WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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In 1996, after a modestly successful 18 year
run as the high-end video format for movie

00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:10.329
buffs dedicated to quality, Laserdisc was
clearly doomed.

00:00:10.329 --> 00:00:14.610
The Digital Versatile Disc, or DVD, was slowly
making its way onto the market.

00:00:14.610 --> 00:00:19.820
Boasting the same physical form factor as
the ubiquitous and wildly successful compact disc,

00:00:19.820 --> 00:00:24.300
along with the promise of high-quality
digital video, DVD was clearly poised to be

00:00:24.310 --> 00:00:26.910
the next high-quality home video format.

00:00:26.910 --> 00:00:31.580
But unlike Laserdisc which never made its
way out of the very high-end market niche,

00:00:31.580 --> 00:00:35.480
DVD would quickly become the standard mass
market home video format.

00:00:35.480 --> 00:00:42.220
By 2003, it would surpass VHS in popularity,
and it still sells relatively well in 2018.

00:00:42.220 --> 00:00:45.440
What allowed DVD to succeed where Laserdisc
failed?

00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:48.680
DVD shared the biggest downside of Laserdisc
when comparing it to VHS--

00:00:48.680 --> 00:00:51.580
you couldn’t record on them (at least initially).

00:00:51.580 --> 00:00:55.350
And for a good while, DVDs and players came
at a significant price premium.

00:00:55.350 --> 00:01:00.510
From a quality standpoint, DVD wasn’t that
much better than Laserdisc, in fact some early

00:01:00.510 --> 00:01:04.860
DVD titles were mastered very poorly and looked
worse than a Laserdisc release.

00:01:04.860 --> 00:01:10.000
And while DVD was more convenient than Laserdisc,
by the 1990’s convenience wasn’t THE major

00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:11.890
downside to Laserdisc.

00:01:11.890 --> 00:01:15.670
Both side play machines existed to save you
the trouble of flipping the disc, and there

00:01:15.670 --> 00:01:21.640
was even one relatively rare model, 
the LD-W1, that could play 2 discs uninterrupted.

00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:23.900
As usual, there’s not one simple answer.

00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:27.720
A number of things came together to make DVD
spread like wildfire.

00:01:27.729 --> 00:01:28.939
Sell like hotcakes.

00:01:28.939 --> 00:01:30.660
Disseminate like the Borg.

00:01:30.660 --> 00:01:32.030
Resistance is futile.

00:01:32.030 --> 00:01:33.740
So first, a little history.

00:01:33.740 --> 00:01:39.710
Many people erroneously believe that DVD stands
for Digital Video Disc, but that’s not entirely true.

00:01:39.710 --> 00:01:43.189
As already stated, the V originally stood
for Versatile.

00:01:43.189 --> 00:01:47.210
The video format is officially referred to
as DVD-Video.

00:01:47.210 --> 00:01:51.380
If you thought the V stood for Video, you
might be under the impression that DVD was

00:01:51.380 --> 00:01:54.210
the first digital video format for consumers.

00:01:54.210 --> 00:01:58.020
But DVD wasn’t the first digital video format
for consumers.

00:01:58.020 --> 00:02:00.420
That was the Video CD.

00:02:00.430 --> 00:02:05.329
Video CD is only a few years older than DVD,
being released in 1993.

00:02:05.329 --> 00:02:08.819
From the perspective of efficiency, the VCD
is a remarkable achievement.

00:02:08.819 --> 00:02:15.130
A 74 minute audio CD holds only 650 megabytes,
the original capacity of the format.

00:02:15.130 --> 00:02:20.310
In that same 650 megabytes, a video CD holds
74 minutes of video.

00:02:20.310 --> 00:02:21.680
That’s pretty impressive.

00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:24.500
But of course, that video was highly compressed.

00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:26.920
In fact, the video was ridiculously compressed.

00:02:26.920 --> 00:02:32.190
With a resolution of only 352 by 240 in NTSC
countries, there was only the same level of

00:02:32.190 --> 00:02:33.959
detail as VHS.

00:02:33.959 --> 00:02:39.010
And the compression left tons of everyone’s
favorite blocky MPEG artifacts.

00:02:39.010 --> 00:02:43.270
Imagine taking a VHS tape, then uploading
it to YouTube in 2005.

00:02:43.270 --> 00:02:45.080
It’s that bad.

00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:49.319
Some years ago I ran across this set of the
Back to the Future trilogy on VCD, originally

00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:51.319
from either Singapore or Malaysia.

00:02:51.320 --> 00:02:54.740
Let’s compare a scene from the VCD release
to a VHS release.

00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:59.160
[Kids, we’re gonna have to eat this cake
by ourselves.]

00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:01.740
[Your Uncle Joey didn’t make parole again.]

00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:06.840
[I think it would be nice if you all dropped
him a line]

00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.340
Honestly, I’d rather watch it on VHS.

00:03:09.350 --> 00:03:13.790
The sound quality is noticeably better on
tape, with VHS Hi-Fi really beating the pants

00:03:13.790 --> 00:03:17.820
off the 224 kbits/second MP2 audio on the
VCD.

00:03:18.100 --> 00:03:19.680
♫ The power of love ♫

00:03:19.860 --> 00:03:21.380
♫ is a curious thing ♫

00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:23.640
♫ Make one man weep ♫

00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:24.960
♫ make another man sing ♫

00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:27.360
♫The same song again ♫

00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:28.920
♫ but with much better sound ♫

00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:31.440
♫ It’s a bit slower ♫

00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:33.840
♫ with a lower pitch, too♫

00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:37.500
As you may imagine, VCD wasn’t very popular
here in the states.

00:03:37.510 --> 00:03:39.959
However, in Asia it was very popular.

00:03:39.959 --> 00:03:44.580
VHS didn’t have a strong foothold yet when
VCD was released, and the machines could tolerate

00:03:44.580 --> 00:03:48.360
the high humidity of some Asian regions much
better than tape-based formats.

00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:53.220
However, I will be fair and show the VCD playing
through a CRT television.

00:03:53.220 --> 00:03:57.790
CRTs hide many of the flaws in a VCD and make
it much more tolerable.

00:03:57.790 --> 00:04:01.879
And although the limited recording time meant
most movies were spread across two discs (with

00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:07.200
a few perhaps needing three) the common carousel
CD changer mechanisms were easy to adapt into

00:04:07.200 --> 00:04:11.520
a VCD player, which would just require you
to load up the discs ahead of time.

00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:16.030
DVD was also beat to the punch (in the US
anyway) by digital satellite television services,

00:04:16.030 --> 00:04:19.459
with DirecTV launching digital service in
1994.

00:04:19.459 --> 00:04:22.370
But we’re talking about home video here,
so back to DVD.

00:04:22.370 --> 00:04:26.789
What made DVD possible was the use of a red
laser rather than the infrared laser in use

00:04:26.789 --> 00:04:28.520
with the compact disc.

00:04:28.520 --> 00:04:32.610
The shorter wavelength of light produced by
a red laser could focus on a much smaller

00:04:32.610 --> 00:04:38.400
spot, enabling a significantly finer data
stream on the disc, and thus allowing 4.7

00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:43.460
gigabytes of data to be stored on a single
layer, almost 7 times as much as the CD.

00:04:43.460 --> 00:04:48.700
And for those wondering, yes, history would
repeat itself when Blu-Ray adopted the blue-violet laser.

00:04:48.700 --> 00:04:51.199
Ah, but it wasn’t just 4.7 gigabytes.

00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:54.759
One of the most interesting innovations in
DVD was the use of dual layers.

00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:59.619
In many DVDs, the metalization of the first
data later is actually translucent.

00:04:59.619 --> 00:05:03.699
This allows the laser to be focused on it
and reflected back just like any other disc,

00:05:03.699 --> 00:05:07.009
but it also allows for the laser to partially
shine through it.

00:05:07.009 --> 00:05:12.870
By changing the focal point of the laser,
it can read a second set of pits located behind the first.

00:05:12.870 --> 00:05:16.479
This didn’t quite double the capacity of
the discs, but it brought a significant boost

00:05:16.479 --> 00:05:19.779
from 4.7 gigabytes up to 8.5.

00:05:19.779 --> 00:05:24.089
Blu-Ray discs also use this technique, with
some discs having 4 layers and holding over

00:05:24.089 --> 00:05:25.569
100 gigabytes.

00:05:25.569 --> 00:05:29.280
You may have noticed when the DVD player switches
from one layer to the other.

00:05:29.280 --> 00:05:32.889
When watching a DVD, there’s typically a
point where the video briefly freezes and

00:05:32.889 --> 00:05:34.259
then resumes.

00:05:34.259 --> 00:05:38.219
This happens because the laser has reached
the end of the first layer, and needs to switch

00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:39.600
to the second.

00:05:46.540 --> 00:05:51.159
Usually the folks behind mastering a DVD would
take care as to ensure this happens across

00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:56.000
a quiet jump cut to a change in scenery, thus
reducing the noticeability of the pause.

00:06:03.940 --> 00:06:09.280
Also of note as that on the second layer,
the data spiral is encoded from the outside in,

00:06:09.280 --> 00:06:14.169
so the laser carriage doesn’t have to
travel back to the center and further cause delays.

00:06:14.169 --> 00:06:18.449
With so much more data to play with, DVD supported
much higher resolutions and bitrates than

00:06:18.449 --> 00:06:23.479
a video CD, supporting the full standard definition
resolution of their respective region.

00:06:23.479 --> 00:06:26.580
NTSC discs had a resolution of 720 X 480,

00:06:26.580 --> 00:06:31.830
and PAL/SECAM discs had a resolution of 720 X 576.

00:06:31.830 --> 00:06:36.050
And because it was a digital format, variable
bit rates could be used to pack more content

00:06:36.050 --> 00:06:39.680
onto a single disc, so long as reduced quality
was acceptable.

00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:42.469
DVD also added some very useful features.

00:06:42.469 --> 00:06:47.539
The navigation of the disc via menus created
a much more interactive experience, and even

00:06:47.539 --> 00:06:49.990
allowed for games of a sort.

00:06:49.990 --> 00:06:54.699
Though DVD also allows for blocking out navigation
features, sometimes forcing you to sit through

00:06:54.699 --> 00:06:56.399
annoying previews.

00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:58.169
That was never a thing on Laserdisc.

00:06:58.169 --> 00:07:01.080
And let’s not even mention regional encoding.

00:07:01.080 --> 00:07:04.069
Managing special features is much easier on
a DVD.

00:07:04.069 --> 00:07:08.509
Subtitles were stored alongside video and
generated by the player on demand, enabling

00:07:08.509 --> 00:07:11.819
the addition of many different languages at
once.

00:07:11.819 --> 00:07:15.839
Laserdisc did technically offer closed captioning
as well, but it was limited to the closed

00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:19.719
captioning decoding abilities of the TV it
was plugged into.

00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:23.580
And in case you didn’t know, most VHS titles
were also closed captioned.

00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:31.740
Are you seeing how the captions don’t match
the dialogue?

00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:33.580
That’s some lazy captioning right there.

00:07:33.580 --> 00:07:34.440
The nerve.

00:07:34.740 --> 00:07:39.110
DVDs also enjoyed far more audio options,
with support for multiple languages, different

00:07:39.110 --> 00:07:42.610
surround sound formats, and commentaries all
on one disc.

00:07:42.610 --> 00:07:46.300
In fact, up to 8 separate audio streams are
supported at once.

00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:50.360
Laserdisc did offer some of these features,
for instance the Laserdisc release here of

00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:54.300
the Wizard of Oz features a Spanish and French
dub on each of the analog tracks.

00:07:54.580 --> 00:07:56.280
[She’s worse than the other one]

00:07:56.280 --> 00:07:58.700
[Who killed my sister?]

00:07:58.820 --> 00:08:00.700
[Who killed the Witch of the East?]

00:08:00.900 --> 00:08:02.080
[Was it you?]

00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:04.000
[¿Quién mató a mi hermana?]

00:08:04.200 --> 00:08:06.160
[¿Quién mató a la Bruja del Este?]

00:08:06.660 --> 00:08:07.640
[¿Eras tú?]

00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:09.720
[Qui a assassiné ma soeur?]

00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:12.080
[Qui a tué la fée de l'Est?]

00:08:12.080 --> 00:08:13.659
[Toi, sans doute!]

00:08:13.659 --> 00:08:16.389
But it wasn’t possible to pack anything
else in.

00:08:16.389 --> 00:08:20.969
If you wanted to offer a surround sound track,
you’d lose one analog track at a minimum.

00:08:20.969 --> 00:08:25.720
This leaves room for either a commentary or
a second language alongside the standard digital audio

00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:27.419
--but not both.

00:08:27.419 --> 00:08:32.860
If DTS audio was present on a Laserdisc, then you’d lose
the digital track and be left only with analog

00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:35.380
stereo or two mono selections.

00:08:35.380 --> 00:08:40.450
However, the digital audio on a Laserdisc
isn’t compressed at all, whereas on a DVD

00:08:40.450 --> 00:08:42.070
it often is to save space.

00:08:42.070 --> 00:08:45.829
OK, you’ve probably interacted with a DVD
player before, so there’s not too much use

00:08:45.829 --> 00:08:47.879
droning on about the format’s capabilities.

00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:50.750
Instead, let’s look at the machine I showed
earlier.

00:08:50.750 --> 00:08:54.740
This was one of my more fortuitous Goodwill
finds, particularly due to its history.

00:08:54.740 --> 00:09:00.290
The DVL-700 by Pioneer was released in 1997,
with this machine being manufactured in September

00:09:00.290 --> 00:09:01.699
of that year.

00:09:01.699 --> 00:09:04.149
This was the bleeding edge of technology.

00:09:04.149 --> 00:09:09.250
The Laserdisc Archive claims this to be the
world’s first combination DVD/LD player,

00:09:09.250 --> 00:09:15.070
but the Laserdisc Archive also claims that
the DVL-9 was released in Japan in 1996, so…

00:09:15.070 --> 00:09:16.070
maybe?

00:09:16.070 --> 00:09:21.550
Anyway, DVD was released in Japan in November
of 1996, and the US in March of 1997.

00:09:21.550 --> 00:09:26.149
So this machine was made only 6 months into
the US existence of DVD.

00:09:26.149 --> 00:09:30.840
Now just in case you’ve somehow forgotten,
computing power in 1997 was pretty paltry

00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:32.370
compared to today.

00:09:32.370 --> 00:09:36.639
Let me just remind you that the website for
this film remains online as a time capsule

00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:40.069
of the 1996 computing experience.

00:09:40.069 --> 00:09:41.550
Yeah.

00:09:41.550 --> 00:09:45.370
Decoding standard definition video at the
bitrate of a DVD was quite the task for a

00:09:45.370 --> 00:09:47.430
desktop computer of the time.

00:09:47.430 --> 00:09:52.079
Though DVD players were purpose-built for
that task, they were still packing some sophisticated

00:09:52.079 --> 00:09:53.910
hardware for the time.

00:09:53.910 --> 00:09:58.389
This machine actually has a cooling fan onboard,
which you can hear running whenever it’s

00:09:58.389 --> 00:09:59.389
turned on.

00:09:59.389 --> 00:10:03.290
Of course these days playing a DVD is child’s
play to a $200 laptop, but to bring us back

00:10:03.290 --> 00:10:06.040
on track let’s look a little closer at this
machine.

00:10:06.040 --> 00:10:09.430
It made a great deal of sense for Pioneer
to introduce a player that could play both

00:10:09.430 --> 00:10:14.560
Laserdiscs and these newfangled DVDs, as their
customer base probably had a sizeable collection

00:10:14.560 --> 00:10:16.430
of laserdiscs already.

00:10:16.430 --> 00:10:20.399
One device capable of both would probably
be preferred to managing two devices.

00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:25.410
Now, this machine took an odd approach to
reading both DVDs and Laserdiscs.

00:10:25.410 --> 00:10:30.439
Rather than use a single red laser which could
be adapted to read laserdiscs and CDs, Pioneer

00:10:30.439 --> 00:10:35.660
further altered the Both-Side Play mechanism
by using two separate lasers for Laserdisc

00:10:35.660 --> 00:10:36.830
and DVD playback.

00:10:36.830 --> 00:10:39.329
OK, here’s where things get a little weird.

00:10:39.329 --> 00:10:43.790
In many Pioneer players, for some reason the
engineers thought it was worth the extra complexity

00:10:43.790 --> 00:10:46.199
to build two disc trays in one.

00:10:46.199 --> 00:10:51.730
You’ll see there are two eject buttons--one
labeled LD, and the other CD/DVD.

00:10:51.730 --> 00:10:55.750
Press LD and the entire tray opens for you
to deposit your laserdisc.

00:10:55.750 --> 00:11:01.240
But press CD/DVD, and a small tray will exit
through the middle portion here.

00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:06.399
This wasn’t new for the DVD capable machines,
they had been doing this since at least 1992

00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:09.550
with a feature they called “Direct CD”.

00:11:09.550 --> 00:11:11.000
Now here’s where I go---

00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:11.569
WHY????

00:11:11.569 --> 00:11:16.460
I admit it looks silly, but you could easily
just plop a CD or DVD into the center of the

00:11:16.460 --> 00:11:17.740
large tray.

00:11:17.740 --> 00:11:21.860
All the little tray did was make them create
another mechanism to drive just the center

00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:23.399
portion out of the machine.

00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:28.000
I never understood this, and to me it just
seems a wasted effort on extra complexity.

00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:32.589
If anything I’d say this was out of vanity,
so that people could show off the small size

00:11:32.589 --> 00:11:34.430
of the DVD when playing it.

00:11:34.430 --> 00:11:37.829
But as I said, they were doing this years
earlier, so who knows.

00:11:37.829 --> 00:11:43.360
In a strange twist, Pioneer botched an opportunity
to actually make the dual tray thingy useful.

00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:47.200
Because this unit uses a separate laser for
the DVD and Laserdisc functions, it could

00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:49.980
have used these buttons to prepare the correct
laser.

00:11:49.980 --> 00:11:54.141
See, if you put a DVD in the middle of the
large tray, it will first try to read it as

00:11:54.141 --> 00:11:55.949
a Laserdisc or CD.

00:11:55.949 --> 00:12:00.339
When it realizes it can’t focus on the pits--they’re
too small for the infrared laser--it sends

00:12:00.339 --> 00:12:03.069
the laser back, and brings the red laser to
the rescue.

00:12:03.069 --> 00:12:04.839
Then it will play the DVD.

00:12:04.839 --> 00:12:08.680
Pioneer did make it smart enough to always
prepare the infrared laser when you select

00:12:08.680 --> 00:12:11.870
Laserdisc eject, but it didn’t go the other
way around.

00:12:11.870 --> 00:12:12.870
Why?

00:12:12.870 --> 00:12:17.720
Well, because for some incredibly silly reason,
Pioneer didn’t use the red laser for CDs.

00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:22.810
They totally could have, but when you eject
a DVD and then play a CD, it will try to read

00:12:22.810 --> 00:12:27.149
the disc with the red laser, and upon realising
it’s not a DVD, it sends it back and brings

00:12:27.149 --> 00:12:28.750
out the infrared laser.

00:12:28.750 --> 00:12:30.139
Why on Earth does it do that?

00:12:30.139 --> 00:12:31.199
Does anyone know?

00:12:31.199 --> 00:12:35.800
I’m genuinely curious as to why Pioneer
used the red laser for DVD’s only.

00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:41.490
I don’t know of a DVD player that can’t
also play CDs, and they don’t have two lasers

00:12:41.490 --> 00:12:42.670
at their disposal.

00:12:42.670 --> 00:12:46.480
When you take a closer look inside the machine,
you’ll see that the two ribbon cables coming

00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:50.589
from lasers’ waiting room are going to different
places.

00:12:50.589 --> 00:12:53.629
There are two large circuit boards stacked
on top of each other.

00:12:53.629 --> 00:12:57.970
It’s my pretty strong guess that one of
these boards handles DVD playback, and the

00:12:57.970 --> 00:13:00.560
other Laserdisc and CD playback.

00:13:00.560 --> 00:13:04.509
This sort of gives a clue to the odd, irrational
behavior of this machine.

00:13:04.509 --> 00:13:09.689
It seems like this isn’t so much a combination
DVD/LD player, it’s more of a Laserdisc

00:13:09.689 --> 00:13:14.810
player that’s had a DVD player shoved inside
it like some sort of digital parasite.

00:13:14.810 --> 00:13:20.079
With that said, it’s still not a good explanation
for only using the Laserdisc section for CDs.

00:13:20.079 --> 00:13:23.930
I don’t see a reason why the DVD section
couldn’t have handled that.

00:13:23.930 --> 00:13:28.990
I suppose they might have just wanted the
infrared section to read CDs on the off chance

00:13:28.990 --> 00:13:31.560
a 5 inch CD-video disc was played.

00:13:31.560 --> 00:13:36.389
In that case, the Laserdisc circuitry would
be needed to get the analog video off of the

00:13:36.389 --> 00:13:37.389
CDV disc.

00:13:37.389 --> 00:13:39.809
But, you ask, why not just use the red laser
for everything?

00:13:39.809 --> 00:13:44.120
What’s to stop the player from using the
red laser on Laserdiscs, too?

00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:45.709
Well, hold that thought.

00:13:45.709 --> 00:13:50.069
There were machines that used a red laser,
and in Japan this was used for a very impressive

00:13:50.069 --> 00:13:53.069
laserdisc offering we didn’t get in the
States.

00:13:53.069 --> 00:13:54.699
Like I said, hold that thought.

00:13:54.699 --> 00:13:59.500
Now when this machine was released, the art
of mastering a DVD had not yet been perfected.

00:13:59.500 --> 00:14:04.910
It was very common for a 1997 DVD release
of a film to look noticeably worse than a

00:14:04.910 --> 00:14:07.559
1997 Laserdisc release.

00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:10.519
And these early players had some really clunky
navigation.

00:14:10.519 --> 00:14:13.800
Want to fast forward and get a picture search?

00:14:13.800 --> 00:14:15.459
This is the best you’ll get.

00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:19.700
[So, it is down to you, and it is down to
me]

00:14:31.640 --> 00:14:34.280
That pales in comparison to a CAV Laserdisc.

00:14:34.290 --> 00:14:39.860
In fact, this machine featured a frame buffer
to allow for smooth fast forwarding on CLV discs.

00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:41.200
Take a look.

00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:48.420
♫ Delightfully jolly music of 1952 ♫

00:14:50.100 --> 00:14:52.340
That’s not fast by today’s standards,

00:14:52.350 --> 00:14:55.589
but it blows its own DVD performance out of
the water.

00:14:55.589 --> 00:14:59.759
But even on a conventional machine, searching
through a CLV disc was far better than the

00:14:59.760 --> 00:15:02.620
slow DVD search of 1997:

00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:04.800
[Too late!]

00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:10.100
[disap..p…]

00:15:10.820 --> 00:15:11.500
[Disa-what?]

00:15:11.700 --> 00:15:12.420
[...pear]                          [Shh!]

00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:17.340
But DVD did have a number of huge advantages
over Laserdisc that were oh so apparent even

00:15:17.350 --> 00:15:18.959
in 1997.

00:15:18.959 --> 00:15:23.339
Biggest among them, an entire movie was contained
on a single side of a tiny disc.

00:15:23.339 --> 00:15:27.279
The brief pause for the layer change was nothing
compared to the time it takes this machine

00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:30.010
to automatically switch sides on a Laserdisc.

00:15:30.010 --> 00:15:33.830
The discs were much easier to handle, and
since they had the same physical size of the

00:15:33.830 --> 00:15:38.100
ubiquitous compact disc, everyone was familiar
with how to interact with them.

00:15:38.100 --> 00:15:42.060
DVD also wasn’t so strictly limited on recording
time like the Laserdisc was.

00:15:42.060 --> 00:15:46.290
If a movie pushed into three hours, you could
just apply more compression and fit it all

00:15:46.290 --> 00:15:47.569
on a single disc.

00:15:47.569 --> 00:15:51.399
It was very very rare that movie needed a
second disc.

00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:55.819
And even if it did, the Dual-layer, double
sided disc meant you could just flip it over

00:15:55.819 --> 00:15:57.240
just like a Laserdisc.

00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:01.710
There was never a need for a second disc like
was so common on Laserdisc.

00:16:01.710 --> 00:16:05.660
The digital nature of the format allowed for
error correction and cheaper laser assemblies

00:16:05.660 --> 00:16:09.860
to be used, though admittedly it’s much
easier to scratch a DVD to the point of no

00:16:09.860 --> 00:16:12.000
return than it is a Laserdisc.

00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.290
And as perhaps the greatest advantage DVD
had, its small size meant it could actually

00:16:16.290 --> 00:16:18.410
work for the rental market.

00:16:18.410 --> 00:16:23.689
Netflix famously started as a mail rental
service for DVDs in 1998.

00:16:23.689 --> 00:16:25.980
Try doing that with Laserdiscs.

00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:30.019
DVD may have been far and away more convenient
than Laserdisc, but it still was a playback-only

00:16:30.019 --> 00:16:32.249
format in 1997.

00:16:32.249 --> 00:16:37.329
If the ability to record was what drove consumers
to VHS over Laserdisc, what caused DVD to

00:16:37.329 --> 00:16:39.459
succeed where Laserdisc failed?

00:16:39.459 --> 00:16:42.180
I think its success came from four major places.

00:16:42.180 --> 00:16:46.129
First, the home video market was now well
established, so people had warmed up to the

00:16:46.129 --> 00:16:48.880
idea of buying and renting movies on tape.

00:16:48.880 --> 00:16:53.230
Second, DVD equipment and media plummeted
in cost relatively quickly.

00:16:53.230 --> 00:16:58.339
Third, by 2000 people were buying much larger
TVs than they were in the 80s and 90s, so

00:16:58.339 --> 00:17:02.180
the quality flaws of VHS were starting to
become more of an issue.

00:17:02.180 --> 00:17:06.520
And the fourth factor--which I think is the
biggest--was that it shared its physical attributes

00:17:06.520 --> 00:17:07.520
with the CD.

00:17:07.520 --> 00:17:10.640
So let’s start with the first thing--the
home video market.

00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:15.069
Because people were now accustomed to renting
or buying video content, a new format that

00:17:15.069 --> 00:17:19.470
was more convenient than both VHS and Laserdisc
was intriguing.

00:17:19.470 --> 00:17:22.030
No need to flip a disc OR rewind a tape.

00:17:22.030 --> 00:17:27.779
And since everyone already had a VCR for recording
TV, the inability of DVD to record wasn’t

00:17:27.779 --> 00:17:29.720
that big of a deal.

00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:33.899
Even when VCRs were common, to make the leap
to Laserdisc meant dealing with very high

00:17:33.899 --> 00:17:39.200
costs for purchasing discs, limited availability,
and also the added inconvenience of multiple

00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:41.320
sides and/or discs.

00:17:41.320 --> 00:17:44.950
Not many people saw all those downsides to
be worth the investment.

00:17:44.950 --> 00:17:50.029
But once DVD players started to come down
in price, the leap to DVD brought the quality

00:17:50.029 --> 00:17:57.299
boost of Laserdisc with none of its inconvenience--and
a lot of added convenience when compared to VHS.

00:17:57.299 --> 00:17:59.110
Now let’s look at how quickly the prices
dropped.

00:17:59.110 --> 00:18:03.240
In 1997, the cheapest DVD player was about
$500.

00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:04.510
But that’s actually not too bad.

00:18:04.510 --> 00:18:12.380
As a refresher, in 1993 the Pioneer CLD-S201,
a single side player, was $319, and this CLD-D502

00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:13.890
was $459.

00:18:13.890 --> 00:18:18.169
In August of 1997, this DVL-700 went for an
even thousand.

00:18:18.169 --> 00:18:22.919
But by 1999, you could get a DVD player for
as little as $250.

00:18:22.919 --> 00:18:26.490
VCRs were still over a hundred dollars at
this point, so the price disparity was beginning

00:18:26.490 --> 00:18:27.490
to shrink.

00:18:27.490 --> 00:18:31.370
By 2002, DVD players could be had for less
than a hundred dollars.

00:18:31.370 --> 00:18:35.580
By now, VCRs and DVD players cost about the
same, and it was around this time that the

00:18:35.580 --> 00:18:37.930
ubiquitous combo units started to appear.

00:18:37.930 --> 00:18:43.039
The picture quality advantage of DVD was starting
to become quite critical by the late nineties.

00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:48.370
Even on your average CRT TV, the DVD looks
noticeably better than VHS.

00:18:48.370 --> 00:18:52.840
Make that a 27 inch CRT or bigger, and the
difference is even clearer.

00:18:52.840 --> 00:18:57.580
DVDs could also encode widescreen content
without significant image quality loss.

00:18:57.580 --> 00:19:03.110
By stretching a standard aspect ratio frame
to fit a 16:9 frame, there wasn’t any detail

00:19:03.110 --> 00:19:04.110
lost.

00:19:04.110 --> 00:19:09.279
This was called anamorphic widescreen, and
worked much the same as film projectors did.

00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:12.620
Widescreen content was produced natively on
the disc like this.

00:19:12.620 --> 00:19:17.299
On a 4:3 display, the DVD player would generate
the black bars for letterboxing, and squish

00:19:17.299 --> 00:19:19.720
the video downward to fit the frame.

00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:24.500
But if set to a 16:9 display output, the DVD
player would not add the black bars, and it

00:19:24.500 --> 00:19:28.210
would produce a picture that appeared to be
squeezed in from left to right.

00:19:28.210 --> 00:19:32.409
It would send a signal to the TV to tell it
stretch this back out out to either side,

00:19:32.409 --> 00:19:35.210
thus restoring the correct aspect ratio.

00:19:35.210 --> 00:19:40.500
If a movie was released on VHS in widescreen,
the black bars are there as part of the video

00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:43.850
signal, which means there’s less actual
image on screen.

00:19:43.850 --> 00:19:49.070
To fill a widescreen display requires zooming
in, which drastically harms image quality.

00:19:49.070 --> 00:19:54.350
Many early DVDs were not encoded with anamorphic
widescreen, so on these releases the letterboxing

00:19:54.350 --> 00:19:57.529
is unfortunately part of the actual video.

00:19:57.529 --> 00:20:00.200
These discs also require zooming to fill the
frame.

00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:03.820
Now let’s look at what allowed the cost
of DVD to fall so quickly.

00:20:03.820 --> 00:20:09.250
The biggest factor is probably that at its
core, it’s nothing more than a modified CD.

00:20:09.250 --> 00:20:13.000
Take a look at the disc mechanism from a first
generation PlayStation.

00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:16.530
Open up any modern optical drive and you see
the same basic stuff.

00:20:16.530 --> 00:20:19.480
A spindle to hold a disc, and a laser to read
it.

00:20:19.480 --> 00:20:23.380
The only things that separate this drive from
what’s in the PlayStation are a stronger

00:20:23.380 --> 00:20:27.340
and faster spindle motor, and a red laser
rather than infrared.

00:20:27.340 --> 00:20:32.390
The simple fact was that a DVD drive was just
a slightly altered CD drive, and we were pumping

00:20:32.390 --> 00:20:34.419
those things out like crazy.

00:20:34.419 --> 00:20:40.779
Computers, car stereos, the CD Walkman, PlayStations,
boomboxes and home stereos all had a CD drive

00:20:40.779 --> 00:20:41.779
in them.

00:20:41.779 --> 00:20:47.080
As a personal example, in 1999 I can think
of five CD players in my home--my dad’s

00:20:47.080 --> 00:20:52.179
car, my personal walkman, our main stereo,
my brother’s bookshelf system, and our home

00:20:52.179 --> 00:20:56.380
computer all had a CD drive of some sort.

00:20:56.380 --> 00:21:00.590
Manufacturing facilities existed all over
the world to produce these CD drives.

00:21:00.590 --> 00:21:04.929
All they needed to do to start making DVD
drives was to upgrade the motor and laser.

00:21:04.929 --> 00:21:07.020
Pretty much everything else could stay the
same.

00:21:07.020 --> 00:21:11.190
The only really expensive components in the
early DVD players were the electronics needed

00:21:11.190 --> 00:21:14.450
to process the data on the disc into a video
output.

00:21:14.450 --> 00:21:17.789
But as we know, electronics tend to get cheap
fast.

00:21:17.789 --> 00:21:22.110
It only took a few years for the DVD player’s
hardware to plummet in price, at which point

00:21:22.110 --> 00:21:24.770
a DVD player could be had very cheaply.

00:21:24.770 --> 00:21:28.649
DVDs were also significantly helped out by
the fact that the computer industry adopted

00:21:28.649 --> 00:21:30.960
them as a data storage format.

00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:35.309
In the nineties and early 2000’s, optical
storage was still the best bang for your buck

00:21:35.309 --> 00:21:36.950
in terms of storage space.

00:21:36.950 --> 00:21:41.390
In 1998, the iMac was released with a 4 gigabyte
hard drive.

00:21:41.390 --> 00:21:46.299
A single layer DVD could store more than the
entire hard drive of your typical computer.

00:21:46.299 --> 00:21:50.559
In fact, the development of DVD was done in
tandem with computer OEMs.

00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:55.710
There were initially two competing standards--Philips
and Sony were working on the MultiMedia Compact

00:21:55.710 --> 00:22:00.360
Disc, and Toshiba, Time Warner, Matsushita
Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer,

00:22:00.360 --> 00:22:06.659
Thomson, and JVC were all backing a different
format called SD, or Super Density Disc.

00:22:06.659 --> 00:22:08.500
The computer manufacturers stepped in and
said,

00:22:08.500 --> 00:22:10.460
look, either you guys agree on one standard,

00:22:10.460 --> 00:22:12.140
or don’t expect us to play along.

00:22:12.140 --> 00:22:13.140
Got it?

00:22:13.140 --> 00:22:16.740
It’s a good thing this happened, as it avoided
yet another format war.

00:22:16.740 --> 00:22:20.990
With the computer industry on board, DVD drives
started to appear in devices like desktops

00:22:20.990 --> 00:22:22.070
and laptops.

00:22:22.070 --> 00:22:26.740
This massive scale continued to drive the
cost of DVD downward, and it also meant that

00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:30.570
people could now play their movies on the
go with a laptop, or at the very least use

00:22:30.570 --> 00:22:33.100
their desktop as a second place to watch a
movie

00:22:33.100 --> 00:22:35.500
(assuming their computer was capable of handling the video).

00:22:44.300 --> 00:22:48.280
The discs themselves were also far easier
to make than a Laserdisc.

00:22:48.289 --> 00:22:53.539
Though the dual layers added extra complexity,
they were made much the same as a CD.

00:22:53.539 --> 00:22:58.510
The production of Laserdiscs, while technically
still mass production, was a tiny tiny business

00:22:58.510 --> 00:23:00.669
compared to pressing CDs.

00:23:00.669 --> 00:23:05.350
When DVDs became available, the same businesses
that made CDs could adapt some of their existing

00:23:05.350 --> 00:23:10.429
equipment to produce DVDs, and by needing
less raw materials the discs were cheaper

00:23:10.429 --> 00:23:12.029
to make over the long run.

00:23:12.029 --> 00:23:13.720
And then, there’s the PlayStation 2.

00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:22.920
[The blissful sound of the PS2 startup]

00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:25.880
Sony,
having realized the benefit of the much larger

00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:31.840
storage capacity of DVD, decided to make DVD
the format of choice for their new console.

00:23:31.840 --> 00:23:35.340
And they also made sure it could play a DVD-Video
disc.

00:23:35.340 --> 00:23:39.269
Released in 2000, the PS2 was a pretty early
DVD player.

00:23:39.269 --> 00:23:44.070
Sony really made a genius move there, as parents
could be persuaded by their kids to buy one

00:23:44.070 --> 00:23:46.100
"because it can also play DVDs!"

00:23:46.100 --> 00:23:49.010
And it would push
the format along massively.

00:23:49.010 --> 00:23:54.340
The PS2 may have been the single greatest
catalyst for pushing the DVD into the mainstream.

00:23:54.340 --> 00:24:00.150
Nintendo missed a huge opportunity by using
the mini-DVD discs in the GameCube.

00:24:00.150 --> 00:24:04.600
Without the ability to play DVD Video, that’s
a harder sell for your parents.

00:24:04.600 --> 00:24:08.120
Of course, Sony would repeat the same strategy
with the introduction of Blu-Ray

00:24:08.120 --> 00:24:09.620
in the PlayStation 3.

00:24:09.620 --> 00:24:13.320
Lastly, DVD recording ended up being a somewhat common thing.

00:24:13.330 --> 00:24:20.410
The DVD-RAM disc was introduced in 1996, with
the more common DVD-R coming the following year.

00:24:20.410 --> 00:24:25.070
It took a while for consumer devices to get
to reasonable prices, but set top boxes capable

00:24:25.070 --> 00:24:31.399
of recording directly onto DVDs were available
and DVD-Camcorders were available by the early 2000’s.

00:24:31.399 --> 00:24:34.840
However, using a DVD recorder wasn’t really
that common.

00:24:34.840 --> 00:24:38.970
For those who wanted to record TV, their VCR
was often seen as good enough.

00:24:38.970 --> 00:24:43.880
And once hard-drive based DVRs for recording
TV came along, few people were still using

00:24:43.880 --> 00:24:45.389
physical media for that anyway.

00:24:45.389 --> 00:24:48.980
All of these developments just passed Laserdisc
by.

00:24:48.980 --> 00:24:53.960
Being a primarily analog medium, it was rarely
used in the computing industry.

00:24:53.960 --> 00:24:58.080
While an all-digital Laserdisc could have
been made, it’s large size would still have

00:24:58.080 --> 00:24:59.710
been inconvenient.

00:24:59.710 --> 00:25:04.350
When DVD was released, it had obvious applications
outside of home video.

00:25:04.350 --> 00:25:09.250
The support of the computing industry (and
gaming industry) made it explode, and economies

00:25:09.250 --> 00:25:14.530
of scale would ensure DVD media and machines
to play them were cheap cheap cheap.

00:25:14.530 --> 00:25:18.049
Now before I end the video, remember how I
asked why Pioneer couldn’t have used the

00:25:18.049 --> 00:25:20.490
red laser for all functions in this machine?

00:25:20.490 --> 00:25:24.970
Well, there are some Laserdisc players that
did use a red laser.

00:25:24.970 --> 00:25:29.050
In my next video on Laserdisc, which will
likely be the last in the series, I’ll talk

00:25:29.050 --> 00:25:34.140
about the laserdisc format we didn’t get
in the States--The MUSE High Definition Laserdisc.

00:25:34.140 --> 00:25:36.680
That's right.  HD Laserdisc.

00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:38.539
Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the
video!

00:25:38.539 --> 00:25:42.010
If this is your first time coming across the
channel and you liked what you saw, please

00:25:42.010 --> 00:25:43.159
consider subscribing!

00:25:43.159 --> 00:25:47.280
I’d also like to take the time to thank
this channel’s supporters on Patreon.

00:25:47.280 --> 00:25:49.720
Patrons of the channel are what keep these
videos coming.

00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:53.450
If you’re interested in becoming a patron
as well, please check out my Patreon page

00:25:53.450 --> 00:25:56.820
through the link on your screen, or down below
in the description.

00:25:56.820 --> 00:25:59.000
Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll
see you next time!

00:26:06.860 --> 00:26:10.960
The only thing that separates this drive from
what’s in the Playstation are…

00:26:11.660 --> 00:26:12.160
Things.

00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:12.900
Sh*t