Hitachi's Dreamy Colors (1998 Analog HDTV MUSE Hi-Vision Laserdisc Demonstration)

Compare the quality of this disc to identical footage derived from Sony HDVS Videodisc, the first high-definition video disc format:    • Hitachi's Dreamy Colors (1998 Analog HDTV ...   ________________________________________________ This is a Hitachi-made high-definition laserdisc called "Dreamy Colors" (H-001) produced in limited numbers in Japan for demonstration and HD hardware development. That's right, folks! There was such a thing as a high-definition 12" laserdisc! Japan had an early high-definition analog high-definition format called MUSE in the early 1990's. It was equivalent in resolution to the 1080i picture we receive over the air today with a slight crop (as its technically 1125i/1035i) along with up to 4 channels of surround sound digital audio. While the majority of the content was broadcast over satellite, a large amount of content was also released on the so-called "Hi-Vision LD" format. Playing back these discs required a special (pretty expensive) decoder, a special (quite expensive) player, and a special (very expensive) HD CRT (tube) TV. As a result, only the wealthy, dedicated A/V addicts purchased these set-ups. At the time, that was more people than you might think due to an economic bubble Japan was experiencing. A lot of the content released on Hi-Vision MUSE LD were movies but, unfortunately, many of the film conversions were not so good. Usually, the direct-to-tape demo discs were the best looking releases. With its excellent colors and smooth 60 fields per second motion, this segment is certainly taken directly from HDVS HD tape. There is a lot to read about the format all over the internet (including an excellent video by Techmoan) so please give it a Google! This recording was produced in approximately 1998. The disc contains an additional "English" segment which is the exact same content, just without the Kanji on the title card and without (any!) credits on the last shot. ________________________________________________ The disc was played back using a Pioneer HLD-X0 laserdisc player with a "recapped" Victor HD-MV2 MUSE decoder. Uploaded in upscaled 4K ProRes for extra clarity/higher bitrate. ________________________________________________ More of my vintage HDTV uploads can be found in this playlist:    • World's Oldest High-Definition Footage (Cl...   ________________________________________________ If you want to follow me for updates or want to help me pay the homeless people that I've hired to plug the cracks in my basement foundation with their fingers, please click the link below: https://linktr.ee/OpWorkshop