A Look Back in Time: the Laser Disc.

Every weekend during the 90’s, my parents would take me to a video store back in Jakarta to rent out a movie in Laser disc format. I don’t remember when they bought the peripheral but it sure was memorable. Apart from it being so huge and would take several discs for a movie, the video quality that it produced is far better than the VHS. Plus, you don’t have to rewind the thing when you want to watch it again.

According to Wikipedia, the diameter of the laser disc is 30cm in length, compared to a standard DVD which is 12cm in diameter. So you can imagine bringing home a disc that is four times bigger than your standard DVD/VCD, PLUS additional discs because you may need 2 to 3 discs to play a movie. This is true for those long movies such as Apollo 13 or Titanic. In addition to having multiple discs, it also uses multiple sides like an old vynil record. Usually the machine prompts us to flip to the other side of the disc by giving us a blank screen during a movie.

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The disc, like any other disc’s today is also quite fragile, probably more fragile that the average DVD today. A chance of it shattering on impact is quite high when you drop it to the floor. Compare this to a standard compact disc. You might need to drop the compact disc with force to break it. Then there is also the bend factor. Bend this mother a little and it will shatter like a ceramic plate. Compared to a compact disc, you can bend it a little but it won’t break; thou you will loose the data inside it if you permanently bend the disc.

But how about the video playback? Surprisingly the controls are better than a standard DVD. When fast forwarding a movie, it actually feels like your fast forwarding a VHS. You also have the ability to select the frame number in the movie to skip ahead to that part. No such thing as a “User prohibited option” that DVD’s have so that you won’t skip shitty advertisements or logos. And for the coup de grace, you can skip a damaged part of the laser disc and it will play the movie smoothly without any halts until the movie finishes. The DVD, when one part is damaged, the movie is pretty much destroyed. DVD still beats the LD though on picture quality.

Laser disc
Standard DVD

Overall, the Laser Disc was quite revolutionary for its time. It is the first peripheral that uses a disc and an optic drive to read it. According to Wikipedia, this peripheral came out four years before the compact disc and the compact disc just started playing music. When the VCD came out in 1993, the laser disc was still hanging on. This is likely because the new peripheral would cost a fortune and movies on the laser disc is still booming. So lets all thank the laser disc, for it is the forefather that inspired the VCD’s, DVD’s and any other new peripherals that use optic drives.

-Apri