Quote:
Originally Posted by babydriver
The video disc thing was really weird. It was not digital, but rather an analog TV signal (standard definition) recorded onto a 12 inch optical disc. It did pave the way for DVDs eventually. Now Blu-ray discs are headed for oblivion because of on-line streaming.
|
The RCA VideoDisc was weirder than that. You're correct that it was an analog TV signal, but it was recorded onto a grooved vinyl disc in a similar fashion to vinyl records. They were kept inside their jackets permanently so as to guard them from any dirt, dust, or contamination at all.
The optical format, large-sized discs you're thinking of are called LaserDiscs, and I liked them a lot, to be honest. The picture resolution and contrast wasn't quite what DVD and Bluray offers, but fast motion scenes were blur-free... MUCH better than regular DVDs, and most Blurays. The sound quality was quite good, too.
I say this and defend the format because I have a collection of about 200 of them... sigh.... and an aging player that makes weird chirping noises when first turned on.
I love Blurays, and am saddened to see streaming taking over more and more of the marketplace. Yes, streaming is convenient, and the quality and resolution has gotten much better, but it's still nowhere close to Bluray in picture quality. Same thing is happening to video that happened to audio w/ the advent of mp3s.. convenience is winning out over quality reproduction. Yes, I know there's high resolution digital audio formats available for downloading (24bit/192khz), but that's relegated to a fairly fringe market. The "common man" rarely hears anything approaching fidelity any more. Of course, so much of today's consumer music is made by computers using samples, synths, and hugely manipulated vocals that there really ISN'T any original acoustic standard to hold the final product accountable towards. For that stuff, it really doesn't matter, I guess.
Just some thoughts...
Barry