LaserDisc
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Media type | Optical disc |
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Encoding | NTSC, PAL, MUSE, HD-MAC |
Capacity | 60/64 minutes per side on CLV discs (NTSC/PAL); 30/36 minutes per side on CAV discs (NTSC/PAL) |
Read mechanism | 780 nm wavelength semiconductor laser (early players used HeNe gas lasers) |
Write mechanism | Laser on dye; same write mechanism as recordable CD/DVDs |
Standard | LaserVision |
Developed by | Philips, MCA Inc., Pioneer Corporation |
Usage | Home video (replaced by DVD) |
Extended to | DVD |
Released | December 11, 1978DiscoVision) | (as
Discontinued | September 21, 2001 (films) July 2009 (production)[1][2] |
Optical discs |
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The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typically spans 30 cm (12 in). Unlike most optical-disc standards, LaserDisc is not fully digital, and instead requires the use of analog video signals.
Although the format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than its consumer rivals,
By contrast, the format was much more popular in Japan and in the more affluent regions of
(BD). LaserDisc players continued to be produced until July 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them.History
in reflective mode, which has advantages over the transparent mode. MCA and Philips then decided to combine their efforts and first publicly demonstrated the videodisc in 1972.LaserDisc was first available on the market in
LaserDisc was launched in Japan in October 1981, and a total of approximately 3.6 million LaserDisc players had been sold before its discontinuation in 2009.[10]
In 1984,
The first LaserDisc title marketed in North America was the MCA DiscoVision release of Jaws on December 15, 1978.[12] The last title released in North America was Paramount's Bringing Out the Dead on October 3, 2000.[13] Film titles continued to be released in Japan until September 21, 2001, with the last Japanese movie released being the Hong Kong film Tokyo Raiders from Golden Harvest. The last known LD title is Onta Station vol. 1018, a karaoke disc released on March 21, 2007.[14] Production of LaserDisc players ended in July 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them.[1][2][15] Pioneer continued to repair and service players until September 30, 2020, when the remaining parts inventory was exhausted.[16]
It was estimated that in 1998, LaserDisc players were in approximately 2% of U.S. households (roughly two million).[17] By comparison, in 1999, players were in 10% of Japanese households.[18] A total of 16.8 million LaserDisc players were sold worldwide, of which 9.5 million were sold by Pioneer.[1][2][15]
By 2001, LaserDisc had been completely replaced by
Design
A standard home video LaserDisc is 12 in (30 cm) in diameter and made up of two single-sided aluminum discs layered in plastic. Although similar in appearance to
The LaserDisc at its most fundamental level was still recorded as a series of pits and lands much like CDs, DVDs, and even Blu-ray Discs are today. In true digital media the pits, or their edges, directly represent 1s and 0s of a binary digital information stream. On a LaserDisc, the information is encoded as analog frequency modulation and is contained in the lengths and spacing of the pits. A carrier frequency is modulated by the baseband video signal (and analog soundtracks). In a simplified view, positive parts of this variable frequency signal can produce lands and negative parts can be pits, which results in a projection of the FM signal along the track on the disc. When reading, the FM carrier can be reconstructed from the succession of pit edges, and demodulated to extract the original video signal (in practice, selection between pit and land parts uses intersection of the FM carrier with a horizontal line having an offset from the zero axis, for noise considerations). If PCM sound is present, its waveform, considered as an analog signal, can be added to the FM carrier, which modulates the width of the intersection with the horizontal threshold. As a result, space between pit centers essentially represent video (as frequency), and pits' lengths code for PCM sound information.
Since digital encoding and compression schemes were either unavailable or impractical in 1978, three encoding formats based upon the rotation speed were used:
- CAV
- Constant angular velocity or Standard Play discs supported several unique features such as freeze frame, variable slow motion and reverse. CAV discs were spun at a constant rotational speed (1800 rpm for 525 line and Hi-Vision, and 1500 rpm for 625 line discs)[23] during playback, with one video frame read per revolution. In this mode, 54,000 individual frames (30 minutes of audio/video for NTSC and Hi-Vision, 36 minutes for PAL) could be stored on a single side of a CAV disc. Another unique attribute to CAV was to reduce the visibility of crosstalk from adjacent tracks, since on CAV discs any crosstalk at a specific point in a frame is simply from the same point in the next or previous frame. CAV was used less frequently than CLV, and reserved for special editions of feature films to highlight bonus material and special effects. One of the most intriguing advantages of this format was the ability to reference every frame of a film directly by number, a feature of particular interest to film buffs, students and others intrigued by the study of errors in staging, continuity and so on.
- CLV
- Constant linear velocity or Extended Play discs do not have the "trick play" features of CAV, offering only simple playback on all but the high-end LaserDisc players incorporating a digital frame store. These high-end LaserDisc players could add features not normally available to CLV discs such as variable forward and reverse, and a VCR-like "pause". By gradually slowing down their rotational speed (1800–600 rpm for NTSC and 2470–935 rpm for Hi-Vision)[23] CLV encoded discs could store 60 minutes of audio/video per side for NTSC and Hi-Vision (64 minutes for PAL), or two hours per disc. For films with a run-time less than 120 minutes, this meant they could fit on one disc, lowering the cost of the title and eliminating the distracting exercise of "getting up to change the disc", at least for those who owned a dual-sided player. The majority of titles were only available in CLV (a few titles were released partly CLV, partly CAV. For example, a 140-minute movie could fit on two CLV sides and one CAV side, thus allowing for the CAV-only features during the climax of the film).
- CAA
- In the early 1980s, due to problems with crosstalk distortion on CLV extended play LaserDiscs, Pioneer Video introduced Imation, all LaserDisc manufacturers adopted the CAA encoding scheme, although the term was rarely (if ever) used on any consumer packaging. CAA encoding noticeably improved picture quality and greatly reduced crosstalk and other tracking problems while being fully compatible with existing players.
As Pioneer introduced digital audio to LaserDisc in 1985, it further refined the CAA format. CAA55 was introduced in 1985 with a total playback capacity per side of 55 minutes 5 seconds, reducing the video capacity to resolve bandwidth issues with the inclusion of digital audio. Several titles released between 1985 and 1987 were analog audio only due to the length of the title and the desire to keep the film on one disc (e.g., Back to the Future). By 1987, Pioneer had overcome the technical challenges and was able to once again encode in CAA60, allowing a total of 60 minutes 5 seconds. Pioneer further refined CAA, offering CAA45, encoding 45 minutes of material, but filling the entire playback surface of the side. Used on only a handful of titles, CAA65 offered 65 minutes 5 seconds of playback time per side. There were a handful of titles pressed by Technidisc that used CAA50. The final variant of CAA was CAA70, which could accommodate 70 minutes of playback time per side. There are no known uses of this format on the consumer market.
Audio
Sound could be stored in either analog or digital format and in a variety of
In the mid to late 1990s, many higher-end AV receivers included the demodulator circuit specifically for the LaserDisc player's RF-modulated Dolby Digital AC-3 signal. By the late 1990s, with LaserDisc players and disc sales declining due to DVD's growing popularity, the AV receiver manufacturers removed the demodulator circuit. Although DVD players were capable of playing Dolby Digital tracks, the signals out of DVD players were not in a modulated form and were not compatible with the inputs designed for LaserDisc AC-3. Outboard demodulators were available for a period that converted the AC-3 signal to the standard Dolby Digital signal that was compatible with the standard Dolby Digital/PCM inputs on capable AV receivers. Another type marketed by Onkyo[26] and Marantz[27] converted the RF AC-3 signal to 6-channel analog audio.
The two FM audio channels occupied the disc spectrum at 2.3 and 2.8 MHz on NTSC formatted discs and each channel had a 100 kHz FM deviation. The FM audio carrier frequencies were chosen to minimize their visibility in the video image, so that even with a poorly mastered disc, audio carrier beats in the video would be at least ‑35 dB down, and thus, invisible. Due to the frequencies chosen, the 2.8 MHz audio carrier (Right Channel) and the lower edge of the chroma signal were very close together, and if filters were not carefully set during mastering, there could be interference between the two. In addition, high audio levels combined with high chroma levels could cause mutual interference, leading to beats becoming visible in highly saturated areas of the image. To help deal with this, Pioneer decided to implement the CX Noise Reduction System on the analog tracks. By reducing the dynamic range and peak levels of the audio signals stored on the disc, filtering requirements were relaxed and visible beats greatly reduced or eliminated. The CX system gives a total NR effect of 20 dB, but in the interest of better compatibility for non-decoded playback, Pioneer reduced this to only 14 dB of noise reduction (the RCA CED system used the "original" 20 dB CX system). This also relaxed calibration tolerances in players and helped reduce audible pumping if the CX decoder was not calibrated correctly.[citation needed]
At least where the digital audio tracks were concerned, the sound quality was unsurpassed at the time compared to consumer videotape. However, the quality of the analog soundtracks could vary greatly depending upon the disc and, sometimes, the player. Many early and lower-end LaserDisc players had poor analog audio components, and in turn, many early discs had poorly mastered analog audio tracks, making digital soundtracks in any form more desirable to serious enthusiasts. Early DiscoVision and LaserDisc titles lacked the digital audio option, but many of those movies received digital sound in later re-issues by Universal, and the quality of analog audio tracks generally improved greatly as time went on. Many discs that had originally carried old analog stereo tracks received new
DTS audio, when available on a disc, replaced the digital audio tracks; hearing DTS-encoded audio required only an S/PDIF compliant digital connection to a DTS decoder.
On a DTS disc, digital PCM audio was not available, so if a DTS decoder was also not available, the only option was to fall back to the analog Dolby Surround or stereo audio tracks. In some cases, the analog audio tracks were further made unavailable through replacement with supplementary audio such as isolated scores or audio commentary. This effectively reduced playback of a DTS disc on a non-DTS equipped system to mono audio, or in a handful of cases, no film soundtrack at all.[28]
Only one 5.1 surround sound option existed on a given LaserDisc (either Dolby Digital or DTS), so if surround sound was desired, the disc must be matched to the capabilities of the playback equipment (LaserDisc player and receiver/decoder) by the purchaser. A fully capable LaserDisc playback system included a newer LaserDisc player that was capable of playing digital tracks; had a digital optical output for digital PCM and DTS encoded audio; was aware of AC-3 audio tracks; and had an AC-3 coaxial output, an external or internal AC-3 RF demodulator and AC-3 decoder, and a DTS decoder. Many 1990s A/V receivers combined the AC-3 decoder and DTS decoder logic, but an integrated AC-3 demodulator was rare both in LaserDisc players and in later A/V receivers.[29]
LaserDisc players
The earliest players employed gas
with a wavelength of 780 nm.In March 1984, Pioneer introduced the first consumer player with a solid-state laser, the LD-700. It was also the first LaserDisc player to load from the front and not the top. One year earlier Hitachi introduced an expensive industrial player with a laser diode, but the player, which had poor picture quality due to an inadequate dropout compensator, was made only in limited quantities. After Pioneer released the LD-700, gas lasers were no longer used in consumer players, despite their advantages, although Philips continued to use gas lasers in their industrial units until 1985.
Most LaserDisc players required the user to manually turn the disc over to play the other side. A number of players (all diode laser based) were made that were capable of playing both sides of the disc automatically, using a mechanism to physically flip a single laser pickup.
Pioneer produced some multi-disc models which held more than 50 LaserDiscs. One company offered, for a short time in 1984, a "LaserStack" unit that added multi-disc capability to existing players: the Pioneer LD-600, LD-1100 or the Sylvania/Magnavox clones. It required the user to physically remove the player lid for installation, and attached to the top of the player. LaserStack held up to 10 discs and could automatically load or remove them from the player or change sides in around 15 seconds.
The first mass-produced industrial LaserDisc player was the MCA DiscoVision PR-7820, later rebranded the Pioneer PR7820. In North America, this unit was used in many General Motors dealerships as a source of training videos and presentation of GM's new line of cars and trucks in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Most players made after the mid-1980s were capable of also playing
The Pioneer DVL-9, introduced in 1996, was both Pioneer's first consumer DVD player and the first combination DVD/LD player.
The first high-definition video player was the Pioneer HLD-X0. A later model, the HLD-X9, featured a superior comb filter, and laser diodes on both sides of the disc.
Notable players
- Pioneer PR7820, first industrial LaserDisc player, capable of being controlled by an external computer, was used in the first US LaserDisc arcade game Dragon's Lair.[citation needed]
- Pioneer CLD-900, first combination player capable of reading Compact Discs. Released in 1985.
- CD-Videodiscs. Released in 1987.
- Pioneer LaserActiveplayers: The Pioneer CLD-A100 and NEC PCE-LD1 provided the ability to play Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) and TurboGrafx16 (PC Engine) video games when used in conjunction with additional components.
- Pioneer DVL series, capable of playing both LaserDiscs and DVDs
Branding
During its development,
Philips' preferred name for the format was "VLP", after the Dutch words Video Langspeel-Plaat ("Video long-play disc"), which in English-speaking countries stood for Video Long-Play. The first consumer player, the Magnavox VH-8000 even had the VLP logo on the player. For a while in the early and mid-1970s, Philips also discussed a compatible audio-only format they called "ALP", but that was soon dropped as the Compact Disc system became a non-compatible project in the Philips corporation. Until early 1980, the format had no "official" name. The LaserVision Association, made up of MCA, Universal-Pioneer, IBM, and Philips/Magnavox, was formed to standardize the technical specifications of the format (which had been causing problems for the consumer market) and finally named the system officially as "LaserVision".
After its introduction in Japan in 1981, the format was introduced in Europe in 1983 with the LaserVision name, although Philips used "VLP" in model designations, such as VLP-600. Following lackluster sales there (around 12–15,000 units Europe-wide),[30] Philips tried relaunching the entire format as "CD-Video" in 1987, with the name appearing not just on the new hybrid 12 cm discs, but also on standard 20 and 30 cm LaserDiscs with digital audio.[30] While this name and logo appeared on players and labels for years, the "official" name of the format remained LaserVision. In the early 1990s, the format's name was changed again to LaserDisc.
Pioneer
On single-sided LaserDiscs mastered by Pioneer, playing the wrong side would cause a still screen to appear with a happy, upside-down turtle that has a LaserDisc for a belly (nicknamed the "LaserDisc Turtle"). The words "Program material is recorded on the other side of this disc" are below the turtle.[31]
MCA
During the early years, MCA also manufactured discs for other companies including
Comparison with other formats
VHS
LaserDisc had several advantages over
LaserDisc could handle analog and digital audio where VHS was mostly analog only (VHS can have PCM audio in professional applications but is uncommon), and the NTSC discs could store multiple audio tracks. This allowed for extras such as director's commentary tracks and other features to be added onto a film, creating "Special Edition" releases that would not have been possible with VHS. Disc access was random and chapter based, like the DVD format, meaning that one could jump to any point on a given disc very quickly. By comparison, VHS would require tedious rewinding and fast-forwarding to get to specific points.
LaserDiscs were initially cheaper than videocassettes to manufacture, because they lacked the moving parts and plastic outer shell that are necessary for VHS tapes to work, and the duplication process was much simpler. A VHS cassette has at least 14 parts including the actual tape while LaserDisc has one part with five or six layers. A disc can be stamped out in a matter of seconds whereas duplicating videotape required a complex bulk tape duplication mechanism and was a time-consuming process. By the end of the 1980s, average disc-pressing prices were over $5.00 per two-sided disc, due to the large amount of plastic material and the costly glass-mastering process needed to make the metal stamper mechanisms. Due to the larger volume of demand, videocassettes quickly became much cheaper to duplicate, costing as little as $1.00 by the beginning of the 1990s.
LaserDiscs potentially had a much longer lifespan than videocassettes. Because the discs were read optically instead of magnetically, no physical contact needed to be made between the player and the disc, except for the player's clamp that holds the disc at its center as it is spun and read. As a result, playback would not wear the information-bearing part of the discs, and properly manufactured LDs would theoretically last beyond a lifetime. By contrast, a VHS tape held all of its picture and sound information on the tape in a magnetic coating which is in contact with the spinning heads on the head drum, causing progressive wear with each use (though later in VHS's lifespan, engineering improvements allowed tapes to be made and played back without contact). The tape was also thin and delicate, and it was easy for a player mechanism, especially on a low quality or malfunctioning model, to mishandle the tape and damage it by creasing it, frilling (stretching) its edges, or even breaking it.
DVD
By the advent of DVD, LaserDisc had declined considerably in popularity, so the two formats never directly competed with each other.
LaserDisc is a composite video format: the luminance (black and white) and chrominance (color) information were transmitted in one signal, separated by the receiver. While good comb filters can do so adequately, these two signals cannot be completely separated. On DVD-Video, images are stored in the YCbCr format, with the chroma information being entirely discrete, which results in far higher fidelity, particularly at strong color borders or regions of high detail (especially if there is moderate movement in the picture) and low-contrast details such as skin tones, where comb filters almost inevitably smudge some detail.
In contrast to the entirely digital DVD, LaserDiscs use only analog video. As the LaserDisc format is not digitally encoded and does not make use of compression techniques, it is immune to video
DVDs use compressed audio formats such as
DTS-encoded LaserDiscs have DTS soundtracks of 1,235 kbit/s instead of the reduced bitrate of 768 kbit/s commonly employed on DVDs with optional DTS audio.
Advantages
LaserDisc players can provide a great degree of control over the playback process. Unlike many DVD players, the transport mechanism always obeys commands from the user: pause, fast-forward, and fast-reverse commands are always accepted (barring malfunctions). There were no "User Prohibited Options" where content protection code instructs the player to refuse commands to skip a specific part (such as fast forwarding through copyright warnings). (Some DVD players, particularly higher-end units, do have the ability to ignore the blocking code and play the video without restrictions, but this feature is not common in the usual consumer market.)
With CAV LaserDiscs, the user can jump directly to any individual frame of a video simply by entering the frame number on the remote keypad, a feature not common among DVD players. Some DVD players have cache features which stores a certain amount of the video in RAM which allows the player to index a DVD as quickly as an LD, even down to the frame in some players.
Damaged spots on a LaserDisc can be played through or skipped over, while a DVD will often become unplayable past the damage. Some newer DVD players feature a repair+skip algorithm, which alleviates this problem by continuing to play the disc, filling in unreadable areas of the picture with blank space or a frozen frame of the last readable image and sound. The success of this feature depends upon the amount of damage. LaserDisc players, when working in full analog, recover from such errors faster than DVD players.
Similar to the CD versus LP sound quality debates common in the audiophile community, some videophiles argue that LaserDisc maintains a "smoother", more "film-like", natural image while DVD still looks slightly more artificial. Early DVD demo discs often had compression or encoding problems, lending additional support to such claims at the time. The video signal-to-noise ratio and bandwidth of LaserDisc are substantially less than those of DVDs, making DVDs appear sharper and clearer to most viewers.
Another advantage, at least to some consumers, was the fact that any sort of
LaserDisc's support for multiple audio tracks allowed for vast supplemental materials to be included on-disc and made it the first available format for "Special Edition" releases; the 1984
Disadvantages
Despite the advantages over competing technology at the time (namely VHS and Betamax), the discs are heavy—weighing about 250 grams (8.8 oz) each—and cumbersome, were more prone than a VHS tape to damage if mishandled, and manufacturers did not market LD units with recording capabilities to consumers. Also, because of their size, greater mechanical effort was required to spin the discs at the proper speed, resulting in much more noise generated than other media.
The space-consuming analog video signal of a LaserDisc limited playback duration to 30/36 minutes (CAV NTSC/PAL) or 60/64 minutes (CLV NTSC/PAL) per side, because of the hardware manufacturer's refusal to reduce line count and bandwidth for increased playtime, (as is done in VHS; VHS tapes have a 3 MHz video bandwidth, while LaserDisc preserves the full 6 MHz bandwidth and resolution used in NTSC broadcasts). After one side is finished playing, a disc has to be flipped over to continue watching a movie, and some titles fill two or more discs, depending on the film's runtime and whether or not special features are included. Many players, especially units built after the mid-1980s, can "flip" discs automatically by rotating the optical pickup to the other side of the disc, but this is accompanied by a pause in the movie during the side change.
In the event the movie is longer than what could be stored on two sides of a single disc, manually swapping to a second disc is required at some point during the film (one exception to this rule is the Pioneer LD-W1, which features the ability to load two discs and to play each side of one disc and then to switch to playing each side of the other disc). In addition, perfect still frames and random access to individual still frames is limited only to the more expensive CAV discs, which only had a playing time of approximately 30 minutes per side. In later years, Pioneer and other manufacturers overcame this limitation by incorporating a digital memory buffer, which "grabbed" a single field or frame from a CLV disc.
The analog information encoded on LaserDiscs also does not include any form of built-in checksum or error correction. Because of this, slight dust and scratches on the disc surface can result in read-errors which cause various video quality problems: glitches, streaks, bursts of static, or momentary picture interruptions. In contrast, the digital MPEG-2 format information used on DVDs has built-in error correction which ensures that the signal from a damaged disc will remain identical to that from a perfect disc right up until the damage to the disc surface prevents the laser from being able to identify usable data.
In addition, LaserDisc videos sometimes exhibit a problem known as "crosstalk". The issue can arise when the laser optical pickup assembly within the player is out of alignment or because the disc is damaged or excessively warped, but it could also occur even with a properly functioning player and a factory-new disc, depending on electrical and mechanical alignment problems. In these instances, the issue arises due to the fact that CLV discs require subtle changes in rotating speed at various points during playback. During a change in speed, the optical pickup inside the player might read video information from a track adjacent to the intended one, causing data from the two tracks to "cross"; the extra video information picked up from that second track shows up as distortion in the picture which looks reminiscent of swirling "
Assuming the player's optical pickup is in proper working order, crosstalk distortion normally does not occur during playback of CAV format LaserDiscs, as the rotational speed never varies. If the player calibration is out of order or if the CAV disc is faulty or damaged, other problems affecting tracking accuracy can occur. One such problem is "laser lock", where the player reads the same two fields for a given frame over and over, causing the picture to look frozen as if the movie were paused.
Another significant issue unique to LaserDisc is one involving the inconsistency of playback quality between different makers and models of player. On the majority of televisions, a given DVD player will produce a picture that is visually indistinguishable from other units; differences in image quality between players only becomes easily apparent on larger televisions, and substantial leaps in image quality are generally only obtained with expensive, high-end players that allow for post-processing of the MPEG-2 stream during playback.
In contrast, LaserDisc playback quality is highly dependent on hardware quality, and major variances in picture quality appear between different makers and models of LD players, even when tested on a low to mid-range television. The obvious benefits of using high-quality equipment has helped keep demand for some players high, thus also keeping pricing for those units comparably high: in the 1990s, notable players sold for anywhere from US$200 to well over $1,000, while older and less desirable players could be purchased in working condition for as little as $25.
Laser rot
Many early LaserDiscs were not manufactured properly; the adhesive that was used contained impurities that were able to penetrate the lacquer seal layer and chemically attack the metalized reflective aluminum layer, altering its reflective characteristics, which, in turn, deteriorated the recorded signal. This was a problem that was termed "laser rot" among LaserDiscs enthusiasts (also called "color flash" internally by LaserDisc pressing plants). Some forms of laser rot could appear as black spots that looked like mold or burned plastic which cause the disc to skip and the video to exhibit excessive speckling noise. But, for the most part, rotted discs could actually appear perfectly fine to the naked eye.
Later optical standards have also been known to suffer similar problems, including a notorious batch of defective CDs manufactured by Philips-DuPont Optical at their Blackburn, Lancashire facility in England during the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Impact and decline
LaserDisc did not have high market penetration in North America due to the high cost of the players and discs, which were far more expensive than VHS players and tapes, and due to marketplace confusion[37] with the technologically inferior CED, which also went by the name Videodisc. While the format was not widely adopted by North American consumers, it was well received among videophiles due to the superior audio and video quality compared to VHS and Betamax tapes, finding a place in nearly one million American homes by the end of 1990.[38] The format was more popular in Japan than in North America because prices were kept low to ensure adoption, resulting in minimal price differences between VHS tapes and the higher quality LaserDiscs, helping ensure that it quickly became the dominant consumer video format in Japan. Anime collectors in every country in which the LD format was released, which included both North America and Japan, also quickly became familiar with this format, and sought the higher video and sound quality of LaserDisc and the availability of numerous titles not available on VHS (encouraged by Pioneer's in-house production of anime which made titles specifically with the format in mind). LaserDiscs were also popular alternatives to videocassettes among movie enthusiasts in the more affluent regions of South East Asia, such as Singapore,[citation needed] due to their high integration with the Japanese export market and the disc-based media's superior longevity compared to videocassette, especially in the humid conditions endemic to that area of the world.
The format also became quite popular in Hong Kong during the 1990s before the introduction of VCDs and DVD; although people rarely bought the discs (because each LD was priced around US$100), high rental activity helped the video rental business in the city grow larger than it had ever been previously. Due to integration with the Japanese export market, NTSC LaserDiscs were used in the Hong Kong market, in contrast to the PAL standard used for broadcast (this anomaly also exists for DVD). This created a market for multi-system TVs and multi-system VCRs which could display or play both PAL and NTSC materials in addition to SECAM materials (which were never popular in Hong Kong). Some LD players could convert NTSC signals to PAL so that most TVs used in Hong Kong could display the LD materials.
Despite the relative popularity, manufacturers refused to market recordable LaserDisc devices on the consumer market, even though the competing
Although the LaserDisc format was supplanted by DVD by the late 1990s, many LD titles are still highly coveted[39] by movie enthusiasts (for example, Disney's Song of the South which is unavailable in the US in any format, but was issued in Japan on LD.) This is largely because there are many films that are still only available on LD and many other LD releases contain supplementary material not available on subsequent DVD versions of those films. Until the end of 2001, many titles were released on VHS, LD, and DVD in Japan.
Further developments and applications
Computer control
In the early 1980s, Philips produced a LaserDisc player model adapted for a computer interface, dubbed "professional." In 1985, Jasmine Multimedia created LaserDisc jukeboxes featuring music videos from Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, and Cyndi Lauper. When connected to a PC this combination could be used to display images or information for educational or archival purposes, for example, thousands of scanned medieval manuscripts. This strange device could be considered a very early equivalent of a CD-ROM.
In the mid-1980s
In 1986, a
During the 1980s in the United States, Digital Equipment Corporation developed the standalone PC control IVIS (Interactive VideoDisc Information System) for training and education. One of the most influential programs developed at DEC was Decision Point, a management gaming simulation, which won the Nebraska Video Disc Award for Best of Show in 1985.
Apple's HyperCard scripting language provided Macintosh computer users with a means to design databases of slides, animation, video and sounds from LaserDiscs and then to create interfaces for users to play specific content from the disc through software called LaserStacks.[41] User-created "stacks" were shared and were especially popular in education where teacher-generated stacks were used to access discs ranging from art collections to basic biological processes. Commercially available stacks were also popular with the Voyager company being possibly the most successful distributor.[42]
Commodore International's 1992 multimedia presentation system for the Amiga, AmigaVision, included device drivers for controlling a number of LaserDisc players through a serial port. Coupled with the Amiga's ability to use a Genlock, this allowed for the LaserDisc video to be overlaid with computer graphics and integrated into presentations and multimedia displays, years before such practice was commonplace.
Pioneer also made computer-controlled units such as the LD-V2000. It had a back-panel RS-232 serial connection through a five-pin DIN connector, and no front-panel controls except Open/Close. (The disc would be played automatically upon insertion.)
Under contract from the
Video games
The format's instant-access capability made it possible for a new breed of LaserDisc-based
MUSE LD
In 1991, several manufacturers announced specifications for what would become known as MUSE LaserDisc, representing a span of almost 15 years until the feats of this HD analog optical disc system would finally be duplicated digitally by
To view MUSE-encoded discs, it was necessary to have a MUSE decoder in addition to a compatible player. There are televisions with MUSE decoding built-in and set-top tuners with decoders that can provide the proper MUSE input. Equipment prices were high, especially for early HDTVs which generally eclipsed US$10,000, and even in Japan the market for MUSE was tiny. Players and discs were never officially sold in North America, although several distributors imported MUSE discs along with other import titles.
LaserDisc players and LaserDiscs that worked with the competing European HD-MAC HDTV standard were also made.[43]
Picture discs
Picture discs have artistic etching on one side of the disc to make the disc more visually attractive than the standard shiny silver surface. This etching might look like a movie character, logo, or other promotional material. Sometimes that side of the LD would be made with colored plastic, rather than the clear material used for the data side. Picture disc LDs only had video material on one side as the "picture" side could not contain any data. Picture discs are rare in North America.
LD-G
Anamorphic LaserDiscs
With the release of
There were no anamorphic LaserDisc titles available in the US except for promotional purposes. Upon purchase of a Toshiba 16:9 television viewers had the option of selecting a number of Warner Bros. 16:9 films. Titles include
Recordable formats
Another type of video media, CRVdisc, or "Component Recordable Video Disc" were available for a short time[
Another form of recordable LaserDisc that is completely playback-compatible with the LaserDisc format (unlike CRVdisc with its caddy enclosure) is the RLV, or Recordable Laser Videodisc. It was developed and first marketed by the
The only cosmetic difference between an RLV disc and a regular factory-pressed LaserDiscs is their reflective Red (showing up in photos as a purple-violet or blue with some RLV discs) color resulting from the dye embedded in the reflective layer of the disc to make it recordable, as opposed to the silver mirror appearance of regular LDs. The reddish color of RLVs is very similar to
Pioneer also produced a rewritable LaserDisc system, the VDR-V1000 "LaserRecorder" for which the discs had a claimed erase/record potential of 1,000,000 cycles.[44]
These recordable LD systems were never marketed toward the general public, and are so unknown as to create the misconception that home recording for LaserDiscs was impossible and thus a perceived "weakness" of the LaserDisc format.
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A Pioneer LaserRecorder that can be connected to a computer or a video source
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A CRVdisc with a VHS tape for size comparison
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A Recordable Laser Videodisc with a DVD-R for size comparison
LaserDisc sizes
30 cm (Full-size)
The most common size of LaserDisc was 30 cm (11.8 in), approximately the size of 12 in (30.5 cm)
20 cm ("EP"-size)
A number of 20 cm (7.9 in) LaserDiscs were also published. These smaller "
12 cm (CD Video and Video Single Disc)
There were also 12 cm (4.7 in) (CD size) "single"-style discs produced that were playable on LaserDisc players. These were referred to as CD Video (CD-V) discs, and Video Single Discs (VSD).
CD-V was a hybrid format launched in the late 1980s, and carried up to five minutes of analog LaserDisc-type video content with a digital soundtrack (usually a music video), plus up to 20 minutes of digital audio CD tracks. The original 1989 release of David Bowie's retrospective Sound + Vision CD box set prominently featured a CD-V video of "Ashes to Ashes", and standalone promo CD-Vs featured the video, plus three audio tracks: "John, I'm Only Dancing", "Changes", and "The Supermen".
Despite the similar name, CD Video is entirely incompatible with the later all-digital Video CD (VCD) format, and can only be played back on LaserDisc players with CD-V capability or one of the players dedicated to the smaller discs.[45][Footnotes 1] CD-Vs were somewhat popular for a brief time worldwide[citation needed] but soon faded from view.
In Europe, Philips also used the "CD Video" name as part of a short-lived attempt in the late 1980s to relaunch and rebrand the entire LaserDisc system.[45][30] Some 20 and 30 cm discs were also branded "CD Video", but unlike the 12 cm discs, these were essentially just standard LaserDiscs with digital soundtracks and no audio-only CD content.[45]
The VSD format was announced in 1990, and was essentially the same as the 12 cm (4.7 in) CD-V, but without the audio CD tracks, and intended to sell at a lower price.[46] VSDs were popular only in Japan and other parts of Asia and were never fully introduced to the rest of the world.
See also
Footnotes
References
- ^ a b c "Pioneer Announces End of LaserDisc Player Products" (Press release). UK: Pioneer. January 15, 2009. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
- ^ a b c "Pioneer Announces End of Laser Disc Player Products". Japan Corp. January 14, 2009. Archived from the original on July 25, 2013. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
- ^ LaserDisc Players: wave of the future?. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved October 24, 2011 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Followers of LaserDisc Interest". itimes. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
- ^ "I Think I Must Admit that Laserdisc Is Dead". mediageek. January 15, 2009. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
- ^ U.S. patent 3,430,966 Transparent recording disc, 1969.
- ^ U.S. patent 3,530,258 Video signal transducer, 1970.
- ^ U.S. patent 4,893,297 Disc-shaped member, 1990.
- ^ "1979: The VideoDisc Is Here!". History of Media Technology. CED magic. Retrieved April 8, 2011.
- ^ "レーザーディスクプレーヤー生産終了のお知らせ" [Laser disk player production end] (Press release) (in Japanese). JP: Pioneer. January 14, 2009. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
- ^ The Computer Chronicles - Japanese PCs (1984) (video). Computer Chronicles. March 17, 2015. Event occurs at 15:54. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-321-10603-2.
- ^ "LaserDisc Museum". LASERDISC PLANET. Archived from the original on April 28, 2015. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
- ^ "Karaoke Club (archived)". Teichiku. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
- ^ a b "Laser Disc Officially Dead". Home media. January 14, 2009. Archived from the original on February 17, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2009.
- ^ "For users of laser disc players ~Notice of end of production~ (Archived)". Pioneer. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
- ^ "New and emerging video technologies: A status report". Indiana university. October 29, 1998. Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
- ^ Flaherty, Julie (April 29, 1999). "Bittersweet Times for Collectors of Laser Disk Movies". The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
- ^ VanHooker, Brian (December 28, 2020). "The Film Geeks Who Still Watch Everything on LaserDisc". MEL Magazine. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
- YouTube
- ^ The Story of BBC Television Idents, History of the BBC, accessed July 18, 2019
- ^ "LD vs. DVD: A Fundamental Difference". July 3, 1999. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
- ^ a b "LaserDisc: A vision comes to life". Blam Entertainment Group. October 28, 1999. Retrieved February 10, 2011.
- ^ a b "Digital audio modulation in the PAL and NTSC video disc formats". J. Audio Eng. Soc. 32: 883. 1984. Retrieved February 24, 2008.
- ^ "Laserdisc Forever Review of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace". May 9, 2000. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved October 5, 2007.
- ^ "Instructions for Onkyo ED901 decoder" (PDF).
- ^ "Marantz DP870". Archived from the original on July 6, 2017.
- ^ "DTS Digital Surround LaserDisc". January 24, 2005. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
- ^ "LaserDisc FAQ". PrecisionLaserdisc.com. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
- ^ a b c Fox, Barry (March 19, 1987). "Compact disc video hits the streets...". New Scientist. No. 1552. p. 28.
Philips also sees CD Video as a way of relaunching the technically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful Laservision [whose name] will be dropped and the new name and logo used [for] 12, 20 and 30 centimentre [discs] [..] The old LaserVision videodiscs had analogue sound but new CDV discs will have digital sound [..] this makes all new discs incompatible with old [analogue-only] players in Europe. [..] Philips estimates [between] 12,000 and 15,000 old-format Laservision players in Europe [and] is estimating the cost of a trade-in deal
- ^ The LaserDisc Turtle (real), YouTube
- ^ "Video interchange". Video history.
- ^ A case study in the examination, documentation and preservation of a video-based installation by Paul Messier, Journal of the American Institute for Conservation
- ^ "(2.7) How does DVD compare to laser disc?". AllforMP3.com. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
- ^ Neopolitan, Matt (May 17, 2003). "Quality is the Trademark of Criterion Collection DVDs". Billboard. p. 46.
- ^ "If DVD killed the film star, Criterion honors the ghost". The Denver Post. August 24, 2005. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
- ISBN 9780071423984.
- ^ Dick, Jeff. "Laserdisc Redux". Retrieved October 9, 2012.
- ISBN 9780071423984.
- ^ "Auto carto" (PDF). The BBC Domesday Project, A Nation-wide CIS for $4448 (proceedings) (8). Map context. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 15, 2016. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
- ^ "LaserStacks". Hargrave's Communications Dictionary. Wiley. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
- ^ Martin, Jeff. "Voyager Company CD-ROMs: Production History and Preservation Challenges of Commercial Interactive Media" (PDF). Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) Resource Guide. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
- ^ Tejerina, J.B.; Visintin, F. (Winter 1992). "The HDTV demonstrations at Expo 92" (PDF). EBU Technical Review.
- ^ "Pioneer VDR-V1000". www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ^ a b c
"Techmoan" (Matthew "Mat" Taylor) (February 1, 2018). CD Video (Not Video CD) – when Videodiscs went gold. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2021.
[10:44] Philips also released smaller players [..] which could only play the [12 cm CD-size] disc
[08:27] in Europe [Philips' LaserDisc sales were pitiful but] with Laserdisc now capable of [digital audio] why not just start all over again [and rebrand as] CD Video [and] piggyback on the success of compact disc
[11:44] [30 cm "CD Video" discs] are just Laserdiscs coloured gold and with [digital soundtrack]
[15:12] [12 cm disc is] essence of the format [..] [Larger discs were really just] Laserdiscs or LaserVision discs. - ISBN 9780316937610.
A new laserdisc format- video single disc (VSD)- is due in Japan. [It] is the size of a standard CD, but carries five minutes of video and audio [..] It differs from the failed CD-Video in the amount of audio (the latter had 20 minutes of audio and five minutes of video) and in price (in Japan it will cost half as much as CDV
Further reading
- Isailovic, Jordan. Videodisc and Optical Memory Systems. Vol. 1, Boston, MA: Prentice Hall, 1984. ISBN 978-0-13-942053-5.
- Lenk, John D. Complete Guide to Laser/VideoDisc Player Troubleshooting and Repair. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985. ISBN 0-13-160813-4.
External links
- BBC Tomorrow's World clip on LaserDisc from 1980
- LaserDisc Database
- LaserDisc Player Archive Archived August 31, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- LaserDisc Technical Page
- TotalRewind.org vintage format site
- BLAM Entertainment Group comprehensive LaserDisc site
- Laserdisc Player Formats and Features eBay guide (archived)
- Digital Audio Modulation in the PAL and NTSC Laservision Video Disc Coding Formats