[Vintage-Audio] Pioneer Laservision Player

[Robert Nickels]

> Sort of the Betamax to todays DVD, I guess

Here's an interesting little historical summary of video on disk that I
found at  http://www.oto-online.com/jan00/p57.html
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Recording video signals on disc has a long history - Logie Baird developed a
working disc-based video recording system half a century ago. Consumer
disc-based video also emerged before the arrival of audio CDs and indeed
before the laser-beam on which CD relies became a viable technology. Early
progress was hindered by fierce competition between four rival systems and
the reluctance of buyers to invest in a play-only video medium whose quality
was only marginally better than could be obtained from the ubiquitous, and
relatively inexpensive, VHS videotape cassette recorder.

Briefly these pioneering systems were: the 200mm (8 inch) TeD Video Disc
developed jointly by Telefunken, Teldec and Decca which had an FM-modulated
video and audio groove traced by a stylus, and was very short-lived; the
Philips LaserVision 300mm (12 inch) optical disc offering excellent digital
video, analogue stereo sound and random access; the RCA two-sided CED, or
SelectaVision Video Disc, with a spiralling track of pits and bumps read by
a diamond stylus as alternating values of capacitance; and the JVC VHD/AHD
250mm (10 inch) disc with a VHD version not unlike CED and the AHD
audio-only version offering PCM encoded digital sound.   In 1988, Philips
briefly marketed a range of 120mm, 200mm and 300mm CD-Video discs which
brought together features of the audio CD and LaserVision. However, the
120mm version carried only six minutes of analogue video plus 20 minutes of
digital stereo sound and the system was soon abandoned.

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I'm not sure when Pioneer stopped making laserdisc machines but  I worked on
a project with them in the late 70's where their industrial machines were
used to show short videos at military recruiting offices, one of a many
non-home-entertainment applications.   I found where they exited the
software publishing biz in 1999.  The laserdisc was probably ahead of its
time, and another example of "the best technology doesn't always win".

73, Bob W9RAN