The RARE '90s Tech You've NEVER HEARD OF 🤫 #vintage #computer

In this video, I take a look at the Panasonic AJ-LT 85, a portable video editor from the '90s. This device is incredibly rare, and was designed to edit DVC-PRO tapes, a proprietary media format produced by Panasonic. Today, I talked about the hardware of this device, as well as its condition, its intended purpose and my plans with it in the future.

[peterle]

Just wanted to say your production quality is awesome. Love this type of stuff

[chronus]

I was thinking that was the coolest battleship set up ever.

[totallyaccuratehistory]

I work at a local news station. We have like 5 of these in the basement.

[MarceloArend]

I am a broadcast journalist specializing in TV news editing. Over the years, I extensively used this equipment, which proved to be an exceptional machine. Its portability was invaluable, allowing us to edit news footage seamlessly during international assignments. While groundbreaking for its time, this technology has now been largely superseded by modern laptops, which offer comparable functionality in a much more compact form.

[AA_vid_production]

Bro, that looks like something you would plant a bomb with in cod

[CuttinChopps]

As a TV engineer... I DO NOT miss working on this machine! I was glad to dump like 10 of these to the recycling pile lol

[forton]

I'm getting old I guess, because I remember it. It's made for reporters so they can rough edit stuff before sending it to the TV station via satellite or some other data connection. Saves work and data.

[thomasmittelwerk]

Looks like a machine that Rick Deckard from Blade Runner would use. The final boss of r/CyberDeck

[jackestabrook]

Imagine a cold, rainy night on the side of a desolate road. You've just spent the last 40 minutes (a blessing to get even THAT much time) gathering video of a crime/accident scene with a 40 lb DVC PRO camera on your back covered in an Anton Bauer "rain cover" which only makes it more difficult to access the controls... the camera still gets wet. After police/fire give a brief interview with you, you dash to your live truck (a top-heavy van retroactively converted into a TV production van, but one that stinks like gasoline) and drive it to as high an elevation as possible but with the scene still visible but ALSO clear of any saftey hazards and first responder vehicles. You park, turn on hazard lights, extend a 30 foot antenna into the air to tune in a live shot with the TV station's reciever site (which is a line-of-sight thing), the master control operator at the station doesn't answer the phone at first because he's taking a dump or something. Can't tune in without him, so instead you take a massive spool of BNC cable and run a line as far down to to the scene as police/fire will let you, run all the way back, call master again, tune the shot. Meanwhile, a reporter is sitting hunched in the truck listening to the raw tape, logging sound bites for use in his/her liveshot. Once they're done, you swap places....

....and then, on the Panasonic AJ-LT95P proceed to hammer your fingers and whirl the shuttle wheels like a DJ at Coachella, becoming one with the deck as you edit the news piece (called a package or "PKG" for short) which is essentially a 2 minute documentary film. Once finished (personal best was 11 minutes) you feed it back via that microwave link, drag that 40 lb camera and microphone back down to the the scene, turn on a blinding light with literally seconds to spare....and 3...2.. 1... LIVE.

I've done this, or a variant of this hundreds of times. Your video gave me MAD flash backs.

Fun fact: Industry jargon for this device is "laptop" so you can imagine my disappointment when I was first told by my boss at a new local Tv job to "Get a laptop, there's breaking news!" and the engineer hands me this POS. 😅 ...good times #photoglife

[Koldeman]

I've used one of these at a public access TV station in the 90s. What Moviola was to film, this was to videotape. It was relatively easy to use. I have muscle memory of using those flywheels.

My bf & I made some Star Trek parodies & a western while in junior high. His uncle worked at public access & provided supplies. We actually won some regional awards for our productions. Good times & seeing this Panasonic beauty brings it all back.

[Roberob]

I absolutely love 90s tech. Always looked cool.

[solardiyhobbyandrevies]

I run a independent satellite truck and have seen many of those used by all the major networks. It replaced two beta SP decks that weighed about 50 pounds a piece we had racked in our trucks. Now most of the video is sent back to the station through cell service and is edited back at the station.

[KehHs-lb]

Bro i sat in the back of my tv van editing while the driver would break the laws of speed. That unit was revolutionary and easy to use. They actually saved us quite a bit of money just buying editors and a van instead of a full blown ob truck

[brocksamson]

I can see Clint from LGR drooling from the mouth over this

[Larry]

Any idea how much this was at launch? Looks super expensive!

[uwtitanfan]

I used one of these for about 5 years.... Even though it's been years now, I bet I can still slam out a news story faster on one of these thing than I can on AVID

[adambazso]

This "old" tech kept in near-pristine condition looks incredibly good and cool.

[carlnorris]

This actually looks more efficient to use than final cut pro or adobe premiere. Buttons and dials are usually smoother and more accurate than point and click

[TobyJWalter]

The fonts in the subtitles are awesome 😎
And the buttons are soooo clicky 😩👌

[Sam_on_YouTube]

These were NOT designed for film editing. Notice every comment saying they used one worked in news. They're designed for speed to put together something quickly filmed in 720i digitally and then edited in analog losing quality, which is fine, because it goes out to a broadcast signal in 480i as a news story where nobody expects quality anyway. Short films shot on DV at the time were edited with Premiere, Final Cut, or Avid. I was using Premiere. It was not great, but by version 6 in 2000 it was functional. If you could afford a DVCam camcorder and not miniDV, you were probably using Avid. That's what all the professionals used and I used it when I interned at places making documentaries, TV commercials, and shows in 2000 and 2001.