This is b-roll of a newly-opened, early Japanese HDTV studio recorded in approximately 1994, recovered from a Sony HDD-1000 digital HDTV master-quality tape!

This 15-minute video consists of a selection of b-roll/test footage from what appears to be a new HDTV studio for the NHK. We get to see the inside of the studio, some of the staff, and the satellites used for BS reception/transmission, along with additional footage of scenery, buildings, and a cute sequence with some young actresses. In addition, the tape seems to have overwritten some kind of unknown opera of which some segments can be quickly seen.

The Sony HDD-1000 was the world’s first commercially available digital HDTV recording format and was also the world’s first uncompressed digital HDTV recording device. First demonstrated in 1987, the HDD-1000 was an incredible feat of engineering capable of data storage and processing deemed unrealistic to achieve in a mass-produced piece of hardware one year earlier. Storing uncompressed 1920x1035 interlaced video with 8 channels of uncompressed 48kHz DASH PCM digital audio, the HDD-1000 was capable of recording data at an incredible 1.2 Gbps onto a 11.75"-diameter (63 minute), 1"-wide metal tape for a total capacity of over 4.5 Tb per tape! This recorder was also the first HDTV recorder capable of editing digitally for completely lossless results.

This footage has unknown origins and unknown use. Do you have any information about this footage such as where it was recorded or any uses it may have found? If so, comment below!

Enjoy this long lost HDTV behind-the-scenes view!