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OK, now that we know what laserdiscs are and
why they never achieved mass-market adoption,

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let’s look at some of the technical details
of the format as well as how it evolved overtime.

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So first, I haven’t yet made the exact distinction
between CAV discs and CLV discs.

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These stand for Constant Angular Velocity,
and Constant Linear Velocity.

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Their names explain the difference.

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A CAV disc rotates at constant 1,800 RPM.

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Each rotation contains exactly one frame of
video.

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This encoding method was simpler and let the
player do some neat things, but it limited

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recording time to 30 minutes per side.

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A CLV disc slows the disc’s rotational speed
as it progresses.

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See, as the laser moves towards the edge of
the disc, the circumference of the disc along

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the spot it’s reading continually increases.

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Constant Linear Velocity encoding slows the
disc down as the laser progresses to keep

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the speed of the disc relative to the laser
constant, rather than keeping its absolute

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rotational speed constant.

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This allowed recording an hour per side of
the disc.

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But it also could increase crosstalk noise,
and because the number of encoded frames per

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revolution was constantly changing, the trick-play
features of the CAV disc were eliminated.

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Pioneer would reduce crosstalk by modifying
CLV into CAA, which slowed the rotational

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speed in steps.

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CAA, standing for Constant Angular Acceleration,
was more of a behind-the-scenes alteration,

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though, and these discs were still marked
as CLV on their sleeves.

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Real cinephiles want CAV discs.

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There are a number of reasons for this, but
one of the most interesting is the way the

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discs are indexed.

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Play a CLV disc and the display acts like
you would expect.

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You get the chapters available, and the time
counts up from zero.

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But a CAV disc, well just watch.

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That’s right, these are frames.

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In a CAV disc, each frame is directly accessible
by number, and you can simply type in a frame

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number and the player will nearly instantly
get to it.

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And that freeze frame is perfect.

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This opened up a lot of interactive possibilities.

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Of historical note is the Museum of Science
and Industry in Chicago’s use of Laserdiscs

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to allow guests to view every front page of
the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

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This was back in 1980.

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There were also arcade games--and even home
video game systems--developed which used laserdisc

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as a random access video system.

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Remember how I said the collector’s market
saved laserdisc from dying completely?

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Well, much of that was due to special editions
like this Pocahontas box set.

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I know, there could be better films to explore,
but this box set is actually perfect for showing

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what Laserdisc had to offer.

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Look at all this extra stuff!

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The first three sides are the film itself
in CAV format.

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The analog soundtrack contains a commentary
track on the left channel, though it’s mastered

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very, very poorly for some reason.

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[COMMENTARY: Yeah the Turkish sword on John
Smith’s back, that was, uh, I think John

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Pomeroy was the one who, uh, who led the character
in animation.]

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The right channel contains dolby digital sound.

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[Digital static sounds]

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--more on that briefly.

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The fourth side is in CLV, as it’s an hour
long making-of feature.

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But the third disc is where it gets really
interesting.

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First of all, look at all these chapters.

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There are 48 alone in special features.

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But the Laserdisc was able to tell the player
to freeze the frame.

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This was used extensively in box sets like
this to organize collections of still images.

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I’m not going to show you much of the actual
content, because I don’t really want to

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get in trouble with Disney, but I will go
through some of the title cards so you can

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get an idea of how this is navigated.

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After a brief intro, the disc automatically
stops and you see the little leaf with STEP appear.

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That’s because what follows is a sequence
of still frames.

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If you press play, the player will just resume
normal playback and you’ll get an infoblast-style

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mess until it receives the next command to
stop.

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But on the remote, the STEP button allows
you to advance just one frame at a time.

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And since each of these frames has a discrete
number, you can get back to it simply by entering

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the frame number.

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When there’s a segment of actual video,
the leaf instead says PLAY so you know what

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to do next.

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You’ll see that there are also a lot of
commentaries here as well on the analog tracks.

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Sure, the special features section on a DVD
can do all these same things, but it’s really

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something that an analog format from so long
ago can do it, too.

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And I’m left to wonder if there’s anything
on these Laserdiscs that hasn’t made its

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way onto a DVD or Blu-Ray release.

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In fact, there’s a lot of content on Laserdisc
that hasn’t left the realm of Laserdisc.

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And one more thing before we move on, the
search-by-chapter nature of the laserdisc

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made it prime material for the education market.

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This disc here, well it’s a weird one.

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A showcase of computer generated imagery from
1986.

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I kid you not, this disc is the vaporwave
community’s dream, and I know this because

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when I learned what vaporwave was, there was
a video featuring this laserdisc’s opening clip.

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[Distinctly 1980’s, synthesized Jungle-like
music]

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Ah but there’s more.

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There’s this:

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[NARRATOR: This time consuming
process creates highly detailed and spectacular images]

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...and this...

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[INTERVIEWEE: Where you’re trying to get
across a look and a feeling in ten seconds,

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you can pick some perfect blue for your object…
but you don’t know what color it’s really

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going to be until you light it]

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...and it
also features this creepy talking head!

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[Fulfilling absolute decree in casual simplicity]

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I’m fairly sure this was meant as an educational
disc, but I’m not certain.

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Oddly enough, the Voyager Company, the producers
of the disc, was the publisher of the Criterion Collection,

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perhaps the most famous collector’s
edition laserdiscs.

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Anyway, having near instant random access
to any part of the disc made Laserdisc great

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for teachers.

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If there was a particular clip that would
easily show a concept, you could cue it right up.

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This was particularly useful in science classes,
to show experiments quickly.

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A VHS tape would require a lot of effort and
patience to cue up, but if the lesson on Newton's

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Third Law of Motion was Chapter 14 of a Laserdisc,
just type in 14 and you’re ready to go.

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On that note, CLV discs took significantly
longer to cue up a new chapter.

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Because of the disc’s enormous size, it
takes a while to speed up and slow down.

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So when searching for a chapter that’s well
away from the start, the disc needs to slow

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down a lot to get to the correct speed.

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The laser doesn’t take much time to get
from one chapter to the next, but it has to

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wait for the disc to get to the right speed
before it can actually play.

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Now I’ve stepped a little far ahead here,
showing discs with digital sound and Dolby Digital.

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Let’s take a step back and look more at
the evolution of the format.

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I had mentioned in my introductory video on
Laserdisc that while the format began its

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life as a product of a joint venture between
Philips and the Music Corporation of America

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called Discovision, the Pioneer company of
Japan would sort of take over the format.

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They were part of the official renaming of
the format to Laservision, and they were the

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ones that branded their own players as LaserDisc.

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From the mid 1980’s until the end of its
life, Pioneer was almost the only manufacturer

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of Laserdisc players.

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There were others, with Sony producing a good
show, but it was Pioneer that kept pushing

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the format and adding new innovations.

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Perhaps the first major innovation was the
use of a solid state laser.

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You might have noticed that this machine is
massive.

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It’s a lot wider that the VCR we were putting
it up against, which itself is big and bulky,

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and this by far the largest piece of A/V equipment
I have ever run across.

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Much of its width comes from the laser carriage.

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Initially, Laserdisc players used a helium-neon
laser tube as its source of laser light.

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This tube is quite large, and so is the necessary
optical path the beam has to make to be focused

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onto the disc and reflected back to the light
sensor.

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I’ll be doing a teardown of this machine
in a later video, but let’s take a quick peek.

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This entire carriage moves left and right
as it scans the disc.

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Oddly enough, this tiny little motor is responsible
for moving this whole thing.

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And yes, that black crud is from the completely
disintegrated belt that was on here when I

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got this machine.

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I have a somewhat suitable replacement on
here, but it seems to have trouble reversing

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the carriage.

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It advances just fine, though.

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Inside this black plastic shield are a pair
of mirrors attached to small wiggly things,

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and by shifting the angle that the beam hits
the glass ever so slightly, you could maintain

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fine tracking on the disc.

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See, unless the disc is exactly perfectly
centered, which with this fine of a data stream

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it most certainly won’t be, the laser will
need to be constantly moving left-right-left-right

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to follow the spiral groove of pits.

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I strongly suspect that’s what’s wrong
with this player, as it exhibits severe crosstalk

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when playing a CAV disc.

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It does appear to be able to maintain focus
distance, as the objective lens can move and

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it produces a picture, but without fine tracking
control the output will be a mess.

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I don’t want to get started on this project
quite yet, though.

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That will have to wait…

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In either 1983 or 1984--it seems there's some
date disagreement--Pioneer introduced the

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LD-700 player which incorporated a solid state
laser.

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This was also the first player to introduce
a tray-loading system.

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By switching to a solid-state laser, the machines
could be much smaller as the laser assembly

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was a small fraction of its previous size.

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But there was a small compromise made.

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The helium neon laser produced a red-orange
light, but the laser diodes used in Laserdisc

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players shared the same infrared light of
the compact disc audio format.

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The longer wavelength of the infrared light
couldn’t be focused quite as tightly as

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the shorter wavelength red-orange light.

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This meant a player with a solid state laser
would be more susceptible to crosstalk, and

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scratches or other damage to the disc would
affect its ability to read the pits to a greater

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degree.

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However, the many advantages of a solid-state
laser pickup system greatly outweighed this

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single disadvantage, and thus infrared became
the way to go.

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By 1984, it was clear that Laserdisc would
stay in the realm of the videophile, as the

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videocassette recorder seemed perfectly fine
for the masses.

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With that in mind, Pioneer started adding
new features to their players and updated

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the format along the way.

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The first main addition was that of DIGITAL
SOUND!

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Hah, you thought FM stereo wasn’t enough,
how about uncompressed 16 bit stereo PCM audio!

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When introducing a player with digital sound
capabilities, Pioneer killed two birds with

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one stone by also letting it play the newly
introduced Compact Disc.

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The digital audio on a laserdisc is encoded
much the same as a CD, so Pioneer already

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had the circuitry onboard to process the digital
audio from a CD.

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Thus the CLD-900 could play both.

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Weirdly, though, this player contained an
odd mechanism with two separate spindles with

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one for holding a CD and the other a Laserdisc.

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Looking on the laserdisc archive, it seems
many early players were designed this way.

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I’m guessing this was due to difficulty
in designing and controlling one spindle motor

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capable of spinning both the massive LaserDisc
and the tiny CD correctly.

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Eventually, though, a single spindle with
a collapsible center was used for both CDs

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and Laserdiscs.

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Because laserdiscs held two separate audio
tracks in NTSC discs, one of these could be

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replaced with the digital soundtrack while
the other could remain as an analog conventional

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soundtrack.

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A signal on the disc would indicate to the
player that the disc contained digital sound,

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and it would switch to the secondary soundtrack
containing the data.

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The analog soundtrack stayed on the primary
channel, and older players would just ignore

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the signal to switch to the secondary track.

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But the addition of digital audio caused some
compatibility issues.

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For one, PAL discs didn’t have two separate
audio tracks.

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Not sure why, but they didn’t.

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This meant that a PAL laserdisc was either
digital or analog, and an analog only player

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could not play a disc with digital sound.

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This probably didn’t help the already poor
sales in Europe…

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At first, pioneer had to sacrifice playing
time to fit digital audio on the discs.

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The first digital audio discs only held 55
minutes per side, which left some titles like

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this copy of Back to the Future released as
analog-only even though digital sound was

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available at the time of its release.

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Because this film is one hour and 56 minutes,
it would fit on a single disc with analog

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sound, but would need a second disc for digital
sound.

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So they stuck with analog to keep it on a
single disc.

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[DOC BROWN: This is truly amazing.

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A portable television studio!]

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By 1987, Pioneer had figured out how to get
an hour runtime and still have digital sound.

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Hey look, MCA!

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Then we get to surround sound.

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Laserdisc was pretty much the only way to
get true surround sound until DVD came along,

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but the way surround was encoded was, to put
it kindly, messy.

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If a disc contained a Dolby AC-3 soundtrack,
the AC-3 data was FM-modulated on the right

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channel of the analog track, and required
the use of a receiver capable of demodulating

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this into a digital output.

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Modern receivers don’t have this functionality,
so to get the Dolby AC-3 soundtrack off a

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laserdisc requires an external AC-3 demodulator.

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But because a Dolby AC-3 encoded disc uses
one channel of the analog track and leaves

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standard stereo digital sound in place, these
discs can only be played in mono on an analog

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only laserdisc player.

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00:12:57,980 --> 00:13:01,949
Not that many of those stuck around for very
long, as once digital sound was introduced

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nearly every player manufactured could utilize
it.

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00:13:04,430 --> 00:13:06,270
Then there’s DTS audio.

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00:13:06,270 --> 00:13:11,129
A DTS encoded disc uses the digital tracks,
so to play it on a normal player required

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00:13:11,129 --> 00:13:13,190
switching back to the analog tracks.

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00:13:13,190 --> 00:13:18,550
As an example, this copy of Casper has a DTS
soundtrack because if there’s any movie

220
00:13:18,550 --> 00:13:22,029
that needs DTS surround, it’s Casper.

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00:13:22,029 --> 00:13:25,570
When you play it, the player doesn’t know
it shouldn’t be reading the digital track,

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00:13:25,570 --> 00:13:27,819
and it’s producing a garbage output.

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00:13:27,819 --> 00:13:32,140
You need to manually switch back to the analog
soundtrack if you want to hear the movie.

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00:13:32,140 --> 00:13:37,180
So, if you wanted digital surround sound,
you’d need to match your player to a compatible

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00:13:37,180 --> 00:13:40,490
receiver, and then also make sure you’re
buying the right discs.

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00:13:40,490 --> 00:13:44,129
There certainly are people who are that dedicated,
but not many.

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00:13:44,129 --> 00:13:49,439
OK, so aside from format technicalities, let’s
look at some of the more clever things Pioneer did.

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00:13:49,439 --> 00:13:53,019
My personal favorite is what they dubbed Both
Side Play.

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00:13:53,019 --> 00:13:56,350
Just as auto reverse cassette recorders came
on the scene to save you the trouble of flipping

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00:13:56,350 --> 00:14:01,540
the tape, Pioneer also developed laserdisc
players that can play both sides of the disc.

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00:14:01,540 --> 00:14:04,579
And the way they go about it is, just so awesome.

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00:14:04,579 --> 00:14:09,189
Seriously, Both Side Play is my favorite example
of forced engineering--I’ll explain what

233
00:14:09,189 --> 00:14:12,470
I mean there but first let’s have a look
at a machine with this feature.

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00:14:12,470 --> 00:14:15,560
This is a Pioneer CLD-D502.

235
00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:19,059
Their model naming scheme, by the way, helps
explain what the machine can do.

236
00:14:19,059 --> 00:14:24,460
It wasn’t entirely consistent over the years,
but in general the C in CLD means it can also

237
00:14:24,460 --> 00:14:28,699
play audio CDs and CD-Video discs--not video
CDs, though.

238
00:14:28,699 --> 00:14:31,009
The D means it plays both sides.

239
00:14:31,009 --> 00:14:35,699
And the 502 is the model number, with higher
numbers generally having more features.

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00:14:35,699 --> 00:14:41,600
For example, the CLD-D702 added extra AV out
ports, featured an altered VFD display, and

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00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:43,100
had better video performance.

242
00:14:43,100 --> 00:14:47,939
A model like the CLD-S201 could only play
a single side.

243
00:14:47,939 --> 00:14:53,540
There were also the CLD-M models, which featured
a 5 disc CD changer alongside normal laserdisc

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00:14:53,540 --> 00:14:54,720
operation.

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00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:58,180
This channel used to have a video featuring
one of those machines, however I’ve taken

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00:14:58,180 --> 00:15:02,790
it down temporarily because I want to re-do
that video properly and not in the very rambly

247
00:15:02,790 --> 00:15:04,990
style of the first incarnation.

248
00:15:04,990 --> 00:15:06,290
Stay tuned for its replacement.

249
00:15:06,290 --> 00:15:09,329
Anyway, you might know what’s involved in
playing the second side, but for those who

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00:15:09,329 --> 00:15:11,069
don’t, see if you can guess.

251
00:15:11,069 --> 00:15:13,660
I’ll start this disc on Side A.

252
00:15:13,660 --> 00:15:30,580
[Various
mechanical noises]

253
00:15:30,580 --> 00:15:32,080
OK, so it spun the disc

254
00:15:32,089 --> 00:15:33,459
up and is now playing.

255
00:15:33,460 --> 00:15:36,360
But listen to what happens when I switch to
Side B.

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00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:49,920
[More mechanical noises, with a pronounced whirring added]

257
00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:53,339
You probably noticed it stopping
the disc, then the motor that moves the tray

258
00:15:53,339 --> 00:15:57,830
in and out did some moving about, and there
was a third sound you haven’t heard yet,

259
00:15:57,830 --> 00:16:00,350
along with the disc spinning back up.

260
00:16:00,350 --> 00:16:04,060
Obviously a good deal of stuff just happened,
so let’s look inside.

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00:16:04,060 --> 00:16:08,290
In addition to usually being a little bit
taller than a single-sided laserdisc player,

262
00:16:08,290 --> 00:16:12,279
Both Side Play models generally have this
protrusion out the back.

263
00:16:12,279 --> 00:16:14,600
This houses the laser turn mechanism.

264
00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:19,269
That’s right, in these machines, the entire
laser assembly is moved to the top side of

265
00:16:19,269 --> 00:16:20,339
the disc.

266
00:16:20,339 --> 00:16:23,399
This is some pretty crazy engineering in a
number of ways.

267
00:16:23,399 --> 00:16:25,220
So let’s see it in action.

268
00:16:25,220 --> 00:16:28,350
The laser assembly normally sits here and
rides along the bottom rails.

269
00:16:28,350 --> 00:16:32,779
But when it needs to read Side B, it travels
all the way to the rear of the machine, where

270
00:16:32,779 --> 00:16:35,709
it enters a sort-of ferris wheel like contraption.

271
00:16:35,709 --> 00:16:39,819
This lifts the laser to the top as well as
flips it upside down, and then the laser moves

272
00:16:39,819 --> 00:16:43,399
forward and engages with a second set of rails
on the top.

273
00:16:43,399 --> 00:16:47,879
The disc stops to reverse direction, as it
would otherwise be spinning the wrong way.

274
00:16:47,879 --> 00:16:49,430
Let's look at that in slow motion.

275
00:16:49,430 --> 00:16:50,600
Because why not.

276
00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:54,720
This is no simple feat, as the laser needs
to derail itself from the bottom and re-attach

277
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:55,970
to the top.

278
00:16:55,970 --> 00:16:59,949
It also requires a relatively complex and
delicate ribbon cable situation to actually

279
00:16:59,949 --> 00:17:03,700
send power and retrieve signals from the laser
head assembly.

280
00:17:03,700 --> 00:17:08,319
But the fact that this was necessary hints
to yet another reason laserdisc didn’t achieve

281
00:17:08,319 --> 00:17:09,490
mass market success.

282
00:17:09,490 --> 00:17:14,189
See if someone were interested today in making
a CD or DVD player that could read both sides

283
00:17:14,189 --> 00:17:18,720
of a disc --which admittedly isn’t really
ever necessary-- almost certainly the cheapest

284
00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:23,370
and simplest way to do it would be to place
a second laser assembly on the top, and simply

285
00:17:23,370 --> 00:17:25,510
change which one was being used.

286
00:17:25,510 --> 00:17:30,420
In fact, there were a number of stylized CD
changers available that simply had multiple

287
00:17:30,420 --> 00:17:33,650
CD player mechanisms stacked in a tower.

288
00:17:33,650 --> 00:17:36,960
Obviously it was pretty cheap the make a CD
player assembly.

289
00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:40,370
But clearly there was something about the
laser assembly of a laserdisc player that

290
00:17:40,370 --> 00:17:41,799
made it much more expensive.

291
00:17:41,799 --> 00:17:46,350
And I’m not talking about the rails or the
motor that moves it, I mean this guy itself.

292
00:17:46,350 --> 00:17:49,750
If it were easy to make, why not just use
two of them?

293
00:17:49,750 --> 00:17:53,539
Why bother with engineering and manufacturing
this elaborate mechanism?

294
00:17:53,539 --> 00:17:58,919
I suspect that the analog nature of the laserdisc
meant tighter tolerances and higher quality

295
00:17:58,919 --> 00:18:00,350
components were required here.

296
00:18:00,350 --> 00:18:05,380
See, with a digital format, the “clarity”
of the signal coming from the laser is pretty

297
00:18:05,380 --> 00:18:06,669
much irrelevant.

298
00:18:06,669 --> 00:18:11,049
So long as a pit can be distinguished from
a land, the output would be the same.

299
00:18:11,049 --> 00:18:13,400
In other words, a fuzzy and hard to decipher

300
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,100
[volume diminished with added static sound]  one-zero-zero-one-one-one-zero-zero

301
00:18:16,100 --> 00:18:18,100
[static
ends and volume returns] means the same thing

302
00:18:18,100 --> 00:18:23,580
to a digital to analog converter as a strong
and clear one-zero-zero-one-one-one-zero-zero.

303
00:18:23,580 --> 00:18:28,630
In OTHER other words, the signal to noise
ratio is irrelevant in a digital format.

304
00:18:28,630 --> 00:18:30,760
Either the signal is there or it isn’t.

305
00:18:30,760 --> 00:18:35,420
Signal to noise ratio can get really bad before
the data is not recoverable.

306
00:18:35,420 --> 00:18:40,350
But since laserdisc was an analog format,
the signal to noise ratio did matter.

307
00:18:40,350 --> 00:18:44,179
If the pits become harder to distinguish from
the lands, then the picture it produces gets

308
00:18:44,179 --> 00:18:45,960
less clear as well.

309
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:50,310
I suspect that the laser assemblies of compact
disc players could be made much more cheaply

310
00:18:50,310 --> 00:18:54,830
than laserdisc players due to this fundamental
advantage of a digital format.

311
00:18:54,830 --> 00:18:59,250
If you look at the list price of a basic CD
player made around the same time as this Laserdisc

312
00:18:59,250 --> 00:19:02,650
player, you’ll see that they could be had
for about 100 dollars.

313
00:19:02,650 --> 00:19:08,850
This laserdisc player is listed at $459, and
the CLD-S201, a single side machine, is listed

314
00:19:08,850 --> 00:19:10,690
at $319.

315
00:19:10,690 --> 00:19:15,850
Now if manufacturers could turn a profit on
a CD player at just over $100 dollars, that

316
00:19:15,850 --> 00:19:19,760
laser pickup probably didn’t cost more than
$30 or so to make.

317
00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:23,480
Of course, a laserdisc player has much more
circuitry and a larger spindle motor than

318
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:27,520
a CD player, but the way the data is read
from the disc is the same.

319
00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:31,990
I’m sure if Pioneer could have figured out
how to make an acceptable analog laser pickup

320
00:19:31,990 --> 00:19:36,890
for $30, this mechanism would have been ditched
for a second laser permanently attached to

321
00:19:36,890 --> 00:19:38,460
these upper rails.

322
00:19:38,460 --> 00:19:42,980
But that clearly wasn’t possible, as pioneer
was forced to keep using similar laser transfer

323
00:19:42,980 --> 00:19:45,630
mechanisms until the end of Laserdisc.

324
00:19:45,630 --> 00:19:49,270
Digital formats were also helped by the implementation
of error correction.

325
00:19:49,270 --> 00:19:53,710
A CD player can detect errors and correct
them through Cross-interleaved Reed-Solomon

326
00:19:53,710 --> 00:19:57,750
coding, and it can also use interpolation
to mask a very large error.

327
00:19:57,750 --> 00:20:02,580
In fact, I have a copy of Lincoln by They
Might Be Giants which has a bunch of small

328
00:20:02,580 --> 00:20:04,610
holes in the aluminum layer.

329
00:20:04,610 --> 00:20:07,000
You can hold it to a light and see right through
them.

330
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:12,090
But it still plays fine, as even with chunks
of missing data the CD player’s robust error

331
00:20:12,090 --> 00:20:14,590
correction allows it to make it through.

332
00:20:14,590 --> 00:20:18,960
A Laserdisc enjoys this sort of redundancy
in its digital soundtrack, but the video has

333
00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:20,559
no such error correction.

334
00:20:20,559 --> 00:20:25,770
A large enough scratch on the disc will be
visible, sometimes as a simple black spec.

335
00:20:25,770 --> 00:20:30,830
In a CAV disc, the speck would briefly stay
on screen in the same place, but in a CLV

336
00:20:30,830 --> 00:20:33,621
disc, it would dart around the screen.

337
00:20:33,621 --> 00:20:34,909
And then there’s laser rot.

338
00:20:34,909 --> 00:20:36,870
Ah yes, laser rot.

339
00:20:36,870 --> 00:20:40,140
Someone in the comments noted that it’s
called disc rot as it has nothing to do with

340
00:20:40,140 --> 00:20:45,320
the laser, which is technically correct, but
Laser Rot is the term used when specifically

341
00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:48,980
talking about disc rot occurring on laserdiscs.

342
00:20:48,980 --> 00:20:53,780
The original Discovision manufacturing plants
made their discs very sloppily.

343
00:20:53,780 --> 00:20:59,269
It wasn’t uncommon for the aluminum reflective
layer to start to oxidize and lose its reflectivity,

344
00:20:59,269 --> 00:21:02,990
likely due to poor adhesive which didn’t
seal the discs correctly.

345
00:21:02,990 --> 00:21:07,060
You can forgive them a little though, as they
were literally writing the book on how to

346
00:21:07,060 --> 00:21:08,769
make an optical disc.

347
00:21:08,769 --> 00:21:13,390
Oxidation of the aluminum layer would cause
a disc to exhibit more and more visual artifacts,

348
00:21:13,390 --> 00:21:15,590
and eventually become unplayable.

349
00:21:15,590 --> 00:21:20,399
This copy of Star Trek the Motion Picture
from 1980 exhibits severe laser rot.

350
00:21:20,399 --> 00:21:24,080
You can see that this disc is completely gone
just by looking at it.

351
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,200
It should NOT look like that.

352
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:30,400
But its companion, while not showing physical
signs of rot, doesn’t play well at all.

353
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:32,080
Take a look.

354
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:34,880
[COMPUTER: Intruder unidentified.

355
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:40,500
Believe luminescent cloud to be enormous power
field surrounding alien vessel...]

356
00:21:40,500 --> 00:21:43,020
[Star Trek theme plays with choppy static and noise...]

357
00:21:45,220 --> 00:21:47,180
[CHEKOV: Photon torpedo load status...]

358
00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:50,240
[UHURA: Transporter system fully repaired…]

359
00:21:50,250 --> 00:21:54,220
Aside from the frequent signal dropouts, the
player isn’t able to maintain tracking and

360
00:21:54,220 --> 00:21:56,530
sometimes gets locked reading the same spot.

361
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:01,300
[You haven’t logged a single star hour in
two-and-a-half years.

362
00:22:01,300 --> 00:22:04,560
That plus your unfamiliarrrrrr (disc becomes
locked here)]

363
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:07,960
Most discs don’t rot so badly

364
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:10,159
that you can simply tell at a glance.

365
00:22:10,159 --> 00:22:12,330
This disc is a true disaster.

366
00:22:12,330 --> 00:22:16,299
Laser rot wasn’t that common, possibly affecting
as few as one percent of discs according to

367
00:22:16,299 --> 00:22:21,279
the Laserdisc Database--of course that exists--
but certain factories were notorious for producing

368
00:22:21,279 --> 00:22:23,539
discs that are rotting today.

369
00:22:23,539 --> 00:22:29,610
The DADC plant in Terre Haute, Indiana seems
to have been the worst offender, with 1,490

370
00:22:29,610 --> 00:22:31,980
titles from this factory known to have rot.

371
00:22:31,980 --> 00:22:36,480
Including this disc of Fargo, the 21st most
commonly reported disc with rot.

372
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:38,020
[MARGE: OK.

373
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:38,780
Yeah.

374
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:41,720
Think I’ll take a drive down there, then.]

375
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:42,540
[STATE TROOPER: Oh yeah?

376
00:22:43,020 --> 00:22:43,800
Twin cities?]

377
00:22:46,860 --> 00:22:47,900
[NORM: Oh yeah?]

378
00:22:48,380 --> 00:22:50,820
[JERRY: No, Wade, they were real clear.

379
00:22:50,820 --> 00:22:54,590
They said they’d call tomorrow with instructions
and it’s gotta be delivered by me alone.]

380
00:22:54,590 --> 00:22:57,250
[WADE: It’s my money, I’ll deliver it.]

381
00:22:57,250 --> 00:22:58,930
Wow, this video got long quickly.

382
00:22:58,930 --> 00:23:03,210
We’re almost done with this saga on laserdisc,
and I’ll leave you with this machine.

383
00:23:03,210 --> 00:23:06,140
This is a Pioneer DVL-700.

384
00:23:06,140 --> 00:23:10,059
The D at the beginning means it can also play
DVDs.

385
00:23:10,059 --> 00:23:13,450
This is a very early DVD player, from 1997.

386
00:23:13,450 --> 00:23:17,750
As we know, DVD was a huge success, and they
continue to sell in large numbers.

387
00:23:17,750 --> 00:23:24,100
Already DVD is as old as Laserdisc was when
it died, but DVD shows no signs of dying quite yet.

388
00:23:24,100 --> 00:23:27,200
In the next video, we’ll look at some of
Laserdisc’s features that we didn’t get

389
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:31,950
in the States, and we’ll also see why DVD
was able to succeed where Laserdisc failed.

390
00:23:31,950 --> 00:23:34,340
Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the
video!

391
00:23:34,340 --> 00:23:39,090
If this is your first time watching this channel
and you liked what you saw, please consider subscribing.

392
00:23:39,090 --> 00:23:42,299
This channel is made possible by supporters
on Patreon.

393
00:23:42,299 --> 00:23:45,590
Patrons of the channel are what keeps these
videos coming, in fact with the support of

394
00:23:45,590 --> 00:23:49,840
viewers like you, I now spend more time working
on this channel than I do at work.

395
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,672
If you’re interested in helping out as well,
please check out my Patreon page through the

396
00:23:53,672 --> 00:23:56,270
link on your screen or down below in the description.

397
00:23:56,270 --> 00:23:58,820
Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll
see you next time!

398
00:24:00,740 --> 00:24:05,440
[NARRATOR: With the advent of three-dimensional
computer animation, different looks and styles

399
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:07,640
have evolved]