
New York City in 1993 in HD – DTheater DVHS Demo Tape [video] - dsego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4lDU-QLUY
======
rm999
Beyond the lack of smartphones/earbuds, the two big things that stick out to
me:

1\. The cars. Sometime in the 90s and 00s cars started becoming a lot less
boxy (compare the Camry from 1990 to 2000 to 2010 to see this).

2\. Way more formal dress wear. In today's NYC financial district you plenty
of jeans, and even a lot of financial professionals have given up the suits
and ties. The financial district today also has more tech workers, and I
believe more tourists.

~~~
romeoEtJoliet
Another difference to me is the lack of cabs. When comparing this shot:
[https://youtu.be/fT4lDU-QLUY?t=127](https://youtu.be/fT4lDU-QLUY?t=127) and
any number of Google Maps images of the same location (looking North towards
St. Patrick's)
[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.756666,-73.9786279,3a,75y,27...](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.756666,-73.9786279,3a,75y,27.9h,98.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1saY1ROTF3aESFR8d-9CuOlw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
it's striking how there are way more black cars and fewer taxis today.

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Nelkins
First thing that struck me - no earbuds.

Reminds me of this funky dance video my uncle made in the early 90s.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0opXVKNgfM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0opXVKNgfM)

~~~
vatys
And everybody looking straight ahead rather than down at a smartphone

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meatsock
youtube username 'youtube pedant' is actually techmoan, and hes done a great
video all about DVHS and its context here:
[https://youtu.be/jiu0LPeLQPE](https://youtu.be/jiu0LPeLQPE)

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kemiller
Is it a sign of age that it doesn’t look that dated to me?

~~~
ghaff
As others have said, the main thing is the lack of smartphones. The date is
late enough that you're past obviously 80s hair styles etc. I'm guessing
people are dressier than if you shot equivalent scenes today but it's
Manhattan so people maybe being a bit more dressed up doesn't jump out at you.

~~~
kemiller
I guess what I mean is that the _presence_ of smartphones still stands out for
me, and the absence looks normal.

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starpilot
Reminds me of the Cowboy Bebop movie opening:
[https://youtu.be/ofSLCFxJ8Jo](https://youtu.be/ofSLCFxJ8Jo)

~~~
aleyan
It does. I believe both DVHS Demo reel and Cowboy Bebop film opening were
influenced by opening sequence of Manhattan (1979).
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrPedKkNsh4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrPedKkNsh4)

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Top19
If you want a really retro experience, look up terms on youtube like “high
school video yearbook 1997”. My class didn’t do one of these, but apparently
lots did. Shows you all the trendy trends for high school that year. Weird
knowing what all these kids will likely go through later in their lives...

[https://youtu.be/lsBLXMEjMNQ](https://youtu.be/lsBLXMEjMNQ)

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mmansoor78
Wow. Love the colors.

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luisobo
The track needs more cowbell.

It’s weird to see no cellphones.

~~~
mc32
The opposite of weird!

It's nice to see people aware of their surrounds paying attention to where
they are and who and what is around them. I like it. Photography is now so
much more boring when it has people in them because their focus is often on
their phones.

~~~
khazhoux
Weird means unusual, strange.

~~~
hungerstrike
Yes, as in - we are living in a _weird time_ where humans all stare into
plastic squares instead of looking where they're going as they've _usually
done_ for thousands of years.

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xattt
This is in contrast to a cartoon collection released semiannually
(Soviet/Russian cartoon studio) until 2000 that looked exactly like the first
1960s release. All are available on their YouTube channel.

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OJFord
DVHS was great, it just came too late at too high of a price for much
adoption.

~~~
ch4ck
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiu0LPeLQPE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiu0LPeLQPE)

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ashleyn
What technology was this filmed with? D-VHS wasn't commercially available
until 1998. Was this made with a prototype?

~~~
jaak
The description on the YouTube page says the original footage came from a
Japanese high definition demo (probably a HiVison MUSE system). HiVision MUSE
has development going back to 1979 according to Wikipedia [1].

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sub-
Nyquist_sampling_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sub-
Nyquist_sampling_encoding)

------
SN76477
Big glasses, bigger shoulder pads.

Why is this on Hacker News at all though?

~~~
rhapsodic
_> Why is this on Hacker News at all though?_

Because it is technology-related, is my guess.

~~~
dang
The only criterion is intellectual curiosity. This has that.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

