Hello!

Hey, I’m one review short today: just a single review for the next two outings or so. There’s nothing wrong here, I’ll explain later. But hey, we have interesting links… interesting to me anyway. Thanks for all the great messages & responses in the last few days…. (smile emoji goes here).

I met correspondent Steve Iverson and through him secured links to his model-building websites. I have a brother who’s into radio control planes and a couple of associates that make terrific models from scratch. I’m a model fan myself, a former high-powered ‘miniature coordinator’ (cough) who could assemble old plastic models, you know, when they were cheap. And hey, there’s some old Aurora monster models in this mix, so these links are CineSavant-friendly. No apologies.

For the curious, and for modelers with glue-sticky fingers, here are Steve’s pages:
CultTVman’s Fantastic Modeling is his blog.
CultTVman Hobby Shop is the full sales site with news of upcoming product and conventions.
CultTVman CarModelsUSA concentrates on that specialty, not mine, normally.

Why does this sound like fun to me?  I still have intriguing models for an SS Seaview and a When Worlds Collide Space Ark sitting atop a shelf, unbuilt. (↑) If only I were as talented as Todd Stribich.

New terms no-one needs to learn but are interesting anyway: “MUSE” and “DANCE.” Correspondent Foxx Nolte points us to a pair of great YouTube videos by Techmoan. It’s essentially a lecture called HD Laserdisc – HD in ’93, but it covers the entire spectrum of home video after the VHS craze, laying down a timeline for many DVD milestones and every laserdisc innovation including one called ‘Muse’ that played HD video before any other format.

It’s a good refresher on much I had forgotten. Did you know that laserdisc players were sold until 2009?  That Japan called Laser HD ‘Hi-Vision?’  I know curious disc & home video fans that will eat this up. The video has an equally enthusiastic Part Two. That Laserdisc HD system was ridiculously complicated and expensive, and it’s highly entertaining to see him try to replace a circuit board in a player.

The first of many takeaway nuggets: Techmoan says that DVD was the catalyst for the changeover from analog to digital video, even broadcast TV.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson