Thursday, October 28, 2010

VHD discs revisited

Do you remember my post about my two VHD discs? If not, take a look at it before you continue reading.

I finally got an answer, and without purchasing a VHD player! The good news: It's sort of arcade related. Bad news: ...and at the same time it's not.

I have had an auto search on eBay for more than a year now, but I only found one VHD player, and it would have been very expensive with shipping.
A local classifieds site had an advert from a guy who could transfer various video formats to DVD. Much to my surprise, VHD was one of them, so I contacted him.
Before even getting to the point of sending him the discs, he had found out what they are. The discs' labels gave him the information he needed, and it turned out he actually has the very same discs himself.

They come from a video jukebox system which was produced in England in the 80s, called ThornEMI Videodisc Jukebox. That explains 'VJBE' on the label, where the E stands for Europe. My two discs were a part of a set which consisted of disc numbers 76, 77 and 78, and contain music videos. These specific discs were produced in the end of 1986, and each of them contains approximately one hour of video, which means they only utilized one side of the disc.

The Videodisc Jukebox had three VHD players and an interface which enabled you to choose songs, much like in regular jukeboxes, a monitor and speakers. They existed from about 1985 to 1988, and were often placed in game arcades and similar locations.
At least that explains why I got them from an old op.

I was very lucky to bump into a VHD expert locally, and I thank him for all his help. One of my few arcade related mysteries has been solved.

It wasn't easy finding a picture of the jukebox, but I believe this is it:

No comments:

 
All content is copyrighted, and may not be used without written permission.