Tokyo, 1992, in spectacular Hi-Vision

April 27, 2018 9:17 AM

Please enjoy this high-definition footage of daily life in Tokyo circa 1992. It was recorded for broadcast via Hi-Vision, Japan's analog high-definition 1035i television standard, which used MUSE, or "Multiple sub-Nyquist Sampling Encoding."
posted by Sokka shot first (21 comments total)

A lot of people might think that HDTV is a pretty recent technology, but the first HDTV demonstration in the US took place in 1981.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:12 AM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I remember seeing HDTV on exhibit at the Smithsonian in the mid-1980's and being super impressed. "It's like looking out a window!" I remember thinking.
posted by rikschell at 10:30 AM on April 27, 2018

Here's a DHVS demo tape shot in New York City in 1993.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:46 AM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

Hi-Vision was also used for the production of at least two films, Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books and Wim Wenders' "Until the End of the World".
posted by amk at 11:09 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

The first film shot in HD and then transferred to film was Julia and Julia, starring Kathleen Turner, Gabriel Byrne, and Sting! It was shot using the Sony HDVS system back in 1986 or 1987.
posted by Mothlight at 11:47 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Leaving the technology aside, I loved the content and I wish there was a video like this for ALL THE CITIES! I really enjoyed the series of clips through the whole day, from the pre-dawn fish auction to the poor guy stuck at his desk late at night.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 12:01 PM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

"Sub-Nyquist Sampling Encoding" sounds like "Heisenberg compensators".
posted by The Tensor at 12:29 PM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

Hrm, apparently I've already clicked on all of the wikipedia links in this post and thread. That's vaguely alarming.
posted by loquacious at 12:34 PM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

It needs the soundtrack music from Koyaanisquatsi.
posted by Gelatin at 12:54 PM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

(It's actually spooky how well they work together!)
posted by Gelatin at 1:01 PM on April 27, 2018

There is also an early 90s (ish) HD demo video of NYC available on YouTube and elsewhere, also originally shot in HiVision. I suspect there exist a few others from other cities as well, but can't confirm.

Of course, HD film transfers of even older footage exist. The Equalizer's HD transfer they used to show on Universal HD way back when is in many ways a love letter to NYC's grimy 80s.
posted by wierdo at 1:01 PM on April 27, 2018

Formerly
posted by timshel at 1:40 PM on April 27, 2018

Man. It only takes 34 seconds in the New York demo before you see the WTC.

(And 59 seconds before a guy demonstrates what acting like a creep looks like in HD.)
posted by chimpsonfilm at 1:45 PM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow. It's really damn weird seeing stuff with all the 1990's aesthetic in HD. You just don't expect it to look that clear. My brain kept wanting to process it as a modern show set place in the 1990's.
posted by sotonohito at 1:53 PM on April 27, 2018 [5 favorites]

In the late 80's/early 90's saw an HDTV demo put on by NHK for local broadcasters in Vancouver. We were ushered into a darkened 5 ton TV truck. On the 16 x9 36" CRT monitor was video shot out of a helicopter door. It was so unnervingly realistic that I lost my balance and grabbed the handrail. Seems a bit quaint now.

At the time I recall that they had four (!) 1 inch VTRs synced to play back the video and almost the entire truck was the support equipment. Sadly the sands of time have blurred the specifics but I'm sure that some of the scenes in the linked video were in that demo.
posted by Zedcaster at 2:51 PM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I remember seeing HDTV on exhibit at the Smithsonian in the mid-1980's and being super impressed. "It's like looking out a window!" I remember thinking.

I'm still impressed by the wall-sized 4K TVs I see at the store. Interestingly, more than I was after plugging my Xbox 360 to a (regular sized) FHD TV for the first time.
posted by lmfsilva at 3:40 PM on April 27, 2018

I lived in Japan in 1992, moved to NYC in 1993. These videos take me back in such a visceral way it's almost vertiginous. There's something about seeing it so clearly that makes it feel more real, maybe in the same way that recently discovered color film from the 20s makes that era seem incrementally more real too.
posted by bassomatic at 7:09 PM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

Well, haven't gamma curves come a long way. HDTV back when it wasn't trying to look like film.
posted by Dean358 at 6:52 AM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

I realize it's a lot of footage of professionals in businesswear but it's kind of surprising how little color there is in the fashions.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:29 AM on April 28, 2018

Like bassomatic, this took me back too in a pleasant and jarring way. This was still the bubble years when hi tech and happiness seemed on a neverending upward trend.

The clarity reminded me of a press conference around then when Kurosawa was asked his opinion of the new film mode. (I think it was at the Tokyo International Film Festival when Sony was touting its newest toy and he was there as some kind of spokesman, but I may have it all wrong and apologize in advance for misremembering.)

Surprisingly, he said he wasn't keen and didn't like how it makes everything so sharp. He mentioned as a filmmaker choosing what to emphasize with each shot but Hi Vision made it harder because even the backgrounds would be in perfect focus.

I know you can open the aperture to soften a background, but I get it. I've thought many times since how he was right, like when I see a TV closeup with every pore and wrinkle of some actor's face I once thought gorgeous displayed in all its cruel veracity.
posted by ecourbanist at 11:41 AM on April 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow, this was a really fun and charming little time capsule! It reminds me of Philadelphia Anthem, in a way. I was also kind of reminded of Good Morning Ishikawa, but that’s far newer and more contemporary, and meant as a tourism promotion video and not a tech demo.

Particularly interesting to note that drink prices have changed very little in two and a half decades — a can of Coke has gone from ¥110 to ¥130. Those labels, though. Man.

My wife also commented about how weird it was to see pavement between people at the Shibuya crosswalk, and that there were virtually no foreign faces anywhere in that video, even on the streets. I guess it was shot before Japan became a major tourism destination.
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:08 AM on April 30, 2018