Lost Futures: Sony's Streaming... Camcorder Laptop?? [Vaio PCG-GT1]

This device - the Sony Vaio PCG-GT1 - encapsulates so many of my interests, offered so much - in its way - and reflects a future we could have had, but for once, are probably glad we don't. It's shocking they made something like this at all, and unclear what their ultimate goal actually was, so in the end, all I could do was review the thing on its merit. I'm not sure what that achieved, but I love this little machine regardless, so who cares.

(The PCG-GT1 is also known as the PCG-211B)

Disk image:
(also, all the VAIO-specific programs are in a ZIP you can download separately)

Chapters:
00:00:00 The Mood
00:06:37 The Device
00:14:11 The Camera
00:33:00 The Platform
00:46:50 The Rest
00:54:03 The Problem
00:59:03 The Point
01:01:10 Outro / Credits
01:02:12 Demonstration footage

[vwestlife]

Sony was doing a lot of crazy stuff at the time, like putting a PCMCIA slot, Bluetooth, a color photo printer, and even a web browser in their camcorders... in the late '90s and early 2000s!

[NonCompete]

Movieshaker was doing AI generated content 20 years ahead of its time and making better films than any of us college filmmakers were making in its day. I'm shaking and breathless after watching that skillfully edited masterpiece starring none other than Large Man Gibbs.

PS: we demand a TikTok channel exclusively providing Movieshaken videos

[aimwell]

CRD is on a roll. First 7 users on 1 PC in the 2000s, then the 90's AT&T metaverse, then the 80s desktop with the crappy GUI, then a laptop camera hybrid. This guy finds all the most obscure retro stuff and shows it on YouTube. 10/10 youtuber.

[Nesserris]

The fact that the "behind the scenes" footage of the demonstration looks so great, despite being filmed on a cellphone, compared to the quality that this whole 4000 dollar camcorder....laptop... thing outputs. Just shows how insanely good and accessible camera/video technology has gotten the last 20 years.

[sixspeeddeath]

Proof of concept.

A streaming device in the 2000's was going to fail.
A new, unpolished processor was going to fail.
The whole idea was a failure, so why do it?

To learn if there was any salvageable part of the process.

Why try something new in 4 differet models that may fail, when you can slap it all in 1 device you expect to fail, and see what part of the product worked well?

SOMEONE was going to buy it because it's a Sony, so it wouldn't be a total loss, and it was an interesting experiment all said.

[funghazi]

I feel exactly what you mean by lost futures, these are the crazy devices I'd see in magazines that would spark my imagination about the future. Looking back, so few of those devices ended up catching on, many were never ever released, but they were strangely profound to me as a child, that the world was on the verge of changing in big ways.

[BlackOut]

I must say that I love that late-90s/early-2000s era of "portable consumer electronics" where we finally had the technology to really miniaturize some pretty cool multi use devices but hadn't really gotten the form factors and UI down yet. Post-iPhone devices are certainly more practical, but I feel they really lack the charm these older gadgets had.

[endymallorn]

This machine feels baffling to me as someone who had already become a “retro-cyberpunk” by the time it existed. It definitely strikes me as being more for the cramped, space-limited, but super-connected Japanese market, where mini laptops and multifunction smart devices ruled the roost, and yet where high speed Internet (ISDN and up) were extremely common, the same kind of market where the Dreamcast & PS2 modems made perfect sense.

The Crusoe was always an interesting footnote in my life, even when it was new, because I could have a machine which was both a slow/older IBM compatible, and also an older Hackintosh, along with a reasonable machine to run Solaris - and all in one box. It all just worked. It’s interesting that Sony picked it for this use. Part of it, I’m sure, was the power consumption; but the sheer amount of proprietary software tells me that the first idea they had was to build a proprietary OS (or at least a heavily customized shell), rather than going with stock Windows. They were going to use the Crusoe the way it was really meant to be used - as a tool for lite OS development. But either they realized it would be a bad idea, or they wanted to release the Percast stuff for Windows anyway, or something else happened (maybe even MS stepping in because of how hard they were pushing Windows Me).

But definitely the fact that it’s also a working, contemporary, digital camcorder which is irrevocably tied to that Windows install is a major flex.

[MrDeelightful]

Bro, how do you have under 100k subs??? Your long-form content is awesome! Your enthusiasm in your videos is on par with guys like LGR and Technology Connections, and I'd say your content is on par too! And then you drop this video! This laptop is weirder than anything I've seen in my time watching vintage tech channels. A camcorder using a technically complete x86 Windows ME "laptop" as a backbone for a camcorder is so perfectly 90s/00s Sony that it couldn't be made by anyone else, like you said. Great video!

[Medenmath]

This video inadvertently answered the question of why the cell phone you get to change party members in Final Fantasy 7 is called a PHS, so thanks for that! Neat little device in spite of its shortcomings. It's wild to think live video streaming was possible, if only barely, in 2000. Loved the sequence at the end.

[monkatraz]

This is one of the most compromised devices I have ever seen. It's mind bogglingly impressive - I bet the engineers who worked on this have some crazy stories. They probably had a list of design requirements and somehow got this device to barely meet them.

If I worked on this thing I'd totally flex on my engineer friends about the shit I pulled off and then probably irrationally defend its flaws when they brought up how bad this thing really is.

[mrmacmanu]

Honestly? I think that "shake up" mix of gibbs was one of the best cat videos I've ever seen.
(Also, I laughed my butt off over the visual explanation of the mixer logo)

[xmlthegreat]

Sony had already made the best automated video editing algorithm 22 years ago... I guess it's time for us editors to pack it in

[novelezra]

A friend of mine asked me recently "What CRT should I get? I want one that is aesthetically pleasing."

I broke it down into 3 categories:

A: One that has buttons on the front and looks ugly

B: One that hides it's buttons or doesn't have them and looks aesthetically pleasing.

C: SONY

I have no idea what it is about SONY of the 80's and 90's but their design is pure beauty. So many of their products haven't just aged well; they just haven't aged.

I know some people will agree, but personally; if I see a piece of retrotech and it has SONY on it, I trust that it will be something special.

I see people say "Why hasn't MiniDisc had it's resurgence?" and personally I believe, that MD hasn't come back into vogue because it doesn't seem retro yet. It still feels like it's from the future. Same as with the PS2. It doesn't feel like a retro console. Visually it still looks modern (especially the slim, holy shit).

Recently I've been trying to get a SONY KV-9PT50


Anyway, rant over. Can I just say that the intro to this video is fantastic. You really set the mood, it feels both calming yet eerie. I've noticed you have been experimenting so much recently with your format and I love it.

Oh! Also, it's strange that you mentioned FMV tapes on the last episode and just last week, the tapes for the game Phantasmagoria 2 were found and being digitised at this very moment.

[cfredrics]

Rest In Peace Gibbs. Forever a Large Man

[sleeps_darkly]

That's so cool! I've watched while it was a patreon release, and yes, it seems to be a really fascinating device - me and my gf managed to snatch TWO of them recently, and both are on the way to us. As I've managed to find, there are two versions of this thing: GT1 and GT3, they differ only in HDD volume and OS install; first one is 20 GB with ME, second one is 30 GB with supposedly Windows 2000 or XP. So if the number of 5000 units refers only to GT1, then probably there are more units in total.

I've had a Hitachi Flora 220TX with a Crusoe 533 as a main machine for a bit in 2005-2007, and it was barely manageable at that point - so I pretty much understand the pain here.

Also, as I suspect, the battery uses three 18650 units - it looks just right to fit them, and the voltage of 11.1V seems to suggest three 3.7V elements. I will attempt to re-cell mine if the battery is dead.

[martinda]

I'm an old fella who worked in the Hi-Fi and AV industry for many years. I also love photography and technology. and am an electronic engineer I also own and have owned a lot of Sony equipment...
This one completely passed me by!
I love it.
Thank you for such a wonderful and detailed review. Brilliant.

[ZenIsFluffy]

28:58 I came back to rewatch this video and this clip caught me off guard. Clever, silly and a well shot bit, love it!

[WeXMajors]

There's not enough love for the end video, which is so shockingly beautiful for being shot on what it was. You do good work sir!

[nanothrill]

the real irony about transmeta cpus is that modern intel cpus are implemented in much the same way using microcode to implement x86 on top of a meta architecture.