THE LASER BIN : Vancouver, Unseen World on Disc

“The Vancouver Disc,” an electronic archive of Vancouver, Canada, from 1872 to 1983 consisting of 20,876 still pictures, 37 time-lapse sequences and 600 section titles. Full-feature format (CAV). Voyager Press, 2139 Manning Ave., Los Angeles 90025; (213) 475-3424. $59.95.

This experimental laser video disc was one of the first created as a visual database for the casual viewer. It was a research project done on a shoestring budget, and the quality of the photography demonstrates this. Still, it is an exhilarating experience for any would-be historian or Vancouver aficionado. Played at normal speed, the nearly 21,000 photographs go by so fast that it is as if you are sitting in an elaborate fun house with 24 images a second coming at you. By freezing each of the 52,863 frames contained on the disc, you can make your way through . . . 6,000 historical photographs . . . 2,200 post cards . . . 500 posters . . . 5,400 art exhibits . . . 3,300 museum exhibits. There’s a “best-of-the-disc” suggestion that includes the Klondike Gold Rush of 1899, the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge while under construction in 1958, 200 neon rarities of the 1940s, and even French Embroidery Postcards of World War I.

“The Invisible World,” a National Geographic-Vestron Video available from Image Entertainment. 1979, 60 minutes, $29.95.

This could have been a superb laser disc instead of just an excellent copy of the videotape version. “The Invisible World” shows the viewer in incredible detail what is too small, too large, too fast, too slow or beyond the spectrum of visible light for the human eye to grasp. Through some extraordinary photography and imaging, we see such horrors as microscopic dust mites and other creatures that live on or near us; an arrow crashing into an apple; a bullet speeding toward its target; a single atom moving within solid matter. Unfortunately, Image Entertainment has put the entire 60-minute show on one side of the disc, forcing it into the Extended Play mode. This means you cannot freeze an individual frame or move along the action in slow or fast motion.