Video: 1990s HD shouldn't exist but it does, apparently.

Captured by JVC and found on a D-Theatre HD DVHS demo tape, an HD video has been unearthed depicting New York life in 1993. The video shows key NYC icons Central Park, the Twin Towers and Times Square and, with the exception of the Tower's absence, it looks like it was filmed today despite being filmed almost a quarter of a century ago.

 

With a funky soundtrack and clothing styles that defined an era, it's no wonder that the high definition video is a little jarring. The anachronistic elements place this video partially within the uncanny valley of stuff that doesn't really make sense.

 

The vid comes from 'YouTube Pedant' who guesses that “it's likely that this footage was shot with a HDVS camera - perhaps a Sony HDC-500 attached to a HDV-10 portable recorder which recorded on UniHi 3/4" tape.” That camera weighed in at a portly 4.5 kg, heaps more than your run-of-the-mill iPhone.

Whatever the tech, the video serves as a time machine, displaying the vérité of 90s NYC in an incongruous medium.