Laser rot? Defective laserdisc? Player problem? (1 Viewer)

[Jay Sylvester]

I received my first batch of LDs the other day, and with great excitement I tossed in Tommy Boy. It played great at first, but upon reaching the latter part of the first side it started exhibiting problems.

All across the screen, there are these wavy lines that look like some type of random interference, but they're very well defined if I pause the movie, and they look exactly the same when I play through a scene repeatedly. The next thing I saw were some very obvious horizontal white lines, almost like static, flickering on and off. I then noticed that the player was making some very odd noises which freaked me out. I skipped over the rest of the first side and jumped to the second side. Nowhere on the second side of the disc do I see any of these problems; everything is clear and sharp from beginning to end.

This is the first disc that has given me these problems. I checked the surface, and it appears clean. I don't see any obvious indicators of laser rot, but it's not always visible right? I'm most worried though because the player itself was making such odd noises while trying to track the disc. It has never done it before though, and only does it toward the end of the first side of Tommy Boy.

Anyone know what the problem is? I'm dying to see the "fat guy in a little coat" sequence, but can't get to it because it sounds like my player is dying when I get to that point in the movie. I'm afraid I'll kill it.

 

[RobertR]

What you describe doesn't sound like laser rot. Rot is typically manifested as white speckles in the picture, and it doesn't cause the kind of noises you're describing. It sounds more like some other problem with the disc, such as warping.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Rot is typically manifested as white speckles in the picture

In my experience, white speckles usually indicate pressing defects. Laser rot usually manifests itself as colored snow.

Wavy lines are neither. The phenomenon is called "crosstalk", and it almost always results from tracking errors. The errors can be caused by a warp in the disc, a misalignment of the laser pickup, or some combination of the two. If it's a warp, flattening the disc between two heavy sheets of a glass for a day or two can improve the situation. If it's a misalignment, the only solution is professional service.

M.

 

[Jay Sylvester]

Well I'm guessing that since almost every other disc I play is perfect from beginning to end, it's probably a problem with the disc. I did have one other disc, can't remember which one now, that exhibited the wavy lines, but only slightly, and very briefly. Nothing like this mess.
I don't happen to have two heavy sheets of glass in my possession, so it looks like this one is destined for the dumpster :frowning:
Thanks guys.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Even better than the 2 sheets of glass alone is to bake the glass and disc in the oven at a LOW setting (shoot for 110 degrees if you can do it) for about 15 minutes, then put some heavy stuff on top of the laserdisc sandwich when you take it out. Let it sit for a day and it will be good as new.
Well, some people have tried it. I've never needed to.
But a couple of people on USENET used to swear by it. I'm not making this up....

 

[Steven K]

Speaking of crosstalk, my LD player is showing horrible crosstalk. Is there any way besides having it professionally serviced to fix this phenomenon? Is there a FAQ or something out there?

The price of having the LD serviced is probably as much as buying a new player... that is, if I could even find anyone who would be able to service it.

 

[alan halvorson]

Steven: No, it must be professionally serviced - no way you can do it yourself without knowledge and equipment. But I'd recommend, instead, a different machine if you can swing it. It's my opinion that an alignment won't be enough to get rid of the crosstalk and that even if it is, it will have to be done again sometime in the near future.

Jay, it sounds to me like a tracking problem. Mike said it very well. The noise you hear is the player trying to find the track. If you ever hear it again, stop the player immediately! Many years ago, my player severly mistracked on an LD I bought used, similar (but worse) to what your player did. The net result was that my machine sent a DC pulse through my DC-coupled amplifiers (that means that there are no capacitors in the signal path or across the speaker outputs, meaning that the amplifier could pass a speaker-destroying DC signal!). Fortunately, my amplifiers contained other circuity that muted the outputs when a DC signal above a set threshold is detected, which worked perfectly.

So, a word of caution.

 

[AdrianJ]

In my experience, white speckles usually indicate pressing defects.

I noticed that in my copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail that it has white speckles throughout the movie. Does that mean that I have a defective pressing of it? Is there anything that can be done with these laser discs?

 

[Michael Reuben]

Is there anything that can be done with these laser discs?

With the disc itself? 'Fraid not.

M.

 

[AdrianJ]

Well, I think exchanging it is probably out of the question since I bought it off Ebay. It's not very distracting, but I was wondering what caused it.

Is there anyone else out there with this Disc that has the same problem?

 

[Chris PC]

Sorry to hear about the bad experience with Tommy Boy. One of my all time fave movies. My Copy is fine. I guess you could have the surface buffed or cleaned, but it does sound like you might have a flukey bad copy with severe localized rot or some other defects. Remember not to get to frustrated with it if its only the one disc. If you have a DVD player, Tommy Boy's not too expensive from what I recall.