video research update...again

[bigblock73]

For those of you who have been involved in the GM video/commercial research I have been doing, here is an update for you.

Out of the original $150 we had to use for the research, we have used up $50 of that. Basically we paid for one hour of research time. Allied Vaughn (AV) found thirteen 73-87 GM commercials (they only spent 1 hour looking), recorded them, and sent them to GM for approval. GM then said we could not have any of them due to their corp policies. I then asked AV if they could do an electronic database search using related key words...and this turned up pretty much nothing except for the 20/20 gas tank explosion fiasco. Rather than pay more money for this kind of info (info we all really didn't want), I told AV to stop and said thanks for trying.

But not all is lost.

I did manage to locate (and purchase) three GM light truck training videos, covering 1981, 1984, and 1985. There were videos that were sent to all the dealerships back in the 80's and were full of video clips and information pertaining to that particular model line...intended to inform and educate the salesmen of the products. Here is the problem so far. These are on 12" laserdisc format (popular back in the day). I personally do not have a laserdisc player (or a way to convert them), and only one A/V shop 25 miles from my house has the ability to convert these to DVD from their original laserdisc format. Once I get the disc in the mail, I will have them put on a DVD and I will then burn additional copies myself for everyone else who has paid thus far.

Sound fair?

[Russell]

sounds dandy

[1FaastC10]

i'm down! Jeff, its great to have such a great source of informaion for this era of trucks. 73-87.com has helped me tremendously on many occasions. anybody asking for info on these trucks, i tell them about your site, or this one.

[SanitysBane]

Sounds gravy to me.

[Nancy.R]

wow love to have the 81 stuff. let me know when we can get them.

[ElGracho]

Sounds good to me. If we could only find someone with a GM Mini Theater Player, I have a box of 12 1979 model years cassettes to share too. They are like 8mm films with sound. Of course the format is proprietary, I just need to find a player...

I think the dude that runs autlolit.com has a player, I get really sporadic replies when I deal with them via email so I haven't pursued it.

[MylilBowTie]

Cool, Im glad to hear back something on this.

[bigblock73]

Originally Posted by 1FaastC10

i'm down! Jeff, its great to have such a great source of informaion for this era of trucks. 73-87.com has helped me tremendously on many occasions. anybody asking for info on these trucks, i tell them about your site, or this one.

Thanks Jeremy. I know Mike had a lot of time into it before he passed it on to me, and I KNOW I have a lot of time and money into it as well...but it is my hobby and it makes me happy knowing it is being used the way I had hoped it would be. Again, thanks.

And Joe, I sent another Email to GM asking for info on all of the special editions on our pages. Wheter it be pics, ads, info, whatever...I asked for anything I could get. I do know GM was waiting to see what AV could get me, they were going to try and mail me all the stuff all together. Hopefully they found something and hopefully I will hear back soon.

For those of you who don't already know, I got some real cool pics from GM...click here to see them (the first section on the page).

[79BIG10]

Thanks for the heads up Jeff. I'm happy to hear that we're actually getting somewhere on getting more stuff. I thank you for all the hard work you're doing for all of us.

[PHOENIX]

These videos sound cool to me.
But do we still get the 20/20 gas tank stuff, I am really interested in seeing that.
thanks!

[SanitysBane]

I am too on the 20/20 gas tank stuff.

[bigblock73]

OK guys, I have hit another snag with this process. I have the laserdisc in my possession, and upon further investigation, I have found out that these GM laserdisc were only playable on certain laserdisc machines due to their coding. Look here to read a little about it.

http://www.oz.net/blam/DiscoVision/LD_Player_Guide.htm

As you can see, it looks like I need to find a MCA Discovision PR-7820 laserdisc player. I have searched Ebay and have come up empty handed...does anyone here have one by chance or know of another place to look?

I do have a co-worker who has a laserdisc player, but not this model. We are going to try and play one of the disc in this machine and see what happens...but I am not counting on much.

Anyhow, just wanted to let you guys know what going on, and if you want to see the scans of the disc, click the links below to see them and what they contain. I will not give up on this, stay tuned to as I will follow up whenever something comes up. Also, please let me know if you know anything about these disc, players, or anything of that nature. I REALLY want to get these on DVD and watch them and pass them along to you guys!

1981 cover
1981 contents

1984 cover 1
1984 contents 1
1984 cover 2
1984 contents 2

1985 cover 1
1985 cover 2
1985 contents 1
1985 contents 2

Also, about the 20/20 info. Allied Vaughn has already taken $50 from us,I really don't want to pay them any additional money for something I have a feeling we won't get. On top of that, they had 10 different 20/20 "gas tank" entries on the spreadsheet they sent me, with horrible descriptions as to what each one contains. When the tapes go in at AV, we get charged...even if GM doesn't approve giving us the material. I think it is a no win scenario and would like to avoid going back to them for this. Perhaps I can contact them at a later date, but for now I would like to get these disc resolved since I feel it is our best shot at getting any info. Hope you guys are OK with this.

[MylilBowTie]

Would maybe a library still have one of those laser disc players around?