Laserdiscs

[Jules Richardson]

Pete Turnbull wrote:
> On 10/11/2007 22:14, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>> On 10 Nov 2007 at 15:04, Jay West wrote:
>>> Someone wrote....
>>>> Actually laserdiscs certainly are 
>>> That's a stretch... I'm not buying it :)
> 
> They were commonly used for computer interactive video especially for 
> CAI systems.  A company I worked for in the mid-to-late 80s installed 
> hundreds of PC-based systems with Pioneer LV players, one at every main 
> Jaguar dealership, and I was one of the repair staff for the Pioneer kit.

It's surprising how popular interactive video was at one stage.

Back in the day, Microvitec even offered a disc cutting service, although they 
could only do single-sided discs. They could offer 24-hour turnaround, and on 
the 7-day service the cost was 395 pounds for acrylic discs and 595 for glass.

I don't think they could handle binary data (i.e. LVROMs) as such though. 
Which raises the question of what the definition of LVROM is - most 
interactive video termed as LVROM that I've come across is pure video data 
under computer control, i.e. there's no binary program data stored on the 
discs too (as there is with Domesday, and I believe with a few arcade systems)

>> Do any of the cclist-ers in the UK still have any LV-ROMs and 
>> hardware?  I'd be willing to wager that Tony does. :)
> 
> I have a set of the LV-ROMs.  

Look after 'em... like I said, I've seen a few where they're starting to 
decay. (I don't think anything can be done to halt the process, but I can see 
a time when there are more working Domesday setups around than there are 
working sets of the media)

Thankfully I've not heard of problems with the lasers in the Philips LVROM 
players yet (earlier Philips non-LVROM players seem prone to laser-death)

cheers

Jules