The DVD Difference 1997 demo disc- Multiple Camera Angles (angle 1 only) The Media Hoarder 2024-05-18 | Neat but under-used capability of DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Most early demo discs included a segment using it; for this upload I only included one of 3 camera angles. Streaming video still cannot do this because physical media is still the best!
The DVD Difference 1997 demo disc- Picture Quality The Media Hoarder 2024-05-17 | See how much better DVD is than VHS (which you should have already dumped for laserdisc about 10 years ago!)
The DVD Difference 1997 demo disc- Features The Media Hoarder 2024-05-16 | All the great things this exciting new format can do!
What is DVD (1997) The Media Hoarder 2024-05-13 | Somewhat overly technical segment from the Toshiba DVD Gallery demo disc.
1997 Toshiba DVD demo segment The Media Hoarder 2024-05-12 | From the 2-sided "Toshiba DVD Gallery" disc. Always thought it was funny how they promote this as a "unified format" and then messed up the industry's transition to HD with a format war between Blu-Ray and its inferior HD-DVD format.
The Gadget Gurus Guide to DVD (1997) The Media Hoarder 2024-05-11 | With Andy Pargh, one of the first internet "authorities" on home theater and electronics.All music clips were copyright-flagged and had to be cut.
1997 Sony DVD Demonstration disc The Media Hoarder 2024-05-09 | I think this was their first American in-store demo disc. All was presented as one continuous title, in 5.1 sound though some material has sound just in the front left and right channels. Too bad Sony electronics were already crap by this point and they're even more utter crap nowadays, as is their movie studio and video label.The disc ends with Tony Bennett performing “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” which was copyright flagged and had to be cut.
Mickey’s Runaway Railway breaks down for 2nd time The Media Hoarder 2024-04-30 | At Disney World. Waited in line for an hour and everyone was kicked out because the ride stopped working. Saw some riders on it in mid-ride and the lights came on.Came back later and they said it had been fixed, but when the ride started it broke again. Had my camera ready just in case, since the first time they played a recording saying “Please no photos or video” and I’m always happy to embarrass the Disney company whenever I can.Sorry for the bad camerawork but didn’t want to make it obvious I was recording, the light came on my iPhone also which I was trying to hide. None of the people appearing in this gave their consent, if they object then I’m sorry.
1997 Panasonic DVD demo segment Aqua Area (5.1 sound) The Media Hoarder 2024-04-24 | The only scenery clip on the 3rd Panasonic demo DVD. This was authored so that the picture would be cropped to 4x3 if the player was set to "Pan and Scan", very few discs actually supported that.
Universal Studios Florida interactive segment from Panasonic DVD Demo Disc #3 (1997) The Media Hoarder 2024-04-24 | This showed off the format's interactive capabilities, having you pick one of the three characters who would then show you a different part of Universal Studios. It's presented here with all 3 segments, normally the disc goes back to the main menu after the ending and you have to play the intro again to see a different one.Parts of this were also used on the very first Panasonic demo disc, shown there in 4x3 letterbox but presented here in proper 16x9.
1997 DVD Explanation segment from Panasonic Demo Disc #3 The Media Hoarder 2024-04-24 | Another explanation of the then-new DVD format on a Panasonic demo disc. Many Target stores played this on a loop which also included movie trailers for Beethoven, Babe, The Paper and The River Wild (all in 16x9, even though the first 3 of those movies were issued in 4x3 only at that time.)I've never seen demo disc #2, would gladly buy even a burned copy if anyone has one.
1996 Panasonic DVD demo segment- Musical Instruments The Media Hoarder 2024-04-23 | The last of the 4 general demo video clips on this disc.
1996 Panasonic DVD demo disc- Universal Studios Florida The Media Hoarder 2024-04-23 | This segment was included mainly to demonstrate the multi-audio track capability, but only the short opening narration is in different languages. Again this seems to have been shot in HD but then downscaled to SD and 4x3 letterbox. They did do a 5.1 sound mix which was pretty ambitious at the time.
1996 Panasonic DVD Demonstration clip- Beverly Hills (5.1 Dolby Digital) The Media Hoarder 2024-04-23 | One of 4 demo video clips with music in 5.1 Dolby Digital from the very first DVD most people ever saw. This looks like it was shot in early hi-def and then downscaled to 480 in 4x3 letterbox, nothing on this disc is in 16x9. I had to laugh at how these segments had almost no movement at all, as that was what caused the most compression artifacts.This disc looked awful in the stores; the movie clips were from Twister (which looked especially bad with everything going on in that), Free Willy, Goldeneye and Thumbelina. At home with proper settings it still looks decent however, but at the time it really didn't sell me on the format which the industry had already decided was going to kill off laserdisc regardless.
segment from 1996 Panasonic DVD Demo disc The Media Hoarder 2024-04-23 | Here is the main segment from the first in-store demo disc from Panasonic, authored in November 1996. This was the first DVD that most people saw, as the players were in the stores before any movies were available to buy.
5.1 audio demo segment from 1997 Panasonic demo DVD The Media Hoarder 2024-04-23 | Finally figured out how to upload 5.1 audio from a DVD! Here's a segment from a Panasonic instore demo DVD showing off this incredible new technology.
Blotto- I Wanna Be A Lifeguard video (1981) BEST QUALITY! The Media Hoarder 2024-04-17 | One of the first videos shown on MTV, long before it went to shit.
Clogged video head cleans itself The Media Hoarder 2024-04-02 | Sometimes you can get a video head on any format VCR un-clogged just by playing a tape in decent condition for a while. I captured this on my Sony U-Matic machine.
Electronically Reprocessed Stereo on laserdisc The Media Hoarder 2024-04-02 | Playing the left and right channels separately to show how one of several types of "simulated stereo" worked, each channel has some extreme tonal qualities applied. This was from the 1984 laserdisc of Disney's "Robin Hood" but this same system was used on mono titles from other companies such as Fox and was also one of the types used by TV stations on mono material when they began broadcasting in stereo in 1985. Stations near me that used this were KXTV channel 10 in Sacramento and KTZO in San Francisco; I know channel 10 switched to a different one the next year, all of them were quite annoying but this one especially distorted the sound.Radio Shack had a budget Dolby Surround system that also included a "Simulated Stereo" setting that worked like this.
Sneak Prevue cable TV laserdisc for 1/29/98-2/11/98 The Media Hoarder 2024-03-25 | Thanks to the person on Reddit for sending me this! As promised I've uploaded it here. Everything is included except for one 30-second wrestling promo that got flagged for copyright and had to be cut.I have a few more of these but don't remember the main audio only being in the left channel (this disc only has analog sound) with the right having audio to use separately. Just shows how crappy cable TV was if they were showing these promos in mono.Promos range from popular movies of the time to wrestling and softcore "adult" movies, and a few things I don't know who would watch even for free.Some interesting bits near the end include a "Don't steal cable" message (and I would retort that no sane person would PAY for the crap they show!) and an announcement that if you watch Playboy TV before 10 PM you'll hear some music instead of the shows' normal audio- what was the deal with that?
Entertainment Tonight 10/2/81 (most commercials cut) The Media Hoarder 2024-03-14 | From its 2nd month on the air- top story is the premiere of "Zoot Suit" in Sensurround at the Cinerama Dome, and the breakthrough of revolutionary recording artists Air Supply.
Early 80s religious show from Modesto CA 11th Hour The Media Hoarder 2024-02-27 | Don't know the exact date of this or what station it was on, if anyone knows feel free to comment. Most of these shows were paid for to air, and having a phone number or any text onscreen for this long was unusual at the time (currently the phone number gives a "no longer in service" message.) The guy doing most of the talking tells of a near-death experience, perhaps the person taping this should have prayed for slightly better reception.
The Night They Took Miss Beautiful- last hour of original airing 10/24/77 WCKT Miami The Media Hoarder 2024-02-25 | From a U-Matic tape, audio only on right channel with some thumping sound on both.This movie is in the public domain, there are a few complete copies of it (without commercials) uploaded here but this is the original airing.
VX tape running with tape top off The Media Hoarder 2024-02-01 | The adventures in keeping this format alive and salvaging abused tapes continues!Anyone else who is using these please chime in even if you have nothing else to add, just curious how many of these are still running. Let’s keep them alive!
Japanese Mackenzie Makes The Man commercial- early 80s The Media Hoarder 2024-01-30 | Don't think this would have been allowed on American TV then.From the beginning of a VX tape, very start clogged the head but cleared up on its own.
Japanese TV Station Break circa 1978? The Media Hoarder 2024-01-30 | Can anyone recognize the show that's ending? It's traditional Japanese music and dance on stage in front of an audience, and was taped a lot by whoever this batch of tapes came from.Don't know what station or network this was either or exactly when, there were no commercials during the show but they at least do an announcement over a still frame for something here. It looks like they ran some scenery videos similar to NHK to fill out the odd minutes, but that was cut off to record the home video shot outside the window that I uploaded earlier.
HBC-TV Japan Test Pattern circa 1978 and signal cutoff The Media Hoarder 2024-01-30 | Still not entirely familair with how TV has worked in Japan but seems that HBC and other networks were multiple stations all showing the same thing, correct me if I'm wrong. There's no telling which station this was or where.The first hour of tape was recorded over but this was left afterwards, sadly the sign-off was likely erased but they stayed on this long before cutting the signal at the end of the video.Not much happens here but I uploaded the whole thing, again this is from a VX format tape made by National in Japan and Quasar in the US. I've had problems with the picture remaining stable as you can see here, anyone who knows a specific time-base corrector that will fix this and more importantly WHERE I can get one PLEASE let me know, I will order one immediately if it doesn't cost a fortune!
Partial Japanese Betamax Commercial The Media Hoarder 2024-01-29 | Appears to be from the early 80s, ironically recorded on a VX-format tape which came in 3rd in the two-horse race. Recording was cut off in the middle but figured even just this much of it would be appreciated.
Late 70s home video in Japan on VX tape The Media Hoarder 2024-01-29 | Someone shooting out the window and talking, hoping YouTube's translator will tell me what he's saying.
1981 Japanese Suntory Whiskey commercials The Media Hoarder 2024-01-29 | One of these seems to tell you to drink it if you want to be American.
1981 Japanese World Fashion Creator commercials The Media Hoarder 2024-01-29 | World Fashion Creator are the only words I can make out from this, so that's what I'm going with.
1981 Japanese Nescafe commercials The Media Hoarder 2024-01-29 | Have to laugh at their use of "The Way We Were".
Bugsy Malone movie intro on Japanese TV 10/5/81 The Media Hoarder 2024-01-29 | From an airing of the movie Bugsy Malone, can't tell what network or station this was. Recorded on a Nationa/Quasar VX format tape which never had stereo capability and was already dead by this point- the graphic with the birds says that the audio is available in 2 languages. The audio on this tape which I assume is the default for older receivers is in Japanese with the songs left in English and subtitled. I assume the 2nd track had the original English dialogue. Anyone know how that worked? Analog TV in the US didn't get stereo added til 1985, and that included a second mono audio track (known as SAP, Second Audio Program) that could do the same thing. VHS and Beta Hi-Fi VCRs could record the main audio on the Hi-Fi tracks and the SAP on the linear; anyone know if Japanese VCRs could do that from their broadcasts also?There was an outro with this same guy after the movie but the end of this tape has been sticking and I couldn't get it to play well; going to try cleaning it by hand.
1981 Japanese Technics stereo commercial The Media Hoarder 2024-01-28 | Commercial recorded from Japanese TV in 1981 on a VX-format tape, which was already defunct by this time. Not sure if this was from a stereo broadcast, those were already out in Japan at this time but the VX tape format never had that capability.
1981 Japanese National Electronics commercials The Media Hoarder 2024-01-28 | Commercials for National (known as Panasonic in some countries) and early "home theater" systems followed by one showing 2 VHS VCRs, aired on TV in Japan. This was ironically recorded on a National VX format tape (known as the Great Time Machine from Quasar in the US) which had been discontinued by them in 1979 in favor of VHS.
Quick hints for fixing Quasar Great Time Machine VR-1000 The Media Hoarder 2024-01-25 | Had problems with this machine a few months ago while going through the Japanese tapes you’ve seen here, and just now had the time and energy to tackle it. Videos from Oddity Archive and Rene Gonzalez (who sold me this machine) helped a ton, so thanks to them. Have a bunch more tapes from Japan and the US to check and anything noteworthy will be uploaded here. Hope this helps anyone else with one of these machines that’s having problems with it, it is a pain to get these to rewind sometimes.
1990s Fanta Soda Advertising Presentation The Media Hoarder 2024-01-24 | From McCann-Erickson for viewing by the Coca-Cola Company, detailing proposed commercials that had been storyboarded but not yet shot. I am guessing this is from the 1990s judging by the appearance and the music being in stereo.
1979 audition tape for sales training video The Media Hoarder 2024-01-23 | Dated 8/31/79 from Downie Productions in Chicago, labeled as Audition Tape #3 for "Sales Relationships".
Downie Productions commercial Demo Reel 1/9/80 The Media Hoarder 2024-01-23 | Another U-Matic tape from this ad agency, some repeated from the 1975 tape so several are older than the date given. Margaret Travolta is in the Chicago Tribune spot.
Downie Productions commercial Demo Reel 6/13/75 The Media Hoarder 2024-01-23 | U-Matic tape from an apparently defunct ad agency in Chicago, showing local and national commercials produced by them.
KTXL TV40 Sacramento NewsPlus 7/29/81 The Media Hoarder 2024-01-12 | Complete full hour of news, a full hour earlier! Top story was the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Diana.Audio buzzing when text appears onscreen, usually happened more often on VHF stations.
2/17/78 Owens Corning Fiberglas U-Matic Tape The Media Hoarder 2024-01-02 | Four video segments about how great fiberglas is! Dig the theme music!Fiberglas: The New Basic Material9:56 Special Features "It Can Be Done With Fiberglas"20:32 Where Does it All Go? How Customers Use Fiberglas Products30:47 This is Owens CorningTape is from Producers Color Service, Inc. Video Communications Division in Detroit.
Spring Air Mattress promo film circa 1975- Kopak Breaks Out The Media Hoarder 2024-01-01 | Made by Downie Productions in Chicago, done as a parody of Kojak. I don't know where this was intended to be shown. Got this in a box of U-Matic tapes with other stuff from this company, there was a complete episode of Kojak which I've uploaded the commercials from that might have been recorded in order to study while making this.Recording seemed to be inherently glitchy. Beginning part clogged the heads a bit (you can see the otherwise-seamless edit where I got it to clear up), will have to bake this tape for a better transfer.
