DTS Laserdiscs....... (1 Viewer)

[RobD]

Is that gasps of disbelief i hear from all you LD fans out there?

Ummm.... Weren't all earlier Dreamworks titles full rate too?

You'll get a gasp of disbelief from me when DVD offers all titles in the DTS LD range in decent quality full bit rate DTS.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Is that gasps of disbelief i hear from all you LD fans out there?

Yeah, disbelief that they could waste so much bandwidth on such an uninteresting soundtrack.

 

[Dave Anderson]

It is, wasn't it the last US LD pressed?

I hate these sour grapes posts, especially in the D-VHS threads.

The last two U.S. titles were Bringing out the Dead and Sleepy Hollow. They were released simultaneously, and it was after a long period of being delayed and waiting for more preorders. Others that went from delayed to canceled: Talented Mr. Ripley, MI:2, and many others. I'm sure MI:2 would have had enough preorders if they put a damn DD5.1 track on it.

I picked up Bringing out the Dead from Japan since it has the Dolby 5.1 track on it. Probably not so important with that movie, but the Japanese disc also have a gorgeous gatefold jacket, as well as a jacket that isn't going to start splitting after a few months. The subtitles are in the black bars only and I can eliminate them by shifting the picture down on my 16x9 TV.

Back to the topic at hand: Anyone have the rare DTS Ransom laserdisc from Japan? It never had a U.S. release (DTS LD, I mean) and it is the director's cut too. There's a fellow on ebay who offers it on occassion, but he wants $100+ for it.

 

[Quint van der Vaart]

In Japan several other titles were released after Image and Pioneer stopped making laserdiscs.
Amongst the releases were U-571 , Star Wars and I believe some DreamWorks/Paramount releases.

I will say this, the laserdisc release of The Matrix was one hell of a release and has a better soundtrack than de dvd had as did many of the other releases like The Mummy and Saving Private Ryan.

To bad Pioneer did not continue with releasing Dolby Digital versions of Indiana Jones :frowning:

 

[Declan]

yea I had those DD5.1 Indi's on pre-order for ages. When they canncelled them i just picked up the PAL boxset of the Indy trilogy which came with a hour long making of Raiders on side 4 of Last Crusade. They all had great transfers but being PAL they had no 5.1 tracks. Oh well come November we'll hear Indy in 5.1....... hopefully.

I'm going to London next week and theres a shop there called The Cinema Store, they buy and sell used LD's. Last time i was there they only had about 10 LD's. I rang them yesterday and they told me that they got over 400 in, so cant wait to go now. If it's there i'll pick up The Matrix, maybe even Frighteners Signature Edition (if it's there and if I can afford it), and certainly some DTS LD's.

 

[David Norman]

Dave, I do have the Ransom disc I bought from Nicolas Santini. It's a great disc though it's debatable for the cost. Like most Japanese DTS they carry a price premium. I have that one and the DTS Surround Demo Disc that was never released in the US. There were about 25 dual releases, but Ransom and the S.S. Demo were the only unique Japanese releases.

Overall there were a total of 112 US discs, 2 unique Japanese discs, plus 25 Japanese Dual Release DTS LD's. Many of the Japanese DTS I've never seen for sale anywhere and the 10-12 I have seen have always been at a pretty high premium.

 

[Declan]

what do you mean by dual release?
Did they have both DTS and DD5.1 on them? That would only leave one analouge channel free for a mono soundtrack.

 

[David Norman]

By dual release in this context, I meant movies that had both a US version and a Japanese version. There was never a disc that had DTS and AC-3 on it was unless possibly one of the demo discs.

 

[Declan]

thanks............. common sense tho when you think about it. Unfortunatly my common sense left me years ago

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Trainspotting definite edition DVD is to have a full bit rate DTS soundtrack. Is that gasps of disbelief i hear from all you LD fans out there?

*gasp* OH MY GOD ALL 300 OF MY LASERDISCS ARE USELESS BECAUSE THERE WILL BE A DTS TRAINSPOTTING DVD!

I love my LDs. I'm not a DTS person, nor a Dolby Digital person. I'm one of those PCM freaks (though I'm also painfully aware that the mix makes a huge difference -- for instance, the Phantom Menace DD track is far better than the muddy PCM track on the LD, and Blade's PCM track, which I heard for the first time last week, is a real stinker at times, a huge disappointment). I'm also just a guy who's been buying laserdiscs for more than a decade and sees no reason to change now that the format is officially dead. Bargains abound, and there's a lot of weird and wonderful stuff out there on LD.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

...and Dave, how did you like that Fearless Vampire Killers disc?

I thought you had sold it or were trying to sell it?

Dunno why, but I totally do not get that movie. I see it happening in front of my eyes, recognize the work and talent and effort that has gone into it, and find absolutely nothing compelling about it. It was one of my few blind purchases on LD (back when they were $40 when they were cheap and $130 when they were Criterion, blind purchases were few and far between for me), and really the only LD that I bought and never spun more than once.

Of course, now that you can find discs for $2 to $15 for good stuff, I buy lots of things that I haven't seen before. My collection is becoming downright ecclectic.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

I'm also just a guy who's been buying laserdiscs for more than a decade and sees no reason to change now that the format is officially dead. Bargains abound, and there's a lot of weird and wonderful stuff out there on LD.

I totally agree! I buy 30 dvds month as well as D-VHS and other HD titles. But I'm still buying LDs all the time! Watched one last night on a new LD player and iScan Ultra I bought to improve my LD viewing. Doesn't seem obsolete to me.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Watched one last night on a new LD player and iScan Ultra I bought to improve my LD viewing.

What do those little fellas cost? Was it a big improvement? How big a screen are you viewing on?

I've been thinking about picking up something like one of those.

 

[Lee_eel]

Aaron, the point i was making is that now full DTS soundtracks are sneaking back into dvd movies doesn't that take away the only advantage of Laserdisc over DVD?
R.I.P LD.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Aaron, the point i was making is that now full DTS soundtracks are sneaking back into dvd movies doesn't that take away the only advantage of Laserdisc over DVD?

My main reason for keeping LD is the hundred or so titles I have on LD that just don't exist on DVD. Some people have many more than that.

Why do you care if we enjoy LD? Are you just some kind of troll, or a thread crapper?

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Aaron, the point i was making is that now full DTS soundtracks are sneaking back into dvd movies doesn't that take away the only advantage of Laserdisc over DVD?

Missed the part where I said I was a big fan of PCM tracks, did you?

 

[dan fritzen]

Can anyone point me to a good link about the different rates of Dolby Digital and DTS, fascinating thread I never heard this stuff before, although I heard some people said LD had better sound. I know Blade was weak in audio on the DVD.

Any lists out there stating what bit rate the audio is on DVD's?

 

[Damin J Toell]

R.I.P LD.

I wish I could say R.I.P. to pointless format-bashing, but it's clear that it'll never stop.

DJ

 

[Mark_Wilson]

RE: iScan Ultra

What do those little fellas cost? Was it a big improvement? How big a screen are you viewing on?

It replaced an iScan Pro that I only used for LD and DTV. Deinterlacing seems to be the same but it has twice the number of inputs (2cvbs, 2s-vid, 2compon. and HD pass thru + dvi out), and remote. But the killer feature is 4x3 to 16:9 scaling. It does that Very Well. I'm extremely pleased with it.

I'm using it on a 65" Mits. Diamond HDTV, ISF'd.

Does it make a big difference? If are using your sets builtin line doubler and zoom features then Yes it makes a HUGE difference. If you're just using some other external line doubler like and FE QS or iScan then not as much. The deinterlacing seems to be the same as the Pro. Home Theater Secrets gave it its highest deinterlacing score.

Onecall.com is blowing them out for $787 right now. They only have 4 left. I think it was 15 last night!

http://ww2.onecall.com/PID_17805.htm (not sure if this link will work).

 

[Rob Gillespie]

now full DTS soundtracks are sneaking back into dvd movies doesn't that take away the only advantage of Laserdisc over DVD?

But we've had full-rate DTS on DVD from the early days. All of the initial Universal titles were.

The problem is (or was) that even those did not sound as 'good' as the DTS LDs. And the same can often be said (or was often said) about Dolby Digital on DVD compared to LD. Whatever the cause was (not that it really matters now anyway), LDs often sounded better.