WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.900 Hello and welcome to the very first Connextras: Sights and Sounds. 00:00:05.263 --> 00:00:10.059 Today we're gonna be looking at laserdisc players and their operation. 00:00:10.059 --> 00:00:15.120 Now we're gonna be looking at three different players with a bonus fourth player. 00:00:15.120 --> 00:00:18.199 And we're gonna be starting with a bit of an odd duck. 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:20.710 This is the CLD-M301. 00:00:20.710 --> 00:00:24.550 It's the Laserdisc player that has a built-in 5 disc CD changer. 00:00:24.873 --> 00:00:29.114 Now, I'm gonna do a separate Sights and Sounds video on this player 00:00:29.114 --> 00:00:32.710 because I took a lot of footage of the mechanism. 00:00:32.710 --> 00:00:37.689 But I'm starting with it here because it represents a bare-bones Laserdisc player 00:00:37.689 --> 00:00:40.570 from the early '90s pretty well. 00:00:40.570 --> 00:00:45.360 It makes a few extra noises because of that CD changer mechanism but for the most part 00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:49.330 tons of Laserdisc players are gonna sound exactly like this. 00:00:49.330 --> 00:00:52.579 Tons of single-sided laserdisc players, that is. 00:00:52.579 --> 00:00:57.610 Now a quick programming note before we start, I recorded most of this in mono. 00:00:57.610 --> 00:01:02.360 There's a stereo experiment later on that I'll talk about when we get there and all 00:01:02.360 --> 00:01:07.200 of the recordings were made with the machines intact, and their covers on. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:12.312 Because I want this to be representative of what the machine was actually like in overall use. 00:01:12.312 --> 00:01:14.496 So, let's get started. 00:01:14.819 --> 00:01:17.351 So I'll begin by turning on the television. 00:01:18.926 --> 00:01:22.282 And then we will turn on the machine itself. 00:01:27.693 --> 00:01:31.662 [various motors pulse briefly] 00:01:31.662 --> 00:01:33.244 Gonna open the tray. 00:01:35.263 --> 00:01:37.358 [loud whirring as tray opens] 00:01:37.681 --> 00:01:41.926 And now I'm gonna place a Laserdisc on the tray and press play. 00:01:42.249 --> 00:01:45.297 [same whirr as tray is drawn in] 00:01:45.797 --> 00:01:48.396 [various mechanical noises] 00:01:49.758 --> 00:01:53.666 [click; disc begins to spin] 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:05.278 [disc is now at speed, laser tracking sounds] 00:02:06.166 --> 00:02:07.840 We now have a picture. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.772 [machine hums steadily, faint audio comes from TV] 00:02:23.292 --> 00:02:25.931 What I'm gonna do now is press stop. 00:02:27.142 --> 00:02:31.341 [disc rapidly comes to a stop] 00:02:31.341 --> 00:02:34.466 [similar mechanical noises as when loading] 00:02:36.969 --> 00:02:40.927 And now I'll be pressing play with the disc already in the machine. 00:02:42.744 --> 00:02:48.131 [same mechanical, spin up, and laser tracking sounds as before] 00:02:59.437 --> 00:03:02.889 OK, so the disc that's playing now is a CLV disc. 00:03:02.889 --> 00:03:04.746 That's the long-playing disc. 00:03:04.746 --> 00:03:08.965 And now I'll skip forward some chapters so you can hear the disc slowing down. 00:03:08.965 --> 00:03:15.483 [rapid button presses, disc rapidly slows as laser tracks] 00:03:18.148 --> 00:03:21.882 Of course you also heard the seeking noises of the laser as well. 00:03:32.743 --> 00:03:36.542 [more high-pitched, warbley seeking sounds] 00:03:40.217 --> 00:03:46.167 At this point we are sixteen minutes into the disc so about a little more than a quarter of its runtime. 00:03:55.131 --> 00:03:57.302 Now I'm actually skipping backwards. 00:03:58.392 --> 00:04:05.610 [rapid button presses, disc speeds up] 00:04:17.562 --> 00:04:19.442 And now we're gonna hit eject. 00:04:20.209 --> 00:04:24.868 [disc whirrs to a stop] 00:04:24.868 --> 00:04:27.418 [mechanical noises as transport shuffles] 00:04:27.418 --> 00:04:29.351 [loud whirr as tray moves] 00:04:34.930 --> 00:04:38.237 Alright and now I'm putting in a CAV disc. 00:04:40.498 --> 00:04:46.919 [same sequence of sounds as before] 00:04:48.776 --> 00:04:52.590 [disc spins up] 00:05:02.886 --> 00:05:04.715 We have a picture. 00:05:06.249 --> 00:05:10.956 Now, for those that don't recall, CAV discs maintain the same rotational speed. 00:05:10.956 --> 00:05:13.665 So when we skip ahead to different chapters... 00:05:14.271 --> 00:05:17.959 [rapid button presses, quick seeking sound] 00:05:18.847 --> 00:05:23.088 the disc did not slow down and so chapter search was very fast. 00:05:23.088 --> 00:05:28.230 Another thing to note is that the laserdisc display is showing the frame numbers. 00:05:28.230 --> 00:05:32.194 We're currently on frame twenty-nine thousand and something... 00:05:32.194 --> 00:05:34.242 instead of runtime. 00:05:36.947 --> 00:05:40.302 We just went back to Chapter 4, that's how long it takes, 00:05:40.302 --> 00:05:41.740 and we're now at frame ten thousand... 00:05:41.740 --> 00:05:43.402 almost eleven thousand. 00:05:54.117 --> 00:05:55.886 Now we're back to the beginning. 00:05:56.169 --> 00:05:58.653 Chapter search is very, very fast with CAV. 00:06:00.228 --> 00:06:07.309 [successive quick search/tracking sounds as we go from one chapter to the next] 00:06:15.709 --> 00:06:24.880 [disc slowing down, machine preparing to eject] 00:06:27.383 --> 00:06:31.600 OK, so obviously we removed it and... 00:06:33.942 --> 00:06:37.756 now we've moved onto the CLD-D502. 00:06:37.756 --> 00:06:42.530 Now, this machine has a bit of an issue when it powers up after I haven't used it in a while. 00:06:42.530 --> 00:06:44.798 It has a belt that slips. 00:06:45.283 --> 00:06:50.304 [similar mechanical sounds to the last player as unit boots] 00:06:53.171 --> 00:06:54.441 So when you try to hit open... 00:06:55.370 --> 00:06:58.970 [consistent whirring sound] 00:06:58.970 --> 00:07:00.217 that's all that happens. 00:07:00.217 --> 00:07:03.110 Now, this machine is a both-side play model. 00:07:03.110 --> 00:07:06.786 It will play both sides of the disc, that's what's special about it. 00:07:06.786 --> 00:07:09.770 And we'll be looking at that process shortly. 00:07:09.770 --> 00:07:13.243 But while it's still stuck here, 00:07:13.243 --> 00:07:14.843 turns out there's a pretty easy fix. 00:07:15.328 --> 00:07:15.828 [bang] 00:07:16.030 --> 00:07:18.136 [whir changes pitch as tray is freed] 00:07:18.661 --> 00:07:20.947 Just give it a good whack, that's all ya need. 00:07:27.327 --> 00:07:32.420 Right now I'm just exercising the disc tray to hopefully keep it from getting stuck again. 00:07:32.420 --> 00:07:36.385 So I'm gonna start this machine actually playing a CD. 00:07:37.193 --> 00:07:40.898 [tray movement sounds identical to previous machine] 00:07:42.634 --> 00:07:44.298 [laser moves] 00:07:44.298 --> 00:07:46.529 [disc spins] 00:07:48.306 --> 00:07:51.777 [faint tracking noises] 00:07:53.158 --> 00:07:54.331 [music] 00:07:54.331 --> 00:08:00.777 Now I'm gonna repeat this, but I want you to listen for what it's doing because if you pay close attention 00:08:00.777 --> 00:08:06.396 you'll notice that it searches for something before it actually begins playing the CD. 00:08:06.396 --> 00:08:11.302 That's because internally what it's doing is it's checking to see if it has a laserdisc 00:08:11.302 --> 00:08:16.588 which is a larger diameter, then it moves to the CD. 00:08:18.365 --> 00:08:20.000 [laser shuffles] 00:08:27.044 --> 00:08:29.849 Hopefully you heard that first little check, there. 00:08:29.849 --> 00:08:33.525 It's pretty subtle but there's a slight delay when playing a CD for that reason. 00:08:39.380 --> 00:08:42.321 OK so now I'm putting a laserdisc in the tray. 00:08:43.330 --> 00:08:45.682 We'll hit play. 00:08:45.682 --> 00:08:50.715 [an identical sequence of sounds to the previous player] 00:08:50.715 --> 00:08:55.018 [disc spins up] 00:09:03.094 --> 00:09:04.692 We have a picture. 00:09:06.792 --> 00:09:10.119 And now I'll be doing the same skipping around as I was before. 00:09:10.119 --> 00:09:15.932 But this time I'm gonna skip to the very end of the disc to the second-to-last chapter, I believe, 00:09:15.932 --> 00:09:18.761 so you'll see how long it takes to seek that far forward. 00:09:21.122 --> 00:09:24.131 [rapid button presses] 00:09:24.439 --> 00:09:31.319 [Prolonged seeking and tracking noises as disc slows drastically. Player is almost silent at this slow rotational speed] 00:09:36.657 --> 00:09:38.889 OK, and now I'm using picture search. 00:09:41.798 --> 00:09:47.984 Because this is a more basic player, and a CLV disc, the screen is very glitchy as I'm moving forward. 00:09:47.984 --> 00:09:51.467 Everything is broken up top-to-bottom. 00:09:52.938 --> 00:10:00.625 [faint ticks as the laser jerks forward] 00:10:08.085 --> 00:10:11.357 And now the machine is going to switch sides automatically. 00:10:15.018 --> 00:10:21.969 [sudden mechanical noises with a prolonged whirring as laser relocates to top side] 00:10:21.969 --> 00:10:28.550 [disc rapidly speeds up] 00:10:28.550 --> 00:10:32.319 [speed attained, laser tracks] 00:10:32.319 --> 00:10:34.249 And we have a picture. 00:10:44.309 --> 00:10:47.465 Now I'm gonna do picture search near the beginning of the disc, 00:10:47.465 --> 00:10:50.075 you'll notice it sounds a little bit different. 00:10:50.075 --> 00:10:51.821 It's moving much faster. 00:10:54.079 --> 00:11:01.278 [same ticks as before, but quieter and more closely spaced] 00:11:01.278 --> 00:11:06.477 [disc is also losing speed precipitously] 00:11:09.181 --> 00:11:11.363 Now I'm gonna skip ahead some chapters. 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:26.558 And now you can hear the chapter search is slowing down - er the picture search is slowing down a bit. 00:11:26.558 --> 00:11:29.487 [ticking sounds closer to first example] 00:11:35.338 --> 00:11:40.244 [disc slows and machine prepares to eject it] 00:11:43.255 --> 00:11:49.024 [laser is also heard returning to side A] 00:11:53.541 --> 00:11:57.486 OK and we just opened and - just heard it eject. 00:11:57.999 --> 00:12:04.286 Now we're gonna look at a clip of this machine misbehaving back when I was originally recording the footage 00:12:04.286 --> 00:12:07.770 for this video, the original video it was featured in. 00:12:07.770 --> 00:12:11.554 This has had some sort of logic issue. 00:12:11.554 --> 00:12:15.843 And, uh, it comes and goes, I don't know what causes it but 00:12:15.843 --> 00:12:18.147 when you switch to the second side... 00:12:18.147 --> 00:12:22.646 [rapid, frantic whirring as the laser has a freak-out] 00:12:22.646 --> 00:12:23.936 it should not be doing that. 00:12:24.210 --> 00:12:28.555 What it's doing... the laser successfully moved to the top side 00:12:28.555 --> 00:12:35.350 but it's continually ramming itself into the end of its track and it doesn't start spinning the disc. 00:12:35.350 --> 00:12:39.310 Now, this machine hasn't done it in a while. 00:12:39.310 --> 00:12:41.630 I assume maybe it has a bad capacitor. 00:12:41.630 --> 00:12:48.830 There's a giant 1 farad capacitor on the board that you can actually see in this shot. 00:12:48.830 --> 00:12:54.000 And again, I don't know why it does this but this is a new shot because I restarted, hoping 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.620 to make it not do this. 00:12:56.620 --> 00:13:00.299 And it does the same exact thing again. 00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:11.357 [this time you can hear it knocking against its end] 00:13:12.247 --> 00:13:16.302 It's literally hitting the end-stop on its travel like banging its head against the wall. 00:13:29.442 --> 00:13:33.825 So I'm gonna try again... try to get it to play side two. 00:13:44.825 --> 00:13:46.375 And same deal. 00:13:52.329 --> 00:13:59.359 Now, in my desperation I just started fiddling with the thing while it was moving around. 00:13:59.359 --> 00:14:07.324 I'm pushing on the actual laser carriage right now and I don't know if this actually fixed it but, um, 00:14:07.324 --> 00:14:11.828 it kind of seems like it did 'cause at some point you hear it snap a couple of times. 00:14:11.828 --> 00:14:12.407 [snap] 00:14:14.357 --> 00:14:15.094 [snap] 00:14:15.573 --> 00:14:19.832 Like that. And now the disc is actually spinning up. 00:14:31.364 --> 00:14:37.762 So I don't know if that fixed it but, um, suddenly it's behaving correctly. 00:14:37.762 --> 00:14:43.287 And, uh, I will switch it now to side B and it works as it should. 00:14:43.287 --> 00:14:45.453 This is just a different angle. 00:15:02.357 --> 00:15:05.700 And that time it switched sides successfully. 00:15:23.118 --> 00:15:27.999 Alright and this, there's no audio accompanying it because it is a slow-motion shot 00:15:27.999 --> 00:15:32.600 of the laser carriage flipping from side A to B. 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:38.502 In the original video I commented on how clever it is that the same motor that moves it back and forth 00:15:38.502 --> 00:15:40.521 is responsible for flipping it over. 00:15:40.521 --> 00:15:44.137 It has some clever gearing that it can switch to the other side. 00:15:44.137 --> 00:15:48.125 You can see that, uh, toothed gear closest to the bottom of the screen. 00:15:48.125 --> 00:15:52.762 That moves at the same time as the little worm gear at the back that you can see 00:15:52.762 --> 00:15:55.632 so it actually scoots itself around the carousel. 00:15:55.632 --> 00:15:57.505 It's pretty ingenious. 00:15:59.387 --> 00:16:04.250 This is a different shot and I'm showing going from B to A. 00:16:04.250 --> 00:16:09.038 And you can see the laser actually scoot underneath. 00:16:09.038 --> 00:16:11.659 Once it flips to side A. 00:16:17.784 --> 00:16:21.043 OK you see the laser just there and now when it moves... 00:16:22.583 --> 00:16:23.933 just see it right there. 00:16:23.933 --> 00:16:25.472 Taking a little peek. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:36.790 And then this is the same exact thing, just shown from the back to give a bit more of an overview of what's happening 00:16:36.790 --> 00:16:39.122 but again in slow-motion. 00:17:13.575 --> 00:17:20.811 OK and now we are back to the new recording and we're gonna go through a CAV laserdisc on this machine. 00:17:24.986 --> 00:17:28.794 [on-screen Alec mutters "what happened to that other Aladdin disc?"] 00:17:28.794 --> 00:17:30.731 Once I find it... 00:17:31.313 --> 00:17:33.836 ["Umm... hello? Me?"] 00:17:33.836 --> 00:17:36.491 [said like the Swedish Chef: "Ver de flurbey?"] 00:17:38.852 --> 00:17:40.817 [you're over here? ok...] 00:17:42.254 --> 00:17:46.255 [machine ingests disc and spins up as before] 00:17:58.334 --> 00:18:02.046 CAV discs are particularly hard with auto-reverse 00:18:02.046 --> 00:18:06.218 because the disc is spinning at full speed when it goes to reverse, 00:18:06.218 --> 00:18:09.537 so that's why I wanted to show this recording here as well. 00:18:11.864 --> 00:18:15.358 But we have the same thing, chapter search is very, very fast. 00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:23.680 And picture search is completely silent. 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:27.710 It's an interesting thing about CAV. You don't hear any noise from the transport, 00:18:27.710 --> 00:18:32.203 the picture is just perfectly fluid as you're going forward and backward. 00:18:42.948 --> 00:18:47.482 And now we will switch to side B with the machine spinning at full speed. 00:18:51.280 --> 00:18:58.912 [disc rapidly decelerates, while machine makes various mechanical sounds and laser switches sides] 00:18:58.912 --> 00:19:06.632 [disc is now accelerating in the opposite rotation] 00:19:06.632 --> 00:19:09.854 [laser begins tracking] 00:19:09.854 --> 00:19:11.395 And we have a picture. 00:19:13.106 --> 00:19:17.117 So obviously it takes a lot longer for it to switch on a CAV disc 00:19:17.117 --> 00:19:22.320 just because the disc is spinning at the full 1,800 RPM when it goes to switch sides. 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:25.796 It only adds a few seconds but it's significant. 00:19:28.328 --> 00:19:31.861 [some faint tracking sounds as it seeks to new chapters] 00:19:40.210 --> 00:19:42.530 Just doing some more picture search here. 00:19:50.298 --> 00:19:53.096 Interesting how the pitch of the motor changed slightly there. 00:19:53.096 --> 00:19:56.936 Don't really know why, but now I'm gonna hit eject (or open). 00:20:12.574 --> 00:20:16.758 So there you heard it returning the laser to side A and now I'll power it off. 00:20:27.058 --> 00:20:32.789 Alright, and now we're gonna do basically the same things we just did but with the stereo audio setup. 00:20:32.789 --> 00:20:34.714 I want to know what your thoughts are on this. 00:21:02.192 --> 00:21:04.870 Gonna do some chapter searching now. 00:21:27.899 --> 00:21:31.110 OK and now I'm gonna skip forward to the end so it auto-reverses, 00:21:31.110 --> 00:21:34.970 but I want to know if this mic setup, you think, is better. 00:21:34.970 --> 00:21:38.419 I don't have a great way to mount it, that's why I have the tripod in front of the camera 00:21:38.419 --> 00:21:44.029 but if you prefer the sound of this mic setup for this purpose let me know. 00:21:44.679 --> 00:21:50.138 I know that some people would prefer stereo but I don't know if these mics are actually better. 00:21:50.138 --> 00:21:52.916 Certainly they're noisier than the one that's overhead. 00:22:15.487 --> 00:22:16.580 We have a picture again. 00:22:16.580 --> 00:22:21.740 And by the way, when I say noisier, I noticed a 60 Hz um, there's some sort of interference 00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:25.690 on the other mic, but I don't know - that's probably coming from the TV. 00:22:25.690 --> 00:22:28.777 I'm not quite sure, but that's probably what it is. 00:22:45.715 --> 00:22:48.440 Anyway, we just opened it up. 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:50.280 And ejected the disc. 00:22:50.280 --> 00:22:54.669 So now we're gonna talk about, or show, the Pioneer DVL-700. 00:22:54.669 --> 00:22:58.753 That is the combination Laserdisc and DVD player. 00:22:58.753 --> 00:23:02.990 Right now I'm fixing its sloppy badge. 00:23:02.990 --> 00:23:06.309 But I'm gonna power it on and I want you to notice that it has a fan. 00:23:06.309 --> 00:23:07.992 It has a cooling fan. 00:23:09.498 --> 00:23:14.446 [a very different mechanical/motor sound, less harsh and abrupt. A cooling fan also spins up while the laser moves around a bit ] 00:23:14.446 --> 00:23:17.926 Now this thing always defaults to its red laser. 00:23:18.713 --> 00:23:22.874 [pronounced whirring with a sort of crinkly sound in the middle] 00:23:22.874 --> 00:23:27.721 [new motor noise again, then prolonged as tray opens] 00:23:27.721 --> 00:23:34.528 That noise it made before it opened the tray was flipping the infrared laser over... er flipping the red over to infrared 00:23:34.528 --> 00:23:37.716 because I hit laserdisc eject. 00:23:38.263 --> 00:23:46.869 [disc spinning up - laser sounds are similar but not quite the same as the other models] 00:23:46.869 --> 00:23:50.519 The biggest difference with this player as far as laserdisc performance 00:23:50.519 --> 00:23:56.956 is it has a newer auto-reverse mechanism and also the transport of the tray is a newer generation. 00:23:56.956 --> 00:24:01.655 It's much softer, it's quieter, it's overall a huge improvement. 00:24:01.655 --> 00:24:03.914 Now we'll skip forward some chapters. 00:24:05.762 --> 00:24:14.090 [same basic noises as before, though the sort of squirrely noises of the laser are more pronounced] 00:24:32.089 --> 00:24:39.420 Now here, when I'm doing a picture search, the sound is very similar but the picture is steady because it has a digital frame buffer. 00:24:41.507 --> 00:24:46.770 [machine begins to switch sides] 00:24:46.770 --> 00:24:50.945 [disc is spinning up but abnormally slowly] 00:24:52.245 --> 00:24:58.154 [abrupt stop, and laser returns to original position] 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:02.600 Now what just happened was it tried to switch to side B and failed. 00:25:02.600 --> 00:25:10.210 This machine has some bizarre issue where the motor will not spin up fast enough in reverse. 00:25:10.210 --> 00:25:14.299 I have no idea why it's like this, it's been like it the entire time I've had it. 00:25:14.299 --> 00:25:16.886 And what usually happens is when you try to switch to side B, 00:25:16.886 --> 00:25:21.419 it just can't spin up fast enough; it freaks out and locks up. 00:25:21.419 --> 00:25:25.025 It won't even open the tray right now because the disc is still spinning. 00:25:26.428 --> 00:25:28.266 Finally there it goes. 00:25:31.312 --> 00:25:34.210 So that's a very bizarre quirk of this machine. 00:25:34.210 --> 00:25:37.949 But now we're going to switch trays from the big laserdisc tray 00:25:40.618 --> 00:25:42.716 to the little DVD and CD tray. 00:25:49.799 --> 00:25:52.870 You may have noticed it did not switch the lasers around. 00:25:52.870 --> 00:25:55.649 It just spat out the little tray. 00:25:55.649 --> 00:25:58.982 So what I'm gonna do now is put in a DVD. 00:26:00.659 --> 00:26:04.188 And it's going to attempt to play it with the infrared laser first. 00:26:05.009 --> 00:26:08.188 [tray moves inward and disc is clamped] 00:26:08.188 --> 00:26:10.754 [faint transport noises] 00:26:10.754 --> 00:26:17.676 [now laser is switching; similar sound to auto-reverse] 00:26:20.379 --> 00:26:27.484 [disc rapidly spins up, and typical DVD-seeking sounds are now heard] 00:26:30.974 --> 00:26:34.437 OK so now we have a picture, it's actually playing the DVD. 00:26:34.437 --> 00:26:40.889 So if you heard it flip the laser back over, because it had to get back to that red laser. 00:26:40.889 --> 00:26:43.678 Now this is the DVD of Spaceballs. 00:26:43.678 --> 00:26:46.999 It was the closest-available DVD. 00:26:46.999 --> 00:26:50.625 Uh, and I do not have the remote for this machine. 00:26:50.625 --> 00:26:59.503 I had programmed a universal remote that managed to work with it but since I don't have the remote it's pretty useless as a DVD player. 00:26:59.503 --> 00:27:06.285 I tried to hit Play while Play is selected, and it gave me the little, like 00:27:06.285 --> 00:27:09.593 "BAD! NO YOU CAN'T PUSH THIS BUTTON!" symbol, so, 00:27:09.593 --> 00:27:13.270 uh yeah this is pretty useless without a remote. 00:27:27.126 --> 00:27:33.173 But now I just ejected the disc and I'm gonna repeat it, 'cause I want you to pay attention to how quickly the disc spins up. 00:27:36.561 --> 00:27:37.513 [not spinning] 00:27:38.300 --> 00:27:39.400 [not spinning...] 00:27:40.461 --> 00:27:42.034 [BLAM it's spinning] 00:27:50.589 --> 00:27:53.953 The disc just spins up insanely quickly on this machine 00:27:53.953 --> 00:27:58.666 because of the fact that it has that massive motor to spin up a laserdisc, 00:27:58.666 --> 00:28:02.281 so spinning up a tiny little DVD is a piece of cake. 00:28:12.410 --> 00:28:16.991 Right there it switched lasers because I had it open the large laserdisc tray, 00:28:16.991 --> 00:28:21.685 and it knows you're gonna play something - if you're trying to play a laserdisc it needs the infrared laser. 00:28:21.685 --> 00:28:23.001 Now I'm gonna hit standby. 00:28:29.331 --> 00:28:34.052 [laser switches back] 00:28:36.584 --> 00:28:38.286 [fan spins down] 00:28:39.107 --> 00:28:43.696 And now it's off, and before it powers off it always switches back to the red laser. 00:28:49.342 --> 00:28:52.676 Now we're at a different camera angle. It just ejected a CD. 00:28:52.676 --> 00:28:55.614 And now I'm putting in a DVD. 00:29:04.716 --> 00:29:07.562 It tried to read it with the infrared laser but failed. 00:29:10.915 --> 00:29:13.578 And now it's actually reading the disc with the red laser. 00:29:13.578 --> 00:29:15.308 It's incredibly fast. 00:29:16.129 --> 00:29:17.227 To spin up, that is. 00:29:17.227 --> 00:29:19.630 As a DVD player it's actually quite terrible. 00:29:42.933 --> 00:29:46.337 We just saw the same exact thing from a different angle. 00:29:46.337 --> 00:29:51.461 Now we're gonna eject the large tray and it's gonna change the laser before it opens. 00:29:51.461 --> 00:29:54.047 'cuz it knows you're gonna play a laserdisc. 00:29:54.047 --> 00:29:55.933 It's gonna go from the red to the infrared. 00:30:07.294 --> 00:30:09.823 And so now I put in an actual laserdisc. 00:30:09.823 --> 00:30:13.376 But it doesn't mount correctly in the disc clamp. 00:30:24.497 --> 00:30:28.956 So it just spits the disc right back out. I don't know if I did that or what, but... 00:30:28.956 --> 00:30:31.062 anyway attempt 2... 00:30:40.677 --> 00:30:42.716 That actually worked correctly. 00:30:42.716 --> 00:30:45.392 Now I'll eject the disc again. 00:31:01.714 --> 00:31:03.794 Now I'm gonna switch it to the small tray. 00:31:15.668 --> 00:31:18.662 And I'm gonna do the same thing, we're gonna add a DVD. 00:31:18.662 --> 00:31:23.057 It's gonna attempt to read it with the infrared laser then switch to the red laser. 00:31:36.539 --> 00:31:38.816 And there, it's finally spinning the disc. 00:31:38.816 --> 00:31:45.129 I've always thought that the little mini-tray for CDs and DVDs was just a dumb gimmick of Pioneer's but... 00:31:45.129 --> 00:31:46.778 whatever, they always did it. 00:31:46.850 --> 00:31:50.163 So here's a different angle with, again, the very-fast spin up. 00:31:54.612 --> 00:31:58.330 It's a standstill to full speed in less than a second. 00:31:58.330 --> 00:32:00.758 Now we're gonna eject the large tray. 00:32:13.179 --> 00:32:17.460 And again it switched back to infrared knowing I ejected the large tray. 00:32:17.460 --> 00:32:19.231 And we'll put in a laserdisc. 00:32:37.059 --> 00:32:43.857 Now I'll show you it attempting to switch sides with it exposed but you'll see just like before it fails. 00:32:50.385 --> 00:32:55.436 [it does make an interesting, accelerating warbly noise as it tries to spin up] 00:32:56.942 --> 00:32:59.661 [but then gives up] 00:33:03.330 --> 00:33:05.989 At this point it's not even trying to slow the disc down. 00:33:05.989 --> 00:33:08.389 That machine is just locked up until it stops. 00:33:08.389 --> 00:33:10.876 So I reach in the stop the disc. 00:33:15.153 --> 00:33:17.967 It's such a bizarre problem with this machine. 00:33:30.696 --> 00:33:35.613 OK, and now we are looking at the ancient Magnavox laserdisc player. 00:33:35.613 --> 00:33:39.607 [a repetitive fast whirring sound, like a small electric drill] 00:33:39.607 --> 00:33:44.031 When you turn it on without a disc it will just do this forever. 00:33:50.669 --> 00:33:53.684 It just endlessly tries to spin up nothing. 00:33:53.684 --> 00:33:56.745 And this is an extremely basic laserdisc player. 00:33:56.745 --> 00:33:59.990 It has a series of LEDs on the front. 00:33:59.990 --> 00:34:05.570 And in this state they are all... on in different ways. 00:34:06.631 --> 00:34:15.610 They're not quite on at the same brightness. I don't know if this machine is like this always or if my particular example is just weird. 00:34:15.610 --> 00:34:17.407 But, yeah. 00:34:18.844 --> 00:34:24.580 So when you open the lid it will stop trying to spin up the disc. 00:34:24.580 --> 00:34:28.561 And here is me putting in an actual laserdisc and seeing what happens. 00:34:32.667 --> 00:34:39.089 [once lid latches, a very loud, slowly accelerating motor starts its thing] 00:34:39.089 --> 00:34:42.676 [this player takes quite a while to get to speed] 00:34:42.676 --> 00:34:45.960 [a loud, high-pitched sound comes through the loud motor as it tries to track the disc] 00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:49.343 [speed is beginning to fall] 00:34:49.343 --> 00:34:54.347 [ok but now it's getting faster again] 00:34:54.347 --> 00:34:57.331 [oh, never mind, slowing down again] 00:34:57.331 --> 00:35:01.445 [wait, she's gainin' speed cap'n!] 00:35:01.445 --> 00:35:02.506 [oh dagnabbit] 00:35:02.506 --> 00:35:06.679 The lights are behaving strangely as it's going up and down in speed. 00:35:09.553 --> 00:35:15.736 [If it weren't so irritating it'd be hypnotic] 00:35:19.363 --> 00:35:23.177 Trying to hit "play forward," nothing's making a difference. 00:35:25.025 --> 00:35:28.137 [clunk as lid is unlatched] 00:35:28.992 --> 00:35:32.654 [motor slowly slows] 00:35:34.810 --> 00:35:35.796 [click] 00:35:47.910 --> 00:35:54.232 So, I'm looking for another disc to play but with this machine when you open the lid 00:35:54.232 --> 00:36:01.641 it has some sort of lock mechanism where it won't allow you to open it until the disc has almost completely stopped. 00:36:01.641 --> 00:36:03.522 It's a pretty clever safety feature. 00:36:03.522 --> 00:36:08.135 I don't know how it's implemented but you'll hear a click after I hit open. 00:36:08.785 --> 00:36:11.569 You might want to pay attention to that. But here's a different disc. 00:36:11.569 --> 00:36:17.497 [bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRrrRRrRRRR 00:36:17.497 --> 00:36:21.466 RRRRrrRRRRRrRRRRRAA 00:36:21.466 --> 00:36:26.320 AAAAAAGHGGGGGHGHGG] 00:36:36.072 --> 00:36:38.095 It's behaving just like it was before. 00:36:43.399 --> 00:36:49.451 Now here, when I try to hit search forward, some of a picture actually shows up on the 00:36:49.540 --> 00:36:52.198 screen and we're getting some noise coming through. 00:36:53.840 --> 00:36:56.580 But it's still wavering on speed. 00:36:57.572 --> 00:37:00.326 None of the buttons I'm hitting are doing anything. 00:37:02.208 --> 00:37:04.761 Search forward appears to do something... 00:37:11.879 --> 00:37:23.176 [we have the same sounds as before but with the added bonus of strange alien radio interference sounds from the TV!] 00:37:28.446 --> 00:37:30.393 I'm just hitting more buttons. 00:38:01.144 --> 00:38:05.122 So I hit open and you'll hear that click when the disc slows down enough. 00:38:08.715 --> 00:38:09.786 [that click] 00:38:10.231 --> 00:38:13.100 Right there. Now the lid is actually unlatched. 00:38:13.100 --> 00:38:20.323 Right now I'm looking for a couple of laserdiscs, uh, The Aristocats, which is CAV, 00:38:20.323 --> 00:38:23.195 it was able to play kind-of OK... 00:38:23.195 --> 00:38:28.049 and I also right now am holding Rocky which is a super, super old laserdisc. 00:38:28.049 --> 00:38:29.898 It's one of the oldest that I have. 00:38:29.898 --> 00:38:36.592 So in case the... with digital sound, something about the newer laserdiscs is freaking it out for some reason 00:38:36.592 --> 00:38:45.520 I'm gonna try that very, very old CLV disc and I know that The Aristocats kind of worked before. 00:38:45.520 --> 00:38:48.208 So I think that's what I'm trying now... 00:38:52.280 --> 00:38:59.974 [once again we're headed into warp] 00:39:07.776 --> 00:39:10.267 Yeah, and here the speed actually is steady. 00:39:15.126 --> 00:39:19.745 And we can very, very faintly see on the screen 00:39:19.745 --> 00:39:27.577 some sorts of shapes but there's something very wrong with the picture, it's almost entirely black um 00:39:27.577 --> 00:39:31.886 [laughs] some garbage captioning just came up from the decoder in the TV. 00:39:31.886 --> 00:39:41.071 Uh, you can see very, very faint images of the characters from The Aristocats, uh... turned on the index there. 00:39:41.071 --> 00:39:49.940 Just... this machine is so frustrating because it's like, it's trying its best but it just can't... can't do anything. 00:39:49.940 --> 00:39:52.210 More garbage captions. 00:39:53.716 --> 00:39:56.267 More garbage captions. 00:40:04.377 --> 00:40:07.541 Yeah, so I just gave up with this one. 00:40:31.220 --> 00:40:32.960 And now our last-ditch effort. 00:40:32.960 --> 00:40:33.960 Rocky. 00:40:33.960 --> 00:40:36.487 Super, super old disc. 00:40:54.110 --> 00:40:57.560 Now that noise that it's making, that just started. 00:40:57.560 --> 00:41:01.156 I'm pretty sure that is the laser tracking system waking up. 00:41:01.156 --> 00:41:06.350 [noise starts cutting in and out] And here it's doing something it's never done before. 00:41:06.350 --> 00:41:09.490 The disc is continuing to get slower. 00:41:09.490 --> 00:41:14.350 And the tracking is, like, coming on and offline repeatedly. 00:41:14.350 --> 00:41:18.645 This machine is just cursed. [it's speeding up of its own volition] 00:41:22.580 --> 00:41:24.871 Sped up all on its own, by the way. 00:41:32.878 --> 00:41:37.010 And the lights... it went from Play now to slow motion. 00:41:38.550 --> 00:41:41.796 So I'm trying to hit play again and it's not responding. 00:41:51.890 --> 00:41:57.520 So I actually turned it off in case the ancient electronics in here might somehow be affected 00:41:57.520 --> 00:41:59.503 by turning it off and on again. 00:42:14.080 --> 00:42:17.625 Now it's even in a worse state than it was in before. 00:42:20.226 --> 00:42:23.513 And if you think it's bad now, just wait. 00:42:23.513 --> 00:42:27.250 [a repetitive clicking gets increasing loud] 00:42:27.250 --> 00:42:31.807 [it's spinning up again] 00:42:31.807 --> 00:42:35.835 [suddenly that clicking has becoming a knocking, dare I say a thumping] 00:42:35.835 --> 00:42:41.176 What's happening now is the laser's objective lens is actually hitting the disc. 00:42:41.176 --> 00:42:42.640 It's great! 00:42:55.609 --> 00:42:58.987 And just in case I tried side two. 00:42:58.987 --> 00:43:02.641 Trying everything I can to get this machine to do somethin'. 00:43:02.641 --> 00:43:06.841 Oh, I'm also looking at the laser to see if it's moved back to its home position. 00:43:24.327 --> 00:43:31.047 We're getting the same behavior, so... this machine, uh, at some point I wanna try to, um, 00:43:31.047 --> 00:43:37.855 maybe start replacing some capacitors and see if I can get it to be something more than a giant paperweight, but 00:43:37.855 --> 00:43:41.535 it's, um, its behavior is even worse than the last time I tried it. 00:43:41.535 --> 00:43:42.965 It sat for two or three years. 00:43:43.170 --> 00:43:48.642 I don't think it's come out since I last, um, or I've tried to use it since I last made that video. 00:43:48.642 --> 00:43:51.095 But anyway, that's it! 00:43:51.095 --> 00:43:52.570 This is Sights and Sounds. 00:43:52.570 --> 00:43:55.251 I don't think they're all gonna be this long. 00:43:55.251 --> 00:43:58.350 Ahh but... who knows, I'll see. 00:43:58.350 --> 00:44:01.820 Just depends on what there is to... what there is to see and talk about. 00:44:01.820 --> 00:44:03.080 And listen to. 00:44:03.080 --> 00:44:07.020 But thanks very much for watching, I hope you enjoy this concept and I hope that I was 00:44:07.020 --> 00:44:10.293 able to execute it to um... 00:44:10.293 --> 00:44:12.288 execute it pretty well. 00:44:13.143 --> 00:44:14.545 Bye!