Consumer Demonstration Disc
©1978 MCA DiscoVision®
| Mono/Stereo |
| Pressing Location |
DiscoVision Carson |
| Label Color |
Red |
| Retail Price |
N/A |
| Year Issued |
1978 |
|
| Side |
Chapters |
Frames |
Running Time |
|
| 1 |
8 |
43,358 |
30min 06sec |
|
| Dead Side |
Various |
|
| Ratings |
|
| Video Transfer |
  |
| Audio Transfer |
|
| Replication |
|
|
| Packaging |
|
| Large Open-Top |
| Open-Top |
 |
| Side-Open Sticker |
| Printed |
|
Pressing Notes
The earliest known demonstration disc is MCA DiscoVision's Consumer Demonstration Disc. This disc was the
first to shown to eager consumers in December 1978 at the Atlanta Launch. It still stands today as a usable demo,
since the disc contains only film clips. Laserdisc player model numbers and company names are never shown or
mentioned. The disc was pressed on the DiscoVision label and used by Magnavox's laser dealers in many of the early
markets. The only consumer demonstration disc produced by DiscoVision, the disc contains a sample of the supposedly
vast programming available on DiscoVision. Chapter stops are as listed:
- Jaws 2
- They Call it Pro Football
- Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Sweet Charity
- Elton John's Ego
- Better Tennis in 30 Minutes
- Le Corbusier
- Columbo
Jaws 2 was to show off the "Feature Film" catalog. They Call it Pro Football was part of the NFL series
of titles and was used to demonstrate variable slow motion and reverse play. Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band
was to demo the first availability of Stereo sound in a video format. Sweet Charity demonstrated the
availability of Musical features. Elton John's Ego was to highlight the availability of Music Video material.
This video from Elton John is the first known music video on LaserDisc. Ego, at the time, was a previously
unreleased song in the United States. Better Tennis in 30 Minutes was to outline the Sports-How To catalog.
The segment from Le Corbusier is a still section, with various artworks displayed on each frame. Columbo
is included to detail the dual channel capability of the system. This segment is bilingual with English on track 1
and Japanese on track 2.
Of course, the entire information above is speculation. Some say that it was thrown together from what ever was lying
around.
All the chapter stops are offset by from the beginning of their actual segment by anywhere from 15 to 109 frames. For
example, the chapter marker for the Elton John video trips 85 frames into the song. Most copies also suffer from the
20 Frame Skip.
Of all the material included on the disc, Sweet Charity, Elton John's Ego, and Columbo were
never available on DiscoVision. However, Sweet Charity was announced and was later released on LaserDisc by
MCA Home Video. The other programs have never appeared in any form on LaserDisc.
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Last Updated: July 30, 1998
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