I'll always love laserdiscs, will you? (1 Viewer)

[Grant B]

after I picked up the paper on friday and getting hit by the "George is Dead" sledgehammer; I pulled out my Beatles Anthology and went through all 8 discs. It's the reason why I bought a LaserDisc player in the first place... and for a long time it was the only one I owned.

It might come out on DVD someday...but I doubt it could be much better than the LD Box issued (Hope I'm wrong actually)

 

[Kevin Coleman]

I can't say that I do. I would never purchase a LD player becuase 2 to 3 sidebreaks per movie is definitely NOT what the director intended.

Kevin C.

 

[Mike_G]

Laserdiscs, to me, were a blessing and a curse. However, now that we have DVDs and I can watch movies uninterrupted AS INTENDED, I will look back on LDs with nostalgia, but nothing more. The few LDs I have left I hardly ever watch. I only hang onto them because they're not on DVD yet. I try selling them on eBay and alt.video.laserdisc only to get NOTHING for them, so I throw them away (literally...over 100 LDs went in the trash this year alone).

Mike

 

[Mattias_ka]

I can't say that I do. I would never purchase a LD player becuase 2 to 3 sidebreaks per movie is definitely NOT what the director intended.

Hmmmm, are you only seing long movies or? With a movie under 2 hours you get 1 sidebrake and 2 brakes with 3hours movies, so often you only have one brake or in some cases 2, and very rarly 3 brakes (if you don't have a CAV edition). And with a good player that change sides you get a 6-9 seconds delay, nothing I care about. But a dvd player that freeze now and then is not what the director intended

 

[Rachael B]

Before DVD, all the directors were watching LDs. The side-breaks didn't bother them. VHS's crappy pic quality is certainly not what the director intended.
THANKS PIONEER!!!!!!

 

[LarryH]

I can't say I love laserdisks - colors bleeding, warpage, crawling dots, and rot were always driving me crazy. That being said, I have never sold a one of my laserdisks and keep them for what they are - way better than VHS and the only source for many movies not (yet) on DVD (can you say Grease and Star Wars?).

I also appreciate Pioneer's support through the years and just hope they keep at least one player in their line (though it may be too late for this).

 

[Mattias_ka]

LarryH, if you have many ld's, get a better player a you will have no color bleeding.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

LarryH, if you have many ld's, get a better player a you will have no color bleeding.

Mattias is correct. My first LD player was the CLD-504 and it was a bleeder. At first it didn't bother me because overall LD was so much better than VHS in other ways(detail,color resolution on everything but bright red) but I did upgrade about a year ago. I don't remember the model number I have(I got it off eBay) but it's a Pioneer DVD/LD combi player. I use the S-Video connection and it displays a wonderfully stable picture; on really beautiful transfers(TITANIC,STAR WARS SE) the picture almost(not quite because of lack of anamorphic enhancement) rivals DVD. A good player makes all the difference when it comes to laserdisc.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Have to disagree. How much color bleeding happens is mostly a function of the transfer. I recently screened my "Lion King" CAV version and the color bleed on that title is terrible, even on my CLD-99, which believe me is not a slouch as far as LD performance goes.

 

[Larry Bevil]

I started collecting laserdiscs in the 1982/3 timeframe. As a result, I accumulated quite a large number of laserdiscs. As soon as DVD came on the scene, I immediately switched. Mainly for price and picture quality considerations. Many of my laserdiscs portrayed color bleeding and/or streaking. I admit, I had "middle of the road" laserdisc players, but the color streaking and bleeding was a problem for me - not all discs, but many. Now, if one of my favorite titles comes out on DVD, that I currently have on laserdisc, I will opt to buy the DVD and "retire" the laserdisc. I do agree that we had to thank Pioneer for keeping the format going on until DVD's came on the scene. Also, their "guarantee" to replace the discs for a number of years if they had the dreaded laser rot. I replaced several discs directly through Pioneer. So, my bottom line is, I don't miss laserdiscs at all. Just thankful I have several laserdisc titles that are not currently available on DVD.

 

[Mattias_ka]

Well Philip Hamm, of course you will have bad laserdisc that have bad colors ON the disc! It the same with dvd, I don't think ALL dvd's are bad because some have been bad mastred.

But with good and great laserdisc you will have no color bleeding with a good player. For example, my Pioneer HLD-X9 player display TPM japanese laserdisc with color that I and others think is better then the R1 dvd! But with a low-end to mid-end players you will NOT get the same great colors.

I also loves laserdisc, as I soon will buy 2 more back-up players (one more X9 and one LD-S9)

 

[Gruson]

If anyone is thinking about throwing anymore laserdiscs away, I will take them.
Email me.
[email protected]

 

[Gruson]

...

 

[Grant B]

The upstairs neighbors weren't home over the weekend so we broke out the Jurrasic Park DTS LD, that disc makes DVDs sound like LPs...I thought my ass was going to be shook off the couch.

Question for Rachael or other knowledgable LDer...On my sony TAE 9000Es I can view the details of the bitstream. When I did this to the LD of JP...it had all the usual sampling details but on the end it had; cat; non commmerical

any ideas what that means?

 

[David A. Frattaroli]

Uh, no.

 

[greg_t]

I currently have a Pioneer elite cld52 laserdisc player. Just out of curiosity, would I get a noticeably better picture with a cld-99, and how much would one except to pay for a cld-99? Anyone have any opinion on this?

 

[Barton Lynch]

I've been a LaserDisk user since I was 8 years old when my Dad brought home the first Pioneer player, that huge white machine, the VP-1000. My first Disney movies where a pleasure to watch on this format. Thanks to my early relation to the format I NEVER USED VIDEO TAPE FOR MOVIE RENTING AND COLLECTING!!! Really! Although the VCRs at home were for strict time-shift unattended TV recordings only. I Still use LD, although I don't own most of the original all-analog LaserVision discs, except for my Raiders of the lost Ark (a collectors item). I've changes players and movie versions like girlfriends (for Special Eds and Remasters); but since DVD I stopped buying discs, but I got a CLD-D606 from Pioneer so it could keep my collection healthy and play DD and DTS titles. I use it with my Yamaha DSP-A1 since my bedroom system has a Yamaha RX-V595a with no RF-coax input for DD LDs.
And it is true, DVD does not share the elitist feel of LD no matter how better it is. Just my opinion. Have fun.

 

[Mattias_ka]

greg_t, You should get MUCH better picture with a CLD-99 or even better with a LD-S9 or HLD-X9.

Just my $0.02

 

[Rachael B]

Greg, the first side-changing player I got was a CLD-52. Mine was a B-stock one back in the early 90's. This is a very old model from the 80's! It's a rugged player. My mom is stille using the CLD-52 I gave her and my late dad. But, the 52's pic is rather average by later standards. By all means aqquire a CLD-99. The pic quality would be conspicuously better. You'll see way less video noise and better colour. 99's seem to sell for $600 to a $1000, generally. Best wishes!

 

[Thom B]

There's defintely a warm fuzzy nostalgia kinda thing going on. I got into LD during my "poor as a churchmouse" days back in the mid/late 80's. Buying discs was always something of an event, as I could only afford a few every year. I'd stand for hours in Silver Platters, browsing through the racks, trying to figure out how to maximize my movie dollar. Then the excitement of taking home Lawrence of Arabia or Criterion's Brazil was great fun. I scrimped and saved for months to come up with the cash for the latter.
Do I really miss those days? Erm...not really. It's always been about the movies more than anything else. I still get excited over the release of a film I'm particularly fond of, but I've ended up with a few titles that I most likely wouldn't have bothered with in the past.