Oh man someone is giving away 90 laserdiscs and I really want them, because they're not just movies, they're like promotional/training things like from Ford and "the World of dBase"

I'm just hoping hasn't already got them. Email me back quicker, please!

I want to get all these and Domesday them right up onto the internet archive damn it

They say they're still available! And want to know when I can get there.
BRB buying a faster car

I've got until 5pm to get them. Sweet.

That's 3.5 hours in my timezone. And it's about an hour and a half away.

So expect an update to this thread in Xty hours with a lot of pictures

I have acquired the discs

I'm currently still down in Gilroy after picking them up, I'll go through them and post pictures when I get home.

They threw in some catalogs of laserdiscs which are very interesting in their own right, like did you know there were multiple cartoons based on Back to the Future? I didn't!

ok I'm home and it's time to start taking a lot of pictures.
First off, the books.
Laser Video File for Fall 1991/Winter 1992 , Fall 1994/Winter 1995, Summer 1997 and Spring 1996.

The small discs, Image Entertainment Laserdisc Catalog Spring 1992 Volume 2
and Fall 1992, Volume 1.

And a LaserKaraoke Special Sample Disc! It's got New York, New York, Hey Jude, The Locomotion, Oh Pretty Woman, and... the alphabet? huh.

Onto movies. We've got The Great Train Robbery, a double feature of Dracula's Daughter & The Ghost of Frankenstein, Brute Force, and A Boy and his Dog.

Stalag 17, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, The Pink Panther, and Tom Sawyer, the 1973 edition.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, the Guns of Navarone, Terror by Night, and Spectreman, Volume 1.

Spectreman was a 1970s Japanese superhero show. I hadn't heard about this before... neat!

an MGM/UA Home Video Laserdisc Sampler.
I think I actually have this one already? I think at one point they were just including it with laserdisc players.

and... Another MGM/UA Home Video Laserdisc Sampler!
This is a different one, though. Different films.

Mighty Joe Young, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, Love with the Proper Stranger, and The Invaders.

Being There, Elmer Gantry, Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee... (staring Paul Rudd? It's not that Paul Rudd, though), and HG Wells First Men in the Moon

United Artists Sci-Fi Matinee Volume 2, with The Magnetic Monster, The Quartermass Xperiment, The Beast of Hollow Mountain, and Invisible Invaders.

Journey to the Center of the Earth. The 1959 movie, which I love. Romance with a Double Bass, a 5 disc set of "The Art of Tom & Jerry", and The Mummy Collection: Four movies: The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Ghost, the Mummy's Tomb, and The Mummy's Curse.

And then some Pink Panthers.
A Shot in the Dark, The Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and Revenge of the Pink Panther

Three Cases of Murder, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes double feature: The House of Fear and The Woman in Green, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon.

HOW ABOUT SOME MORE SHERLOCK?
The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1776, Baron Munchausen (The 1961 Czech version), and Futureworld

The Haunting of Sarah Hardy, Dick Cavett's Hocus Pocus, It's Magic, A double feature of Murders in the Rue Morgue and Island of Lost Souls, and another double feature: Atlantis the Lost Continent and The Power

Now this is interesting: You can't get there from here, Ephemeral Films 1946-1960.
It's a collection of shorts! At least two of these showed up on MST3k: A Date with your family and Design for Dreaming.

And another volume of the same thing: To New Horizons, Ephemeral Films 1931-1945.

Another promotional laserdisc : Pioneer Home Theater.

and Pioneer Laser Optics II, which is a similar sort of thing.

And another sampler disc! This one is RCA/Columbia. You've got clips/trailers for Ghostbusters, Stand By Me, Karate Kid, Willow, and Gandhi, amongst many others.

THE WORLD OF dBASE!
Beautiful. I must resist licking it.

DOES II: Interactive Training Videodisc!
DOES is apparently the parts order entry system FORD used back in... unknown year?
It doesn't appear to have anything to do with deer. (Sorry, Kortney)

So the Dolby Surround AC3 Digital disc appears to be a calibration disc. It's mainly various sounds at specific frequencies on specific speakers, so you can test your system.

Mitsubishi Laser Disc Demo. This is actually a disc designed to help you sell Mitsubishi televisions, by showing off how good their picture is.

This disc is another TV-selling one, for the Panasonic GAOO Superflat System TV.

Another TV-selling disc, for the Toshiba Cinema Series of rear-projection TVs.

Sears 1981 Summer Tele-Shop Catalog! This is apparently a video catalog of stuff Sears was selling in 1981.
Look at how they expect you to seek by Frame number!

Another demo disc, this one from Dolby.

onto the main event: THE FORDS!
These all seem to have the same front cover, but a different B&W back cover.
This one is on "The Selling Process", and is training material for Ford salespeoples.

Sales Technique Training

This one has a slightly different cover, and it turns out it's about... Golf? Yeah. Official Ford Golf, though.

The Closing Process
Reflections on Qualifying
Negotiating Agreement
ESP Batter-Up! Sales Training

Prospecting for Sales Success
Ford Video Communications Network Demo Disc
Harry and the Miracle... The Demonstration Drive
The Trial of Employe(sic) Involvement & The People Factor.

Those last two look like they commissioned actual films with actors. I can't wait to see this.

2001: A Space Odyssey?
WAIT THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FORD AT ALL
I put this in the wrong pile.
I already have this on laserdisc, but I think this may be a higher quality copy than the one I have, since it's the Criterion Collection.

A Passion For Excellence with Tom Peters.
We're back to Ford again.

ooh, a custom laserdisc! This one is Experiencing Management: What Managers Do

Tuning into Video Disc.
This is another guide for how to use the Ford laserdisc thing

OK this next one is a big deal.
It's a fold out Video Communications Network case, but it's actually the first one! it has a picture of the laserdisc setup they used, and even better: IT HAS DOCUMENTATION
(Look at that woodgrain!)

So here's the operating instructions quick guide. It looks like they're using an off the shelf TV & laserdisc player but in a custom wooden enclosure. I wonder if it documents what player/TV it is?

and it turns out this all came from a dealership in Doniphan, Missouri

And here's the later sent out to all the dealerships! it's dated August 23rd, 1982.

Some tech info. It's a Sony industrial player, and a 19" color TV.

The Communications and Training Media for the 80's!

There's an insert with some sample ads to run in local newspapers.
I like these prices.

And suggested radio scripts!

ok that's enough Ford.
How about some Buick?
This is the "action library", which... I'm not sure what this is. Raw footage to made local commercials with? videos to play in-dealership? I'll have to check.
This one is the 1980 Action Library.

This one, the Action Library 1982 Disc 3, has "Some Laser Rot" according to the sticker.
Fortunately, there's another copy here.

Action Library for 1982, two discs, the 1981, and the 1980

The Buick Action Library 1983 Disc 1 is "badly scratched, skips while playing", sadly.
But hey, it's the official cars of the 1984 LA Olympics!

I wonder if Pioneer will still replace this for me? I mean, they still sell calibration discs for some of their players, they probably have this in a warehouse somewhere.

CHAMPIONS OF EXCELLENCE, we're back to Ford again.
This one is Disc #2, Feb 1987, The Innovators. It kinda seems this is just a video compilation of the Best Ford Dealers for this year/month?

Here's the letter that came with it.

Disc #3, April 1987: "Committed To Quality" and Disc #4, August 1987, "Consistency"

Lincoln-Mercury Sales Meeting Special Guest Speakers!
It's two guys, who are both... coaches? huh. You know, selling a car is much like playing football or basketball...

Another ford Champions of Excellence disc, this is the first one, from September 1986, no title.

A sales disc for Mitsubishi TVs: The Big Screen Company

Panasonic TV: The One, Demonstration Disc.
Sell those TVs!

Toshiba Cinema Series, another TV selling disc

A Video Standard
This is a calibration disc. I think I already have a copy of this.

ARE YOU LISTENING?
I don't know robot man, am I?

OH MY GHOD MY BRAIN HURTS WHAT IS THIS HELP

yeah this is a ford sales thing again.

and finally, yes, finally, a Grolier's KnowledgeDisc!
This is a cool idea of putting an encyclopedia on a laserdisc: They encode pictures on individual frames and let you seek to them by inputting the frame numbers.

anyway now I need to get to work on setting up my laserdisc duplicator hardware. first I think I'm going to rest for a minute because I've spent the last, uh, 9 hours working on this project in one way or another.

but don't worry. I will definitely try to rip and upload ALL of these non-movie ones.
Feel free to suggest which ones I should start with, though...

I say "non-movie ones" because I'm just going to assume all these movie discs have been re-released on DVD or blu-ray or streaming since then anyway, so there's nothing special about this version worth archiving. I'm happy to archive them if that's not correct, though.

some follow up here: https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1391507236669714434

also I forgot to mention, but feel free to send me some dollars to help archive these on my ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/fooneturing 

or a monthly donation on my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/foone 

as I'm probably going to have to buy some more hard drives specifically for this project.
laserdisc RF rips are HUGE.

Side 1 of dBase ripped: approximately 38 minutes long, 107 gigabytes.