Laserdisc is my new god (1 Viewer)

[Jesse Blacklow]

So I haven't ever seen Indiana Jones in a digital format before. Big deal, right?

The CLD-D505 arrives yesterday, with a couple discs. I hook it up to my parent's old 27" and mediocre but RF-capable Sony receiver. Nice Dolby Digital on ID4, but the picture is almost VHS compared to my DVD. Oh well, had to wake up early anyway.

I get home today and find the wonderfully packaged WS Last Crusade on my doorstep. I hook up the '505 to my HK AVR320 (analog only...oh well) and 32" Wega. Kablam! Good god, I haven't seen or heard Indy look this sweet since I saw it in the theaters. And this is an average player? On analog connections? Let me just say that there needs to be a smiley that's the equivalent of when anime characters have a river of joyful tears coming down their faces. Oh, and did I mention I had the system set up for 7.1? Logic7, I salute you and your sweet, sweet matrixing.

Fellow laserdisc owners, I bathe in the rainbow light of the big disc.

Just thought I'd gush. I'll probably die of bliss when I get the Holy Trilogy. For now, I return to the light of the TV screen. Yes, it's that good.

 

[Rachael B]

Jesse, next you need to build a stone alter so you can make some sacrafices. I'd suggest burning a few nonanamorphic DVD's. That should apease the proper deities! Best wishes!

 

[Chris*Liberti]

Not sure if you will find what I did. Everyone tells me to hook up the composite connection to the TV since most TVs now have a better comb filter than the laserdisc player. I did this and the picture was horrible. I tried the S-video connection from my 704 and the picture is a lot better.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

And, of course, you still haven't because Laserdisc video is analog.

-Vince

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Doh, I guess I meant optical. Either way it's still kickass. That is a provable fact. I have the documentation right here.
Now I'm seeing Elite CLD-99s on eBay and my wallet runs away screaming. But one day, it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

 

[alan halvorson]

Dave Anderson had a LD-S9 for sale here recently for a very reasonable price (for an LD-S9) - check Hardware For Sale. Maybe he hasn't Ebay'ed it yet. An LD-S9 is essentially a bit more advanced Elite CLD-99 that was produced only for the Japanese market, but some members (including me) own one.

 

[Ralph Bru]

TV's def make a difference. I have a 25" 1998 tv with my 505 hooked up composttie and it looked horrible. hooked it up s-video and it looked great!
now my 704 on the same tv looked horrible on s-video but on composite was a dream. logic of it all ? just makes no sense to me.
BTW: I have all the indy discs and my thought is raiders looked awful, even on my 704 with vdnr. but doom and last crusade look excellent. especially last crusade, that looks great, and the sounds on all of them are glorious!
I guess raiders was just age of when the film was made. all the discs were brand new purchased.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I'm jealous. I have been toying with the idea of getting LD *just* to get the Star Wars trilogy... Don't know if I can wait for the DVDs...

 

[Ralph Bru]

kevin its worth it! I paid $250 for my 704 (i wouldnt get anything less) and alot for my discs as I bought at a time they were hot. $150 for the trilogy sealed kurray and $150 for the raiders. but in the end SW was worth it all. to justify it just think a handful of times going to the movies with your chick and drinks and popcorn. adds up except you will have something of value you can always sell and gt your money back on. personally the originals will never be on dvd so ill buy the se when they come out and keep my ld and original discs.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Ralph:

I just got the Definitive Collection in excellent condition off ebay for $85 including shipping. And I just got the AOTC DVD yesterday, which is the first time I've seen any SW film at home in 5.1 sound and anamorphic WS. Now I've got to build up my Criterion LD collection.

The thing with composite vs svid is wierd. Composite uses the monitor's comb filter, svid uses the player's. Your 704 should have as good or better comb filter than the 505 (I think), and should look better through svid with older TVs. Personally, I'm running composite into my 32" Wega with a 3-line (not 3-d) filter, and it looks great. I haven't tried a svid cable yet, but my guess is the 505 has a worse filter than the TV. That'll be the case unless you have an Elite 99 or Japanese player with 3-d filter.

 

[PaulBigelow]

Hello,

At one point I had a working Philips 27KV291 IDTV and
Philips CDV-488. It was a treat to have a progressive
scan TV in 1990 paired with this LD player. Sadly, the
IDTV fried its HV transformer a few years back and there
is no replacement. The CDV-488 is still going strong.
A reference LD player then and it still holds up today.

Still the only way to enjoy Indiana Jones, Back to the
Future, and Lawrence of Arabia (Criterion CAV). Long
live Disco-Vision!

 

[Tom Blizzard]

Geeeeeee Jessee,
This thread is WONDERFUL. I'm having such feelings of nostalgia. I feel like I've stepped back in time about 5 years. In case you can't tell by the "tone" of my voice, I'm very serious! :star:
I was going upstairs to watch AOTC, but now I'm going to go watch all three Indiana Jones Movies!!
Thanks Jessie for posting.
Regards, Tom B.

 

[Ralph Bru]

I dont get it either jesse. couldnt figure it out but the eyes dont lie.

 

[Ted Lee]

dumb question:

And, of course, you still haven't because Laserdisc video is analog.

i don't get it. isn't a ld digital too? isn't a laser-beam reading pits and converting binary data just like from a cd or dvd?

 

[Christ Reynolds]

the Laserdisc FAQ is THE site you want to go to if you have questions about LD. i thought the same thing as you but in my many hours browsing alt.video.laserdisc i found that the video is actually analog. but read from the disc digitally? i may have this wrong. anyway check out the link, and the newsgroup if you can.
CJ

 

[Ted Lee]

cool link christ. it appears that the guy gave up on keeping it current, but the info still looks solid. i didn't see anything specific to my question, but it's not a deal-breaker for me.
i guess even though it's a digital medium, somehow the source or conversion is done in the analog domain?
hmm...

 

[Chris Brown]

It's not binary data, it's encoded pulse FM.

Just like a Vinyl record is analog, this is also, just read using a laser.

 

[Ted Lee]

ahh....that's all i needed to know. now it makes sense. i always thought it was digital data.

thx chris.

 

[Philip Hamm]

The sound on most "modern" laserdiscs is digital, either PCM at the same bitrate as CD (which sounds frickin' incredible compared to the typical DD2.0 stereo soundtrack we get on DVD) or DD or DTS (replacing the PCM tracks). There's also ol' skool LaserDisc analog audio but I wouldn't worry myself about that. It also sounds very good when well done, works like FM stereo radio only better.

LaserDisc is awesome. I have 500+ of them and on my old system they sound and look as good as ever. I wouldn't be without it. THe Indy Trilogy is fantastic, the sound is over the top.

 

[Chris*Liberti]

Basically think of the laserdisc as a high teck LP. The laser reads the digital audio but on the video it is more or less working like the stylus on a record player except instead of the variation being with regard to depth it is in regards to width I believe)