10:38.449
week, you can re-use the same tape.

00:10:38.449 --> 00:10:41.459
Who cares if it’s more expensive so long
as it’s reusable?

00:10:41.459 --> 00:10:44.639
If you buy the Magnavision machine, how often
will you really use it?

00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:48.959
You’d have to be buying a disc every day
to get serious use out of it, and that’ll

00:10:48.959 --> 00:10:50.699
get expensive fast.

00:10:50.699 --> 00:10:55.149
Sure the frame-by-frame and slow-motion features
are a neat gimmick, and the possibilitiy

00:10:55.149 --> 00:11:00.410
of an art encyclopedia is kinda cool, but
that will only occupy a few hours of time.

00:11:00.410 --> 00:11:03.630
You’re pretty sure you’d get bored with
it, and need to buy another disc.

00:11:03.630 --> 00:11:07.709
You know you’d use the VCR at least once
a week; M*A*S*H and Mork and Mindy are on

00:11:07.709 --> 00:11:09.940
at the same time, and you’ve always wanted
to watch both.

00:11:09.940 --> 00:11:12.940
Plus, you can never stay up late enough to
watch Johnny Carson.

00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:14.899
Maybe you’ll use it daily.

00:11:14.899 --> 00:11:18.170
Sure it’s kinda ugly and clunky, but who
cares if it does its job?

00:11:18.170 --> 00:11:21.199
Do you really need the better picture of this
machine?

00:11:21.199 --> 00:11:24.940
You only have a 19 inch television at home,
who knows if you could even see the difference?

00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:27.939
And who really needs stereo sound for TV?

00:11:27.939 --> 00:11:30.339
Nothing on TV’s in stereo anyway.

00:11:30.339 --> 00:11:33.319
And I doubt you’ll rearrange the living
room just to have this machine play through

00:11:33.319 --> 00:11:34.379
your hi-fi.

00:11:34.379 --> 00:11:35.379
See the problem?

00:11:35.379 --> 00:11:39.630
A Laserdisc player was a technological marvel
with some neat tricks up its sleeves, but

00:11:39.630 --> 00:11:44.050
its lengthy development time caused it to
be released after videocassette recorders.

00:11:44.050 --> 00:11:49.850
If Laserdisc had been available, say, in 1970,
I don’t think it would have struggled like it did.

00:11:49.850 --> 00:11:54.360
Without the existence of a videocassette recorder,
the idea of buying content to watch on your

00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:56.579
schedule might be more appealing.

00:11:56.579 --> 00:11:59.690
After all, you’ve been doing the same thing
with music for decades, and there would be

00:11:59.690 --> 00:12:02.889
nothing else to allow you that sort of flexibility
on your TV.

00:12:02.889 --> 00:12:08.050
But with the VCR already on the market, suddenly
the Laserdisc has to convince buyers to forgo

00:12:08.050 --> 00:12:11.920
timeshifting capabilities for cheap-to-own
movies.

00:12:11.920 --> 00:12:16.239
Which again, was an odd proposition to many
consumers of the time, having never been able

00:12:16.239 --> 00:12:18.209
to own a movie before.

00:12:18.209 --> 00:12:22.559
The idea of owning movies was also a foreign
idea to movie studios.

00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:27.949
They had never before needed to think about
how to sell their content for mass home consumption.

00:12:27.949 --> 00:12:33.120
Laserdisc was trying to start an entirely
new market category: that of home video.

00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:38.410
With MCA backing the Discovision format, their
catalogue of content could easily be licensed.

00:12:38.410 --> 00:12:42.360
But Discovision would face challenges when
trying to license other content.

00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:46.110
Movie studios were understandably reluctant
to sell their catalogues of movies to a company

00:12:46.110 --> 00:12:47.899
like Discovision.

00:12:47.899 --> 00:12:52.569
Before home video, it wasn’t uncommon for
older movies to be released in theaters again.

00:12:52.569 --> 00:12:57.899
The movie studios were used to charging essentially
per-view, and a home video solution goes entirely

00:12:57.899 --> 00:12:58.929
against that.

00:12:58.929 --> 00:13:03.259
The issue of licensing was further complicated
in the disc realm by competing standards and

00:13:03.259 --> 00:13:05.160
confusing branding.

00:13:05.160 --> 00:13:09.860
With the development of their CED system,
RCA was hard at work convincing movie studios

00:13:09.860 --> 00:13:12.989
that they should license their content to
RCA.

00:13:12.989 --> 00:13:17.420
This might have limited the content available
to Discovision if any exclusivity clauses

00:13:17.420 --> 00:13:19.899
were added to the contracts signed.

00:13:19.899 --> 00:13:24.079
It was also frustrating to consumers, as they
didn’t know which disc system would be better

00:13:24.079 --> 00:13:26.450
supported with content down the road.

00:13:26.450 --> 00:13:31.930
And even among Laserdisc players, Magnavox
continued to refer to this as Magnavision,

00:13:31.930 --> 00:13:34.700
even though the discs you could buy were called Discovision

00:13:34.700 --> 00:13:37.299
and the format had been christened Laservision

00:13:37.299 --> 00:13:38.930
by this time.

00:13:38.930 --> 00:13:43.120
This fear and confusion probably kept a good
number of videodisc players on store shelves.

00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:45.860
Thus began a chicken-and-egg problem.

00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:50.399
Buying a laserdisc player in the early years
meant buying into a system with limited content.

00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:51.930
This kept sales low.

00:13:51.930 --> 00:13:54.050
Which meant there weren’t a lot of people
with players.

00:13:54.050 --> 00:13:57.350
Which meant the movie studios couldn’t make
much money selling discs.

00:13:57.350 --> 00:14:02.850
Which meant there wasn’t much content, which
kept the sales of players low, and the cycle continued.

00:14:02.850 --> 00:14:06.259
But videocassette recorders didn’t have
that problem in the slightest.

00:14:06.259 --> 00:14:10.689
Going back to our ad, you’ll remember that
pre-recorded content isn’t mentioned at all.

00:14:10.689 --> 00:14:13.600
That’s because, this wasn’t their primary
purpose.

00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.040
Time-shifting was what you did with a VCR.

00:14:16.049 --> 00:14:20.449
It didn’t have anything to do with buying
a movie to watch over and over again.

00:14:20.449 --> 00:14:22.279
Who would want that?

00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:26.540
But plenty of people would want to record
their TV shows while they weren’t at home.

00:14:26.540 --> 00:14:28.519
That was an idea you could get behind.

00:14:28.519 --> 00:14:33.160
As more and more people purchased a VCR, suddenly
there was a large installed base of devices

00:14:33.160 --> 00:14:35.939
that could play a pre-recorded tape.

00:14:35.939 --> 00:14:38.899
And now there was a place for home video.

00:14:38.899 --> 00:14:43.459
Tapes needed to get cheaper to manufacture,
and duplication facilities needed to mature.

00:14:43.459 --> 00:14:47.189
But once those things happened, it became
easier for movie studios to get behind the

00:14:47.189 --> 00:14:50.480
idea of selling their movies for watching
at home.

00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:54.069
Especially their older and classic films which
wouldn’t make too much money with a new

00:14:54.069 --> 00:14:57.240
screening, but might turn a decent profit
on home video.

00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:01.949
Now that home video was an established business,
buying a laserdisc player made even less sense

00:15:01.949 --> 00:15:03.399
to the average consumer.

00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:08.139
What was the point of buying another machine
when I already have a VCR, now that the big

00:15:08.139 --> 00:15:11.399
movie studios are all releasing their movies
on VHS and Beta?

00:15:11.399 --> 00:15:15.059
And to be honest, Laserdisc was an inconvenient
format.

00:15:15.059 --> 00:15:18.649
Pretty much every single movie is longer than
an hour, so you’re guaranteed to have to

00:15:18.649 --> 00:15:19.839
flip the disc over.

00:15:19.839 --> 00:15:23.389
And if you push into 2 hours, you’ll need
another disc.

00:15:23.389 --> 00:15:27.949
VHS and Beta were largely immune to this,
though very long titles would push onto a

00:15:27.949 --> 00:15:29.220
second cassette.

00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:32.100
And then there was the rental market.

00:15:32.100 --> 00:15:35.759
Videocassettes may have cost more to make
than laserdiscs, but many people weren’t

00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:37.449
buying them, they were renting them.

00:15:37.449 --> 00:15:41.829
A rental store owner would make the cost of
the tape back many times over, so the high

00:15:41.829 --> 00:15:44.989
cost of the purchase wasn’t that impactful.

00:15:44.989 --> 00:15:49.119
And cassettes made more sense for rental,
as their design is inherently less fragile.

00:15:49.119 --> 00:15:54.420
The tape does wear out over time which Laserdisc
was (at least they thought) immune to

00:15:54.420 --> 00:15:55.280
--it wasn’t!--

00:15:55.280 --> 00:15:58.689
but any surface scratches on the
surface of a Laserdisc would immediately harm

00:15:58.689 --> 00:15:59.689
the image quality.

00:15:59.689 --> 00:16:04.790
And the smaller, chunky nature of a videocassette
was easier to transport than the flat, large

00:16:04.790 --> 00:16:06.470
size of the laserdisc.

00:16:06.470 --> 00:16:10.610
As years passed, the videocassette received
the benefits of economies of scale much more

00:16:10.610 --> 00:16:11.730
than Laserdisc did.

00:16:11.730 --> 00:16:16.059
Though it should be noted that the price disparity
between laserdisc and tapes continued for

00:16:16.059 --> 00:16:17.059
some time.

00:16:17.059 --> 00:16:20.850
There’s a clip on YouTube of Siskel and
Ebert and the Movies, and in it they discuss

00:16:20.850 --> 00:16:23.940
how the film Running on Empty, released in
theaters in 1988--

00:16:23.940 --> 00:16:29.460
"that came out at 89.95 on tape, but 24.98 on disc"

00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:32.040
--But they also
noted that at this time, movie studios were

00:16:32.040 --> 00:16:34.309
beginning to sell cheap tapes.

00:16:34.309 --> 00:16:40.739
Paramount had been releasing some films on
tape for $14.95 with some bargain tapes going for $9.95.

00:16:40.739 --> 00:16:44.500
The trend of tapes continuing to get cheaper
would go on, and Laserdiscs wouldn’t get

00:16:44.500 --> 00:16:45.730
to join in on that.

00:16:45.730 --> 00:16:48.939
At this point, it might seem that Laserdisc
would be doomed.

00:16:48.939 --> 00:16:53.139
Being beaten to market by a device which could
record really hurt its chances, and once the

00:16:53.139 --> 00:16:58.079
movie studios had started offering their content
on VHS and Beta, buying a second device just

00:16:58.079 --> 00:17:00.609
for watching movies didn’t make tons of
sense.

00:17:00.609 --> 00:17:02.730
But Laserdisc didn’t die.

00:17:02.730 --> 00:17:06.839
It clinged to life until 2000, co-existing
with DVD for 4 years.

00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:11.050
It was the collectors market, and to a lesser
extent the education market, that saved them

00:17:11.050 --> 00:17:12.660
from a complete death.

00:17:12.660 --> 00:17:17.079
Those who bought Laserdisc from the mid 1980’s
onward largely did so for reasons of quality

00:17:17.079 --> 00:17:19.020
and exclusive content.

00:17:19.020 --> 00:17:23.060
In the next video, we’ll look at how Laserdisc
evolved over the years into the pinnacle of

00:17:23.060 --> 00:17:27.750
home entertainment, and we’ll also look
more closely at the features--and follies--of

00:17:27.750 --> 00:17:29.160
the format itself.

00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:30.160
Thanks for watching.

00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:33.740
If this is your first time coming across the
channel, please consider subscribing.

00:17:33.740 --> 00:17:36.890
This channel is made possible by supporters
on Patreon.

00:17:36.890 --> 00:17:40.820
Patrons of the channel are what keeps these
videos coming, and each of you deserves thanks.

00:17:40.820 --> 00:17:45.140
If you’re interested in supporting the channel
as well, please check out my Patreon page

00:17:45.140 --> 00:17:48.380
through the link on your screen, or down below
in the description.

00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.360
Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll
see you next time!

00:17:57.600 --> 00:17:59.260
...ability to record.

00:17:59.270 --> 00:18:03.070
I began the previous video with (in a quick,
snarky, nasal voice) A product with an unknown

00:18:03.070 --> 00:18:05.570
purpose that was both a few years too late
and way too far ahead of its time