First video disc/D.V.D. player

[Telecolor 3007]

What was the first D.V.D. player. Where I can find some pics/infos about video discs/D.V.D's (players). Anyone ariund here owns a videio disc player with a disc big as a vinyl record? Did those early video disc players with C.D's? coul also record, or the only could play? :scratch2:
:worthles
This is what I found on google. Maybe U know more
The first video disc:
http://www.labguysworld.com/MVR_100S-2A.htm
http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/ced-patents/4227699-patent.html
video disc and video disc players
http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/memories-ced.html
http://disclord.tripod.com/vhddiscworld/id13.html
http://www.cedmagic.com/selectavision.html

 

[axel]

There were numerous protos from many brands throughout the 70s but Philips was at the start of it in about '69.

Consumer-wise, the 1st available Videodisc player was the Magnavox VH8000 (Philips VLP 700 in Europe), 1978. I have a later VH8005 as well as a Philips VLP-720 (1981) ; both function with neon tube-powered laser and both are now dead, of course...

CD came as an offshoot of research on Videodiscs, combined with the then existing PCM processors - mainly Sony but there were others, too. DVD is the off-off-shoot of CD - many patents are common to both formats.

The 1st LD/DVD player was Pioneer's DVL-700, 1998, followed the same year by the more common DVL-909 and later DVL-919 update. All three play just about all formats possible: CD, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW, CD-V, LD, LD-V, LD-G etc etc etc... I own a 909. These players could only play, NOT record.

Laserdisc is dead market-wise, since long, but still available 2nd-hand and plenty of them, and plenty cheap

 

[Telecolor 3007]

That "Philips"
It cost 499 pounds in 1982.
499. 21,000,000 lei (2,100 new lei) in todays money... Lei (lions) are the Romanian money

 

[Chad Hauris]

There are also CED videodiscs which are played with a stylus...these were available in the late '70s and early 80's. The disc is like an LP record but the grooves are finer, it is kept in a plastic sheath which is inserted into the player and removed.

I believe a prototype of Laserdisc videodiscs (Called Discovision) was introduced in the U.S. at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1974.

 

[Telecolor 3007]

But I don' think they where so popular. The V.C.R.'s offerrd a lot more alternatives back than.

 

[axel]

Telecolor,

I know these websites.
The best rewind I've found so far on all video formats, whether disc or tape, is this one:
> http://www.totalrewind.org/

I didn't mention CED, or JVC's VHD/AHD because they weren't in your question.

But JVC's VHD/AHD scheme (Video High Definition, Audio H.D.) was pretty close to the original Philips plan: a double-headed format - 1 single physical format for two different contents (video and audio).
By Philips it gave Lasedisc on one side and CD on the other - but very different hardware and a lot of help from Sony for CD, from Pioneer on LD. By JVC it gave... nothing as their own double-headed scheme didn't do well and came a little too late...

 

[Telecolor 3007]

I'm also intrested in CED's and VHD's

 

[dr.ido]

I have seen standalone VCD recorders, but I've never actually used one. They typically encode analog video into MPEG 1 and burn it onto CDR in real time. They used to be advertised on the same kind of sites that also sold region free DVD players and modchips for game consoles.

LD recorders do exist, but they were never a consumer item. Strictly professional use and price only (tens of thousands $ for the LD recorder and >$100 per blank LD-R disc from memory). From memory Sega used to distribute promo footage of upcoming games on LD-R disc, in fact the only time I even saw pictures of a Laserdisc recorder and LD-R disc it was on a Sega related site.

I have almost as many Laserdisc players as I have Laserdiscs. I've never really sought them out, they've just turned up at the junk auction I frequent at too good to refuse prices. Around here Laserdisc players are relatively easy to find, but Laserdiscs worth watching are a different matter (maybe I'm not looking in the right places). Around here it seems Laserdisc was more often used for karaoke than movies. To me karaoke discs of music I don't like in languages I don't understand are almost worthless (well, you can at least use them to check the player is working).

If your looking for odd formats there's always Philips CDi. Intended as an all-in-one type machine that would play games, run encyclopedia type reference titles and also play VCD movies. To be completely compliant with the VCD standard each disc should contain the CDi player application, though it is missing from most VCDs found today.

I'm sure there are others still (GD-ROM anyone?).

 

[Telecolor 3007]

But those VCD/VHD/VLD players can read today's C.D's?

 

[axel]

Only the LD (mid/late 80s models onward), VCD and CD-i can read CDs.
VHD was competing against CD...

 

[Trawlerman]

The first stand alone DVD player to be offered to the european consumer market was the French!!! Thompson DTH-1000 and it was available back in 1998 and maybe as early as 1997.

 

[axel]

I remember I almost went for it but the quality of the early MPEG-2 encodings was so horrible I thought what happened to LP when CD came in was about to happen again - the new format isn't as good as the old one!
Not sure about this but I believe there was more Philips than Thomson in the 1000...

IIRC, the Thomson landed in the shops in about mid '98. Less than half a year later Laserdisc was dead and discounted at outrageous prices. Argh. Argh. ARGH.

 

[Telecolor 3007]

At it was Made in France? Do you have an pic of it? How much costs at second-hand? I want to buy me an OLD, but ORIGINAL, not Made in CHINA D.V.D. player.
What format use the VHD? Are existing P.A.L. and N.T.S.C. C.D.'s for a V.C.D., or a V.C.D. can be use all over the world?

 

[dr.ido]

You could also look for a Grundig GDV110. Made in Belgium, has RGB SCART output (which was the reason I bought it), unlike some other older players it will play DVD-R. Looks nothing like a typical chinese player. It uses the same DVD mechanism as some (lesser in my opinion) Philips and probably other players, so it can be kept running with their parts.

If you can get one for the same price as a typical noname chinese player as I did it's worth having.

It has the same downsides as most older players though... It won't play SVCD, MP3 or some VCDs, no Analog 5.1 outputs.

 

[Telecolor 3007]

But can I connect an stereo tube ampflifeir at it.
At techer form Bucharest "Polithenica" Univeristy told me that in 1983 he repaird an video disc player, with big discs (like the pick-up ones) and the disc flown from the player to the sealing, but not got brocken.
Is true that the laser/light divecies became poor (aka they got fatique) after a time?
Here are some more laser-discs
http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/

 

[axel]

The early videodisc players used gas in a tube to power the laser - tubes would leak after a while: no gas left, no laser. My two early samples are in that state...

Semi-conductor lasers (as used in more recent LD players, cd players, dvd players etc) wear out after some time, loose power and just get lost.

As for LDs not breaking: I tried to break one by throwing it on the walls many times - it would bounce, get scratched, get marks and bumps - but not break

 

[dr.ido]

It could be connected to any stereo amplifier with an available line input, tubes included. If you wanted surround sound though you'd need either a receiver or decoder with a digital input.

Like anything else I'd assume the laser unit in any CD, DVD or LD player will wear out. That said I have a Pioneer LD7000 and a Philips CD202 both from 1983 that are still working fine. The CD202 even plays CDRs.

 

[Telecolor 3007]

@dr.ido: but at that "Grundig" the laser dosen't falls after a time?

 

[dr.ido]

Like almost all the gear that I buy the Grundig wasn't working when I bought it. It had a dead laser and wouldn't read discs. Since replacing the laser (with one from a Philips with a logic problem) it has worked perfectly.

How long will the replacement laser last? Who knows.

Honestly I don't expect that much from DVD players. The number of relatively new players with dead lasers that show up at the junk auction I attend suggests they don't last too long. True, most of what I see are either generic chinese brands or low end models from known brands (which are often the same generic chinese players with a different label attached).

Occasionally an older Sony, Pioneer or Toshiba that was considered better than average at the time comes through. Perhaps that suggests such players do last longer than the others, or perhaps most owners consider them worthy of repair.