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In the movie Licence to Kill, James Bond breaks into Felix Leiter's house and gets a CD out from behind a picture. He then sticks a CD in an absolutely massive CD drive. It was about three times the width of the CD. This movie was released in 1989. I've never seen anything like that before. Did such CD drives actually exist?

Sorry, I don't have a picture.

hippietrail
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cup
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  • How did he put it in? Slot? Music box-style hinged cover? – wizzwizz4 Aug 22 '20 at 21:54
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    Perhaps a Videodisc? – Jon Custer Aug 22 '20 at 21:57
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    What are you talking about? The standard width for hifi equipment is about 42 cm, i.e. 3.5 times the width of a CD. – Hobbes Aug 23 '20 at 17:45
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    BTW, you might want to think about where the term "CD" comes from. I suppose it's just a matter of time until we see someone asking about "A mobile phone, except it's stationary", or "UAV with a pilot". – Acccumulation Aug 24 '20 at 02:58
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    @Acccumulation that time is already here "why do old people say that a phone is ringing?" or "why do old people hold a thumb to their ear and a pinky finger to their mouth to pantomime a phone call?" – Criggie Aug 24 '20 at 04:04
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    @Acccumulation: I've heard there are a magic kind of electric guitar that you don't have to plug in. Not only that but they don't even need batteries! – hippietrail Aug 24 '20 at 09:41
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    @Criggie - for me, the ultimate expression is the symbol above the "1" button on the software keyboard of a smartphone: it signifies digital voicemail by depicting a reel-to-reel tape recorder (not even a cassette!), something I doubt anyone born since the advent of the mobile phone boom would ever have seen in real life, let alone have used. – Spratty Aug 24 '20 at 09:43
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    @Spratty You underestimate how many of us watch Techmoan on YouTube! – Dai Aug 24 '20 at 10:39
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    @Dai - you youngsters and your newfangled nostalgia! – Spratty Aug 24 '20 at 10:54
  • How, about, simply, use of the word "dialing" to execute a phone connection. – Organic Marble Aug 24 '20 at 13:57
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    @OrganicMarble: As a millenial who has never actually dialed a rotary phone, I think of "dial" the same way I think of any other verb: It's just an opaque word meaning "to input numbers into the telephone system." I don't associate it with a physical dial that you can turn. – Kevin Aug 24 '20 at 17:13
  • @Kevin I think that was the whole point of this comments discussion, you have just confirmed that the origins of those terms are lost in the techno-past. – Organic Marble Aug 24 '20 at 18:35
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    @Spratty did you ever see the inside of a cassette? (I know, I know, but it is still literally reel-to-reel :)) – Will Crawford Aug 24 '20 at 23:27
  • I believe there were laserdisc players that could ALSO play CDs. I seem to remember some had a groove within the larger groove. So this scene would be totally plausible. – Scotty Dec 02 '21 at 08:03
  • As was already mentioned in the existing answer, 12cm-diameter LDs existed; as can be seen in its service manual, the VP415 has the requisite groove. This is used independently of the ability to play back audio CDs; the VP415 can’t do that. – Stephen Kitt Dec 02 '21 at 10:06

2 Answers2

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As far as I remember, this wasn't a CD, but (supposed to be) a Laserdisc, and he was using a Philips player (the movie contained several Philips machines). Laserdiscs were available in different sizes between 12 cm, which is like a CD and up to 30 cm (LP size).

In a technical way, the movie screwed up, as Laserdisks were neither digital (they used an analogue format) nor writable. Except for the LV-ROM which could carry digital data as well - still not writable.

Looking at this picture from Starringthecomputer,

Enter image description here

it seems plausible that it is a Philips VP-415:

Enter image description here

(The same drive was used for the Acorn/BBC Domesday Project.)

Community
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Raffzahn
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  • I've only ever seen 12" laserdisks. Never seen a small one before. – cup Aug 23 '20 at 07:17
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    Categorizing "not writeable" as "screwed up" is quite disputable, especially seen from copyright, IPR and commercial viewpoints. The music industry has probably considered the CD/RW as a "screwed-up" thing exactly for the opposite reason. – tofro Aug 23 '20 at 10:56
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    @tofro I haven't seen the film, but couldn't "in technical way they screwed up" be about the role of that disk in the plot of the film? – Džuris Aug 23 '20 at 11:26
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    @tofro Erm (re-) watch the film. Story goes that Felix had stored (written) sensible data onto the disk, prior to his death, and Bond retrieves it later on, using the Philips setup. There is no dispute about copyright or alike involved. It has simply screwed up by using the wrong props - maybe in part because the CD-R was only finished a few month after filming had started. – Raffzahn Aug 23 '20 at 12:28
  • Re "the movie contained several Philips machines": Product placement? – Peter Mortensen Aug 23 '20 at 14:28
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    @PeterMortensen Bond movies has even been called the king of product placement.... https://blog.hollywoodbranded.com/blog/james-bond-product-placement-the-definitive-timeline-of-brands-in-bond – UncleBod Aug 23 '20 at 15:55
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    Might be worth mentioning there were writable Magneto-Optical discs that size in existence when this was filmed. The LV ROM player depicted is not that, and MO discs are generally contained inside a caddy, not a bare disc. But the concept of a big writable disc itself isn't far-fetched, they just got the details wrong. – mnem Aug 23 '20 at 16:04
  • @mnem The disk used was smaller. More like a CD. And most definitely not a MO. – Raffzahn Aug 23 '20 at 16:25
  • @Raffzahn Ah. You meant the movie guys with "they" - That's not very clear from your post. I assumed you meant Philips. – tofro Aug 23 '20 at 20:07
  • @tofro I wouldn't consider the question being about Philips policies but prop use in a move. The world is bigger than just computes isn't it? – Raffzahn Aug 23 '20 at 20:16
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    @Raffzahn Yes, but only slightly. – tofro Aug 23 '20 at 20:18
  • @tofro :) In some way you hit it right home. They have creeped into way too many areas. – Raffzahn Aug 23 '20 at 20:24
  • I had the same interpretation as @tofro: I thought you were saying the designers of Laserdisc screwed up the design by making those choices. I edited with clearer phrasing to convey what you meant, @ Raffzahn. – Peter Cordes Aug 23 '20 at 22:27
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    Perhaps the spy gadget team had developed a writeable LaserDisc, using heat / light sensitive chemicals like CD-R. And that's what Felix Leiter used. Given the gadgets Q develops for Bond, that's a very plausible explanation. – Peter Cordes Aug 23 '20 at 22:35
  • @AndrewMorton medial capitals are a game for trademark lawyers and marketing 'experts'. I do not consider them suitable for writing. – Raffzahn Aug 23 '20 at 23:06
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    The first picture even shows another Philips product. The PC on top of the LV-ROM is a Philips NMS9100. – MSalters Aug 24 '20 at 10:30
  • @cup: To places (USA) I've seen karaoke in the 1980s and 1990s used smaller disks that would hold about four songs with video, which I think was the dominant format before CD+G was invented. – supercat Aug 24 '20 at 15:21
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    There were writeable (and even rewriteable) LaserDiscs, although they were very rare and not marketed to the general public. – Vikki Mar 07 '21 at 03:10
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That is a Philips VP415 LV-ROM player.

Justme
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