That was my year out from university, working at Sony’s UK broadcast research centre as part of my degree. They had a demo setup with film scanning, production switcher, and screening room that at the time were jaw dropping in quality. 36 inch perfectly flat CRTs that needed 6 people to carry them. And the 3D DVE processor was two racks about 30RU high each 
Part of the quality stemmed from the relatively light analogue compression techniques - no DCT blocking or weird motion artefacts. Fast forward to now, when I watch badly compressed standard definition Discovery shows on my 49 inch LG UHD TV… 
(tbf I do watch good quality stuff as well, but feel forever spoiled by what I experienced back then)
