Laser disc - did you sell them or keep them? (1 Viewer)

[Bill Williams]

The editing on the WIP LD of "Beauty and the Beast" is much different. They go through continual intercutting between the original WIP version, utilizing rough sketches, storyboards, pencil animation, and the final animation. The titles are different, also. When you compare the WIP LD with the one on the DVD, you can see that it's substantially different. Plus, it's got some additional content on it (behind-the-scenes material and trailers) that were left off the DVD.

 

[Shaughan]

This thread spurred me to go and look at some of my collection and I had forgotten that I have about 30 LDs that have been signed by the director and or cast.

I got those by going to "Dave's Video - The Laser Place" in Studio City CA. They used to get the directors of new LD releases to come to the store and sign the new LD releases.

I have not been to Dave's in many many years. I wonder if they still do this for DVD - Heck I wonder if they still exist at all...

 

[RobertR]

They don't. There was a thread about this. I'll miss the "studio days" there.

 

[Shaughan]

Wow that's sad - Was a great retailer. Wonder what happened to them. Studio Days were great.

 

[Paul Shackleton]

After starting off a small collection in 1995 I have a few titles of note including The Game. Like most people I wouldn't want to sell them as they wouldn't fetch much and there is also the sentimental value. I would like to add the original Star Wars (not spec edit) but which is the best, the THX faces versions or the definitive collection, which I hear there were some problems with?

 

[Geoff_D]

I'm another who got into LD late in the game. While DVD was taking it's first faltering steps into the UK home video market (late '98), the enthusiasm of a work colleague made me investigate laserdisc. Once I did, my sizeable VHS collection became obsolete overnight. VHS is a horrible format for the film collector to endure, and so frustrated was I at this lack of quality that VHS went out the window and LD came in. And even though most UK titles were crap (rarely any extras, no AC3/dts) I still bought loads of them to replace my VHS movies, not being able to afford import LDs myself. But as DVD began to gain ground, I found my PAL laserdiscs to be second best, and I honestly thought that my LD player would never see action again. Thankfully, once I got a credit card and regular internet access, all that began to change...

My very first imported LDs were the 'Faces' editions of the Star Wars Trilogy, bought from Ken Cranes for $9.99 each! And since then I've been regularly trawling ebay and have picked up many of the sets mentioned here, like Se7en Criterion, Jaws CAV set, Jap Phantom Menace and so on. Animation LDs, like The Art of Tom and Jerry and the Star Trek Animated Series, have also found a way into my collection thanks to ebay. So once I'd discovered this neat online auction-house, and DVD was now a permanent fixture, my PAL LDs were hastily sold off and replaced with either DVD equivalents or the NTSC LD (you gotta love that Mission:Impossible AC3 track!!).

All told I have about 80 LDs, some I keep because they're rare and others because the DVD version just isn't that spectacular. But I would love to get a high-end player at some stage so I can really do justice to the format. My Pioneer CLD-D925 is a decent machine, but the fact that this lightweight device was considered the zenith of UK LD players says it all, really, when regarding the limited state of the UK LD market.

 

[Jay Pennington]

They are both the same transfers. Definitive is CAV, faces CLV. Early pressings of Definitive were missing a few seconds of Leia welding at the beginning of ESB side 3. There were some rot issues with early pressings as well.

 

[Tony Kwong]

Like ChristopherDAC, for anyone out there with laserdisc please contribute to the LaserDisc Database LDDB.com This site make it much easier for me and others to find used LD and what they contain.

 

[Francois Caron]

I still have all my 120 Laserdisc titles in my bookcase (bottom shelf of course ) and I've always said I'd keep them as long as I can still watch them on my Laserdisc player.

Unfortunately, my player, a Pioneer CLD-D704 dual-side player, is starting to falter. When ejecting a CD this week (it's also an excellent CD player), the head assembly somehow moved to the head flipper at the back of the player and remained stuck there! I had to rotate the flipper mechanism and pull the assembly back on the bottom rail just to get it to function properly again.

Now the player won't play side B the moment you insert a disc. You have to start playing side A before you can tell the player to switch to side B.

It probably need a good cleaning. With time, dust will cause positioning contacts to falter. But who repairs Laserdisc players these days?

 

[greg_t]

Kurtis Bahr repairs Laserdisc players. It is well worth the effort to ship your player to him for repair, general maintenance, and tweaking. Kurtis is a great guy and knows his laserdiscs. He is a member here but I don't see him online very often. He is on the AVS forum more often.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I just had the very same problem with the secondhand 704 I bought, and I had a similar one with the single-side V710 [a bug had fried itself inside the casing]. On the 704, the microswitches get dirty over time and have to be cleaned -- it's no big deal, but it's better to have it done professionally than to do it yourself if you don't know what you're doing. This model is worth the money to repair, and once repaired they run beautifully. That said:
Pioneer have on their website an "Authorised Service Centre Locator" which will find one in you area; these places do tend to charge stiff fees, however, and not all of them do LDs so you have to call first. My last repair, I had done by a local family-owned Home Theatre dealer, who has been in business since TV came to Texas in 1948. The price was reasonable, and the dealer was accomodating. If you can find such a dealer in your area, he might well be able to do what you want. There are also place you can ship your player to, it you're desparate.

 

[Ben_@]

I've never even watched a laserdisc, and I'm interested in picking up some. I've found that a few of the movies I'm interested in on DVD have better presentations on LD (like The Game).
Why does Criterion not release their LD catalog on DVD? There are some real gems that deserve the Criterion treatment, especially now for a wider audience.

 

[Matt Stone]

For the most part, their rights to the film expired between the LD release and the advent of DVD. But there are a lot of Criterion LD releases that are identical (for the most part) to the DVD release. Examples would be Chasing Amy and Robocop.

 

[David Norman]

If you do a search there should be a couple threads with pretty detailed information on these releases.

The 1989/1990 1st "Widescreen Special Edition" were pretty bad and looked to be basically the same transfers as the previous P/S editions without any cleanups or improvement. The splice cut, color imperfections, dirt, and overall pretty poor clarity are there for the watching. These were also the first editions of SW and ESB that were presented on 3 sides and not time compressed.

The Definitive Edition were all CAV with each movie on 5 sides and basically the supplements on side 6 (plus a small bit at end of side 5 on a couple of the movies). The transfers were cleaned up, were much sharper, colors were much more natural. The main problem was the tendency of the DE to rot and end up with snow speckles in the video. The 1st pressing also has 8 seconds of basically meaningless video inexcuseably left out at the beginning of side 3 of ESB. The extras are pretty basic, the second audio track supplements are basically useless, the included book is OK but nothing special.

The 1995 "Faces" were THX approved and were supposed to be the same transfers as the DE except on 3 CLV sides. There is also a 3 part interview with GL and Leonard Maltin divided up for the 3 releases. The interview is a puff piece, but is interesting for those who don't hate Lucas for various reasons. There's nothing even reasonably contentious there, but it is kind of fun to listen to GL at least once or twice. Specifically, I do think there are a couple differences in the Faces release other than the fact that they aren't prone to rot as far as I know. The transfer was obviously reworked a bit and there is a distinctly redder/warmer tint to the Faces set than the DE. Unless you have seen them A/B or know the DE like the back of your hand, it is difficult to pickup on, but I have no doubt about the finding (I've checked multiple copies of both on a Pioneer 503, 704, and CLD99 now and it is consistent). The CAV DE is also very slightly sharper than the Faces set though again it is difficult to pick up without a direct A/B. Tim Glover first pointed it out to me and I've confirmed it with several people since then. It is pretty subtle overall, but it is distinct.

Without going the bootleg route, the LD is still the best way to watch the Original Trilogy whether it be the DE or Faces set. You'll also hear about the Japanese and US Pioneer releases of the Faces set. The Japanese Kuraray plant likely produced the best discs ever and rotted discs from their plant were virtually nonexistant though I have had a very few bad discs from there (excessive dropouts, poor quality) though much lower deficiency rate than any other plant. Overall I have found the Japanese produced set slightly cleaner (less dropouts, a bit less video noise), but overall slightly darker presentation than the US set. The US pressed set is generally very good from this era, but if you watch enough of them you will find some differences. The average K-pressed discs are slightly better than the average US pressed discs, but there is a significant overlap b/w the plants. The transfers are identical, but there is a production quality difference since the Kuraray plant was the pinnacle of LD production and eventually produced most of the later special editions and almost all of the DTS discs which definately had the best audio/video/quality control of any LD's ever produced.

My 4 cents.

 

[Jay Pennington]

The previous CAV P&S releases were not time compressed. I can confirm the CLV ESB one was (I never had CLV P&S versions of the other films). The CAV P&S version of Jedi does have an image that is ever-so-slightly squished vertically, though.

Good post, though!

 

[Julien WILK]

Wow, thanks for this great support on the forums

Laserdisc Dabatase LDDB.com

Keep these shiny discs spinning for the years to come, some might become very collectable for many different reasons.

The Database is here to help you track down with re-re-re-release of some title is THE edition you are looking for.

If you are still looking for some rare Japanese titles, maybe I can be of some help since I'm living in Tokyo. AC3 Demod, LD Player and MUSE Deco possible too.

Regards,
Julien

 

[Julien WILK]

Actually the definition of "black" on LD was different in US and in Japan. That might explain the difference.

But I agree that, for quality pressing, Kurary is the best. Last Pioneer Japan also ranked high in quality.

Rgds,
Julien

 

[greg_t]

True, but the Star Wars LD in question were pressed in Japan for the U.S. Market, so maybe their black level is near the same? A LD like The Phantom Menace I would expect to be different as it was pressed in Japa for Japanese market. I have two sets of the "Faces" trilogy, one set pressed in the U.S. and one set pressed at Kurray, and I don't see any really significant picture qualtiy difference between them. This is on a Pioneer Elite CLD79 into a Pioneer Elite 16x9.

Julien, do you ever come across any HLD-X9's in Tokoyo? New or used?

 

[Julien WILK]

Hello Greg,

X9 are not easy to find and it seems that there is a cyclic rythm in their availability on the second hand market. Sometimes you will find 2 or 3 X9 at the same time, then nothing more for weeks.

Currently none (not even on Yahoo Auctions Japan), the LD-S9 are coming back, and many Combi H9, 909 and 919.

I've never seen a new X9 (or only once but it was BIN'ed before I could type my bid password!) and a few used, always from 1996 -- as is mine.

HiVision LD auctions are going crazy right now. $500+ for "Back to the Future 3" a few days ago.

Regards,
Julien

 

[Tony Kwong]

I'm keeping just about every disc I ever bought, even rotters so I can submit them to the LDDB! I'm still buying them at flea markets and used record/book stores and I dont think I can stop, because they are so cheap.

I cannot believe the prices for the X9. That's why I'm happy because I bought a new X9 2 years ago, for under $2,500 shipped no less!

That's a crazy price, I'd never spend that much on a MUSE film. A documentry, scenery maybe...

I know I have not been contributing as much high quality LD covers as usual, been moving about a bit.

BTW Where's the monthy mailing Julien?