VAP LaserVideo Disc (VPLR-70236) / Apple Corps. Limited
CLV - NTSC - Mono CX Digital Audio - Color/B&W - 44 mins.
Made in Japan
LaserDisc to DVD transfer using:
Panasonic Prism LX-1000 Laserdisc Player
Sony VRD-MC5 DVD Recorder
Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD-R
Original LaserDisc > DVD (chaptered in 5 min. intervals) > To beatlegdb Forum
hXXps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zlLIRA3wlptco-oxsF0gSyYQVJynp-tu?usp=sharing
Videotaped by Nippon Television. The June 30th show (Dark Suits) was broadcast in Japan three times: in 1977, 1980 and 1988.
The July 1st show (Light Suits) was also recorded and only shown one time on Japanese TV in 1966.
VAP released the June 30th concert as a VHS and Beta video cassette in the eighties. VAP was the "sound & Visual"
department under the wing of NTV, which had originally taped and broadcast the shows.
In 1993 VAP was allowed to release the show on Laserdisc but as with the VHS and Beta only for the Japanese market.
The 1984 Beta cassette release of this concert is considered the best in quality, as the laserdisc suffered from
some audio issues and artifacts from the video conversion.
The cover features a photo of the July 1st (light suits) performance but the June 30th performance is featured on the disc.
Screencaps
Front Cover
Back Cover
One last thing...
The occasional but persistent lens distortion on The Beatles Budokan concerts has always been very distracting
to me. Especially in the wide shots of the stage where Ringo’s bass drum looks more oval than round. Not every
shot looks elongated so I’m assuming different focal lengths of the NTV camera lenses may have been the issue.
Maybe someone who knows more about it than I do can chime in.
To make the show more enjoyable I made an edited version of my Japanese laserdisc. First, I removed the 13 minutes
of black & white documentary footage leaving only the concert. Then I applied some minor gamma correction to
improve the image quality. Lastly, I adjusted the aspect ratio by stretching the picture horizontally using the
wide shot as a guide. The new edit was encoded as a deintetlaced MP4 file. If you’re interested - this version is
included in the same download folder as the DVD of the unaltered laserdisc. transfer.
Enjoy!
cliftdean74
Comparisons
