Retro tech fan views LaserDisc movie data with a budget microscope

A retro tech enthusiast has demonstrated that it is possible to view media on LaserDisc using a relatively inexpensive digital microscope.

Shelby Jueden of the Tech Tangent YouTube channel was using the microscope to peer at some electronics, and after pointing it at a piece of optical media found he could discern the contents.

Youtube Video

The optical media in this case was a LaserDisc. Jueden tried a compact disc for the sake of completeness, but since CDs use a digital encoding scheme, the chance of viewing anything recognizable is virtually non-existent. In a write-up of the observations, Jueden noted that "some format layout structures may be seen due to small and heavily repeated data" but nothing compared to what was identifiable on the decidedly analog LaserDiscs.

Jueden was able to view images from the disc thanks to how video data is stored on the LaserDisc. A video signal (typically ...