MTV Home Entertainment

Background : MTV Home Video is the home entertainment arm of MTV. The company's output was originally distributed by Sony Music Entertainment and would soon be transferred from Paramount Home Video before MTV's parent company, Viacom (now ViacomCBS) acquired Paramount in 1994. Despite this, aside from Nickelodeon releases (which Paramount started distributing in 1995), Sony continued distributing MTV releases on LaserDiscs (1994-2000), VHS videocassette tapes (1994-2007), and DVDs (1997-present).

1st Logo (1994-1997)
Logo : Same as the MTV Productions ident of the time, but this time, we see two men dressed pulling chains away from each other, causing a box to materialize and and stretch in until it forms a square shape, we then cut to a wide shot of the two men and the box, revealing that the chains are actually connected to ends of the box, then they continue pulling, causing the box to split and form the "M". When it's completely formed, the stylized "TV" fade in on the right side of the "M" at the same time as "HOME VIDEO", which is seen below.

FX/SFX : Same as the TV counterpart.

Music/Sounds : Same as the TV counterpart.

Availability : Rare. Seen on early Beavis and Butthead videos such as "Work Sucks!" and "The Final Judgment", as well as The Best of Liquid Television and The Grind workout tapes.

2nd Logo (1996-1998)
Logo : On a black background, in an extremely fast occurrence, we see a large white circle flashes. A smaller circle moves in from the left of the screen leaving behind different colored copies of it which fades out. Another circle does the same from the right side of the screen. Once the later reaches the middle, yet another circle appears much closer up on the screen. A red triangle pointing towards the right with a rounded lower section moves out of the circle which slightly widens in the process and stops when it is in full view. Then a finger appears and it pushes the triangle causing it to turn green with the MTV logo appearing in the circle in black which proceeds to pulsate (like a speaker) until the screen (along with the MTV logo) becomes white while the circle/triangle become black. "home video" in Arial Black then slide in from the left and right sides. The end product fades out and slogan "Stick it in. press play." fades in and out.

FX/SFX : Simple animation and live action hybrid. Good animation for the 90's.

Music/Sounds : A James Bond-esque piece of music that tenses throughout the logo and becomes an electric guitar rendition of the theme. As "Stick it in. press play" fades in, the sound of a VHS tape being put into a VCR can be heard.

Availability : Seen on later Sony releases of MTV shows after Viacom took over distribution rights.

3rd Logo (1997-present)
Logo : On a black background, several green rings zoom in and move about, alongside a triangle and an oval. As the oval spins, numbers change on it, starting from 5 to 1 like a film countdown. Once it reaches 1, the circle rotates one more time and reveals the 1990s MTV Big M logo on it. The rings disappear as the triangle moves to its normal position near the circle, and the bold, italicized sans-serif words "home video" flip below it, forming the MTV Home Video logo from the 2nd logo. The entire logo floats before a green flash occurs, causing the logo to sit still as lights move over it. The screen is overtaken by green TV static before it cuts to black.

Variant :
 * On VHS releases from 1997-2003, the logo changes colors throughout, beginning in purple, blue and yellow before ending in its normal green color. The ending static animation also differs from the DVD version, which features a solid green color throughout. 2003-06 tapes use the normal version.
 * Since 2010, the 1990s Big M logo was replaced with its updated redesign, which cuts the "TV" into the M, and "home entertainment" replaces "home video."

FX/SFX : The movement of the objects, the static.

Music/Sounds : A heavy drum-and-bass theme is heard throughout, alongside a computerized female voiceover (supplied by the "Kathy" female voice in the text-to-speech program on Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, OS X and macOS ) counting down from 5 to 1, a robotic voice quickly saying "MTV HOME VIDEO!", and a robotic male voiceover (supplied by the "Fred" male voice in the same text-to-speech program) saying "Stick it in. Press play", and finally a loud bit of static.

Music/Sounds Variant : Sometimes, a different theme was heard.

Availability : Seen on MTV releases on LaserDisc, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray such as Beavis and Butt-Head: "The Mike Judge Collection", Daria: "Best Friends", Jackass, MTV Yoga and Æon Flux: "The Complete Animated Collection". Some DVD/Blu-ray releases, like Daria: "The Complete Animated Series", skip it altogether. The 2010 variant is most likely extremely rare.