Leonard Nimoy demonstrates Magnavision LaserDisc Player

[RogueCrockett]

wtf lol i was wondering who leonard nimoy was and now i know he played spock also this is pretty entertaining because he is talking to a blinking rock and it is friggen hilarious

[nickelindimer]

FTR: This is not the first Sci-Fi tie-in made with LD. Battlestar Galactica had an episode wherein an android (played by Buddy Hackett) presented a DiscoVision disk that "contained many audio & visual programs for entertainment".

Irony: They advertise "Airport 1975" here, and the usage of one of these very machines [aboard a jet-liner] is seen in "Airport '77". HA!

[pimpingmrli]

where can I get one of these demo LD's? I just got a LD player and I have to have this disc!

[Watcher3223]

@pimpingmrli

I got my copy from eBay.

The obstacle over getting LD demo discs, especially discs from the early years of the format, will be their rarity. Discs, such as this one, do not go up for sale that often.

Depending on the disc and the circumstances behind the sale, a high price may be commanded.

[kfdave]

@pimpingmrli Something like this may be hard to find,but there are tons of "commercial" discs out there,some quite cheap.I have a few Pioneer demo discs,including my favorite "LaserDisc And How it works",but some of the industrial discs are just priceless (entertainment wise,not price if you can find them).I have one that's a training video for people selling the new '82 Oldsmobile's,still makes me laugh every time I watch it.These discs make LD collecting fun.

[VakoGames]

This machine makes a hell of a noise x)

[pjones08]

This video is everything that was wrong with the 1970s.

[FEVB]

@pjones08 Or everything that was right hahaha

[SuperZackdavis]

his finger nails are polished

[teddyshah]

this is the man who voiced Sentinel Prime in TF3

[Watcher3223]

@teddyshah

He also voiced Galvatron in the animated "Transformers: The Movie."

[FEVB]

@teddyshah Hardly his most famous role. Ever heard of Spock? :P

[nickelindimer]

Thank-you for posting this. The opening sequence makes for a great test/demo for any A/V equipment I stumble across. (Yes, I downloaded it.) Shame [seemingly] the only way you could post it here was to reduce the resolution slightly (720x480 vs. 640x480). I know it's picking 'nit's... But still, I am using it as a test-piece. So....

BTW: I have a Pioneer player (Corporate/institutional model, early-90's about) that I got at a church "garage-sale" for a song, so I feel for those searching.

[orka16605]

I get it now! Every personal porn viewing device is sold with the code word "educational".

[iskanderoelmann]

the best way to watch ABBA, Without sound...! :)

[pimpingmrli]

Why can't I ever find one of these players for a semi reasonable price?

I know many people want one for their collections...but every one on ebay (working or broken) is like $1200 or more. They aren't worth that much. Is there a good LD forum with a rather large marketplace and helpful members?

[Watcher3223]

@pimpingmrli

Possible, but it takes a while as there aren't too many of these around as well as the fact that many people tend to equate rarity with value.

There was a usenet group for LaserDisc that I had participated in years ago, but I don't know if people really post there anymore.

alt.video.laserdisc

[Watcher3223]

@pimpingmrli

There is a website that deals with LaserDiscs, but mainly titles as opposed to players.

Google: LaserDisc Database

There is also a LaserDisc player info site.

Google: LaserDisc Archive UK

[Scalibq]

"the Philips VLP-600 and VLP-700, sold in Europe as the very first consumer LaserDisc players there, were based on the Magnavox VH-8000 and VH-8005, respectively."

More like the other way around: Philips acquired Magnavox in 1974, and rebranded their products under Magnavox for the US market.

[Watcher3223]

@Scalibq

I was not talking about brand acquisition, but the player models.

LaserDisc was released a couple of years later in Europe. The first European models from Philips that came out in 1982 was based on a model that debuted in North America in 1978 by Philips under the Magnavox brand (North American Philips or NAP).

[Scalibq]

@Watcher3223 Well yes, as I said, it's basically a rebrand (I'd go further than just 'based on'). But Philips is the main company. So in this rare case the 'rebrand' was on the market before the actual Philips-branded model was.

It's just that the way you phrased it made it sound more like the Philips ones were a rebrand of the Magnavox ones.

[Watcher3223]

@Scalibq

I know Philips is the main company.

However, back in the late 1970s, the Philips brand barely had any presence in the North American electronics market whereas Magnavox is well known there.

Marketing is why this player was branded a Magnavox and not Philips.

To clarify, the players were engineered and manufactured by Philips though, technically, anything bearing the Magnavox brand made after the acquisition is a Philips product.

[Watcher3223]

@Scalibq

And, the player Philips designed for their Magnavox division is the basis of the first Philips players that came out in Europe.

[Gargantuus]

Yes, I can understand you. I'm Leonard Nimoy.

[MetallicBill]

It's looking more like replicated from actual LaserDisc! hahaha

[sinedeocodex]

lol. This single wire?!

[Watcher3223]

@sinedeocodex

Of course, today, we have HDMI and the possibility that HDBaseT may replace that.

[MetallicBill]

@Watcher3223 That was predicted a long, long time ago considering. As far as LD player's expense, I paid $300 for my first VCR, anyone with the need to collect, they would make an LD player part of their system along with a VCR, but of course, availability was hampered, Where I lived, I remember seeing them about

[Kitsuneranger]

"How to Hit a Golf Ball" Lamest use for LaserDisc ever!

[hldx9]

That's right DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray--I AM YOUR FATHER!

[JimmyJunkster]

Philips built the VH-8000 under the Magnavox brand. That experience helped them to develop CD with Sony.

So this piece of junk led to CD which led to DVD and BluRay. So one thing leads to another. Except talking rocks - that never went anywhere.

[Watcher3223]

@JimmyJunkster

Correct. The European version of the Magnavox VH-8000 is the Philips VLP-700.

[Luigi84289]

@JimmyJunkster This is far from junk. The only problem was the capacity of the disks.

[Watcher3223]

@Luigi84289

I think he meant the player as opposed to LaserDiscs. The VH-8000 was a piece of junk.

[hldx9]

@Watcher3223 So was the format until Pioneer bought it in 1981. The early DiscoVision discs were notorious for oxidation i.e. "laser-rot". Too bad, cause that's probably one of the main reasons it never became mass-market, and was left in the dust by crappy-ass VHS with 240 lines of resolution.

[Watcher3223]

@hldx9 "So was the format until Pioneer bought it in 1981. The early DiscoVision discs were notorious for oxidation i.e. "laser-rot"."

Early discs were notorious for lots of problems in addition to some discs rotting. Mastering errors, foreign object inclusion, corporate and employee politics.

And it wasn't just the discs. There was also the first consumer player (the one on this video), which was what this player was. They were unforgiving with imperfect discs and were under-designed crap.

[Watcher3223]

@hldx9

Of course, Pioneer came out with their first consumer player, the VP-1000, and basically took Philips to school.

But, yeah, VCRs became well established and people preferred to rent movies rather than buy them along with the ability to record television programming despite efforts, especially by Philips, to market LaserDisc as a supplement to a VCR in a home video system rather than something that was competitive against VHS and Beta.

[hldx9]

@Watcher3223 Yet, apparently a lot of people were willing to pay the ridiculous prices to own certain VHS titles, $80 or more, even until the late '90s when DVD arrived and changed everything. I remember seeing a movie I wanted on Amazon back in 1999, and it was $80 for the VHS or $15 to pre-order the DVD. Duh--guess which one I chose! :)

[Watcher3223]

@hldx9

Especially as VHS cassettes were under a tiered distribution back then. Cassettes priced at $80, give or take a few, were meant to be purchased by video stores for rental (though a person who REALLY wanted it could buy it at the price) whereas DVD-Video was direct sale.

[MetallicBill]

@Watcher3223 You should know you could rent Betamax and LaserDisc, if you found the right outlet, that is!

[Watcher3223]

@MetallicBill

Except VHS was leaving Betamax behind starting at around the late 1970s/early 1980s. By the mid-late 1980s, only regions where there was still sizable demand for Beta would continue to rent Beta titles.

LaserDisc rentals were VERY limited in availability, usually only in some major metropolitan areas. The majority of video stores in North America rented video cassettes only and most increasingly adopted VHS as it became the standard for home video up until DVD picked up steam.

[MetallicBill]

@Watcher3223 I could rent LaserDisc from Hollywood Video and Video Update, both those chains are no more, but they offered the media people could enjoy, credit to them must be given, but for renting Beta it was in the 1980s more or less, of course, I can't recall back to the 1970s in terms of where I'd be renting and who had what! I was basically lucky to have those ma and pa shops supporting more then one format, I know that's not the case around the Country over the years

[Watcher3223]

@MetallicBill

"I could rent LaserDisc from Hollywood Video and Video Update, both those chains are no more"

Don't forget Blockbuster. But, you are forgetting that LD rentals were generally available only in major markets where you were likely to have people who could afford to own LD players.

Smaller cities and towns rarely, if ever, had video stores that offered that service.

[MetallicBill]

@hldx9 I go over this on several videos, it's because the plant in the 70s used to make LaserDiscs was not a proper cleanroom from the ground up, it was a former furniture maker, and as such, remnants of debris from the former were making clean pressing basically impossible, there was a terrible media failure rate, all in an effort to cut costs perhaps

[Watcher3223]

@MetallicBill

It stemmed from a couple of things, which resulted in the use of inappropriate facilities and not equipping them properly.

1. Management's unwillingness to listen to engineering recommendations in an effort to keep initial investment low.

2. Growing pains; DiscoVision was the first attempt at a practical consumer optical disc product and the ways to make discs wasn't exactly perfected when they tried to produce for retail.

[AnAmericanIdiot117]

He has the best nails that I have ever laid eyes on.

[stinray2118]

wow that machine is loud.

[jordanthewizard]

Laserdisc will live long and prosper.

[burr1aj]

This commercial wouldn't be so silly if it wasn't for that dumb rock thing.

[Watcher3223]

@burr1aj

Or the fact that the player advertised came out three years before this commercial and was actually a piece of crap compared to its nearest competitor, the Pioneer VP-1000.

[Anchicanoy]

i laughed my ass off while being informed of the introduction of the laser disc. Leonard Nimoy is kick ass!

[dboy122660]

Faaaacinating.

[DuplicatedOnce]

Laser rot is purely illogical, Captain

[neotheonly01]

WHHHHAAAAHHHH!!!!

MAGNAVOX!!!

IN GLORIOUS 3D

[TheTwillerZone]

Woah !!!!

[Clesarie]

ABBA kicks ass and so does spock.

[dandanthetaximan]

I have over 450 LDs and working players in all 3 rooms of my apartment. 2 play on large HDTVs, and the other on an HD DLP projector. Before I got Blu-Ray players that up-scaled my DVDs, most LDs looked just as good as DVDs in my systems.

[dandanthetaximan]

I actually have that LD player and that ABBA LD! The player won't advance frames; it just plays the same frame repeatedly. The ABBA plays great on my Pioneer & ProScan LD players, though!

[Watcher3223]

@dandanthetaximan

Probably willing to bet that this problem may be due to a bad belt for the slider mechanism (the mechanism that moves the optics back and forth).

This belt is small and flat, if memory serves me.

[dandanthetaximan]

@Watcher3223 I'd expect it to be something as simple as that. I just keep Spock's LD player as memorabilia. In my 2 A/V systems I use a Pioneer CLD-3070 and a ProScan PSLD41, both of which are auto-reverse and have S-Video and Tos-Link outputs, and in my daughter's room a Magnavox CDV484 "CD Video" player that has composite vid and coaxial digital audio outs. They all work great. I would like to fix the Pioneer CLD-D505 in my closet, though.

[Watcher3223]

@dandanthetaximan

No problem there; you have better players than the VH-8000.

As for the CLD-D505, what's it doing (or not doing)?

[halo3guyy]

wow this tech really took off didn't it haha

[Watcher3223]

@halo3guyy

Well, it did. LaserDisc did stick around until the turn of the century. It just didn't go as originally planned.

It ended up being a high end and expensive video format rather than a cheaper alternative to video cassettes.

[MIKON8ERISBACK]

@Watcher3223 VHS was more practical. Period.

[Watcher3223]

@MIKON8ERISBACK

Practicality depends on what you were wanting to get out of the product.

LaserDisc was practical for its intended purpose as a high quality playback only medium. So long as the player and discs were made properly, it did exactly what it was designed to do and was easy to use.

[Watcher3223]

@MIKON8ERISBACK

However, people wanted to record, especially for time-shifting and archiving.

Plus, video rental was an economical alternative to buying movies. This was a good counter to the fact that newly released movies on LaserDiscs were cheaper to buy than the same newly released movies on video cassette as, back then, LaserDiscs were directly sold to consumers whereas newly released cassettes were first sold at VERY high prices to rental before being sold at retail with lower prices.

[cygil1]

@halo3guyy Laserdisc was a huge success in Japan. It was a niche high-end format in the West. It pioneered most of the features subsequently found on DVDs. It was far from a failure.

[gogocartoons]

oh leonard don't you know '"bee boo bbee bboo boo eep"  means 'sing your hobbit song bitch'?

[Watcher3223]

@gogocartoons

Nah, I think "boop beep beep bop boop boop" means "I heard you singing 'the Hobbit' and I really think you shouldn't quit your day job as an actor, but at least you're not worse than Shatner."

[siemenstraffic]

It would had been epic if Leonard Nimoy pulled out a Laserdisk version of Star Trek TMP.

[AllHailLunesta]

Commercials in the 70's were weird...

[Watcher3223]

@AllHailLunesta

Yeah, they had some screwed up stuff back then. Interesting and amusing, though.

[andtastic1]

lol..nice tut spock..kenny baker is playing his sidekick interactive rock!

[psylentknight]

1:24 - I like how it's as if he addresses himself as if one's supposed to know that he can understand glowing rocks.

[thegreatbungholio21]

@psylentknight He mind melded with a Horta so I guess anything is possible.

[Watcher3223]

@thegreatbungholio21

And, chances are, that flashing, beeping rock is also silicon based, so it may be kindred with the Horta!

[Emjei2k]

AOTS

[Watcher3223]

@brokenMa

A new kind of fad for the pet rock fad revival, eh?

[thegreatbungholio21]

I hope he reenacts this at Dragoncon!!!

[Watcher3223]

@thegreatbungholio21

I wonder what his reaction might be if someone asks him about this.

[RetroVGamer]

This ad used to run in Sears to demo Laser Disc. I remember it. We'd be brought into a booth to watch this and they had stereo hooked up and one of those now old giant analog projection TVs.

[RetroVGamer]

5:17 The Abba sample Madonna used in one of her songs lol!

[BANGOTRON]

dude this video made Attack of the Show's #1

[Watcher3223]

@BANGOTRON

Really.

That's cool that one of the videos I've got up made it on G4 (though it's possible others that have this video up as well may have been the one chosen.

Wish I could catch that broadcast.

[Watcher3223]

@BANGOTRON

Nice. They did make mention of this particular video. They even linked it.  Cool.

[Watcher3223]

@BANGOTRON

Just wanted to give you my thanks.

If you hadn't mentioned it, I never would have known this video was mentioned on "Attack of the Show", much less made it to #1 on "Around the Net." (I don't watch TV that often.)

[StoragedMelody]

AOTS.

[davidsquall351]

I like how Leonard says control.

[AlonElvs]

Is it me or did he put the disc upside-down? :)

[rorqualmaru]

Hope Nimoy got paid mucho moolah for this....he's talking to a rock! That's cheesy even for it's time.

[koolaid5684]

"Obviously scratches won't affect this coated surface."

yup so true

[JesusSuckedGayPenis]

70's porn is not how I remember it.

[evillttlimp]

His nails are so shiny!

[MrRiggyRiggs]

I remember seeing them in school, like they were bustin out some new tech in that biatch!

[seehispugnosedface]

Leonard Starts watching Abba's 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' but fastforwards through 'Take a Chance on Me'

WTF IS GOING ON

[harryandthepeapods]

Leonard Nimoy penetrates the finer gaps of the laser disc format.

[jamie1707]

My parents bought one of these things. I think it worked for 2 weeks, then was in the shop every other week until finally finding a permanent home on a shelf in the attic. I can still hear my Dad cursing the darn thing. It had terrible picture quality, and if I remember right, the sound was often out of sync with the picture. I don't remember what it cost, but it wasn't cheap by 1979 standards.

I think we would have enjoyed owning the beeping rock much more.

[Watcher3223]

@jamie1707

Hope you stuck with LaserDisc, though. The VH-8000 was a terrible player in an objective sense.

The Pioneer VP-1000 from 1980 was lightyears ahead of the Magnavox player. More reliable with better performance.

[douchebarge]

Ah, the precursor to today's lame "FAQ" pages on commercial sites.

[TonyKaku]

Can't wait for this to hit the stores! It's awesome!

[ZombieDawg]

Magnavision: Gourmet video, for people who know and love video.

[Watcher3223]

@ZombieDawg

Because gourmet video always tastes better than fast food video.

[nickelindimer]

@Watcher3223 (Heh-heh) you mean the latest YouTube fast-food video! (Har-har-har!)

[SynopticLabs]

"Obviously scratches won't affect this coated surface."

[DanielSolis81]

"Yes, I can understand you – I'm Leonard Nimoy!" is the new internet meme.

[ScroobiusPipp]

Isn't that William Bell? And screw the laser disc player. I want the talking crystal.

[StevenLeonardTaylor]

The future, today!

[Unseh]

It appears that both Leonard Nimoy AND ABBA endorse this product....

must... buy.... maganvision....

[eddiegold]

Wow. nostalgic. We used to own a beeping rock also.

We threw it it away when sanity pills were invented

[LokiMD]

I've watched Fringe, so this video seems pretty sane to me now.

[dafranx]

Mr. Spock is in a Magnavox demo vid, that's awesome. and he finds the Laserdisc and it's player fascinating and logical.

[Watcher3223]

@dafranx

Surely, a gift from the Iotians after they uncovered the secrets of the transtator from the communicator that McCoy left behind on Sigma Iotia II.

[dafranx]

@Watcher3223 LOL!!

[dafranx]

@Watcher3223 I wonder what happens if William Shatner (Capt. James "Jim" Tiberius Kirk) hosts this Magnavox demo vid, in lieu of Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock)? How about George Takei (Mr. Sulu) hosting this Magnavox demo video?

[Watcher3223]

@dafranx

Yeah.

But, Mr. Takei did do a commercial for Sharp, plugging the Quattron line of direct view LCD HDTVs.

[MrSpockify]

That is a nice moustache...

[rjp443]

(moved)

Oh my god. That looks great! Much better. Anything like this that could be lost to the ravages of time (i.e. laser rot) deserves at least a near DVD quality upload.

Thanks for taking the time! :-D

[mikeismad61]

Philips by another name - but still a real cool video - thanks for posting.

[MetallicBill]

I always refer back to Widescreen Review's LaserMagic, the article World on a Silver Platter was a very fond look at the origins, and of course, I tie Sony to Philips because of the Compact Disc, which was in the time frame American Consumers think of LaserDisc, not all the time between 1973 and 1979 where MCA held the most stake I believe. It was mismanaged on many levels

[WammyGiveaway]

Now that you mentioned it, was there ever a promo for the MCA Discovision?

[Watcher3223]

@WammyGiveaway

Yes, in fact there were a couple of MCA DiscoVision promo discs. But, they're also very rare.

[MetallicBill]

I never thought high of Magnavox, and with good reason, but LaserDisc I attribute more to MCA as you know. Philips and Sony all played some role, and of course, just about all involved staked claim to Optical Disc invention, Sony tends to get the credit when the dust settles. I think the main key to the puzzle was TV technology was just NEVER up to the par of LaserDisc, but HDTV surpasses it, but for home projection, the preferred combo

[Watcher3223]

@MetallicBill

Magnavox did have some decent stuff back in the 1970s and 1980s, though this particular player wasn't very good.

Philips had a major role in the development of LaserDisc, though MCA was further ahead.

Sony wasn't involved in any area of LaserDisc's development; for Sony staking claims on anything remotely related to LaserDisc, it would be the Compact Disc. For LaserDisc, Pioneer usually gets the credit as inventor though it was MCA and Philips that developed the final product.

[MetallicBill]

@Watcher3223 What products were those, per se? I really know of nothing I can recall other then the Odyssey gaming system of 1977 perhaps