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laserdisc players.Anyone on here using them? (1 Viewer)

Doug Bull

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My Pioneer Gold Laserdisc Player is still proudly connected to my Home Cinema set-up.
I replaced a lot of the discs with DVDs, but I still have a couple of hundred discs left including many prized box sets.

I travelled a long, long way back in the 90s to get these nostalgic shots of Ken Cranes.

kcrane.jpg

click on images for larger picture
kcranes.jpg


Those were indeed happy times.
 

Rob_Ray

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Doug,

Those pictures almost bring tears to my eyes. I made many friends in that room and others like it. Buying online somehow isn't the same. Thank goodness we can at least share our enthusiasm with the folks here at HTF.
 

Sumnernor

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I don't have any LDs but would suggest to people wanting to get rid of some, state first in a post here at HTF. There may some people interested.
 

Mark-P

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I lived in San Diego county at the time and used to drive 100 miles twice a year to Ken Crane's bi-annual sale, which believe it or not was only for 20% off retail. Everyday price was just 10% off retail. Times have changed!
 

Rob_Ray

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Mark-P said:
I lived in San Diego county at the time and used to drive 100 miles twice a year to Ken Crane's bi-annual sale, which believe it or not was only for 20% off retail. Everyday price was just 10% off retail. Times have changed!
I remember those sales quite well and used to meet many folks from San Diego while waiting for the doors to open up. This was when they were at their first location further north on Beach Blvd. I remember many of us lusting after Kevin Brownlow's Hollywood documentary box which was one of the featured products of one sale, where it was priced at an incredibly low $99.99. It's one of my prized laserdiscs to this day.
 

Doug Bull

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More on Ken Cranes and our visit in October 1994.

I remember there was also a large Ken Cranes TV & Video shop over the road and we had lunch at Jack in the Box which I think was next door.

My Wife and I also visited and bought Laserdiscs at the A01 Video shop, Warehouse CDs &Video, not to mention every Tower Records Shop we came across. (Especially the one in Anaheim and the one near the University in Phoenix Arizona)

By the end of the trip our suitcases were bulging with Laserdiscs and I remember my Wife wanted to buy a small porcelain figure in Taos, but I told her there was no more room. She has never forgotten or forgiven me. ;)

kcrane3.jpg

Click on image above should give a larger picture.

kcrane4.jpg

The blue bag on the counter contains the Snow White box set plus lots of other goodies.

Doug.
 

Charles Smith

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Love these pictures. Keep them coming, please!

Does anyone have anything from Ken Crane's on Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance?

There was a laserdisc store in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago when I lived there for just over a year in 1985/86... much like Ken Crane's, with every laserdisc, plus players, new and secondhand... the name will eventually come to me. Greatest place ever.

Those were incredible years.
 

Rob_Ray

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Charles Smith said:
Love these pictures. Keep them coming, please!

Does anyone have anything from Ken Crane's on Hawthorne Blvd. in Torrance?

There was a laserdisc store in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago when I lived there for just over a year in 1985/86... much like Ken Crane's, with every laserdisc, plus players, new and secondhand... the name will eventually come to me. Greatest place ever.

Those were incredible years.
The Ken Crane's store on Hawthorne Blvd in Torrance was an electronics hardware store owned by Ken Crane, Sr. as part of chain throughout Southern California. They carried laserdiscs as sort of an afterthought with a selection similar to that found in other stores where the focus was on the hardware. The laserdisc store was owned and run by Ken Crane, Jr. until he sold it to, I believe, Image, sometime in the early to mid 90s. I would sometimes see Ken Jr. having dinner at the Hof's Hut across the street from the store. We laserdisc collectors were on a first name basis with staff and other customers. Such was the niche market in those days.

But would I trade those days for what we have today with BluRay and the hundreds of titles available through the Warner Archive? Not really. I miss seeing the huge selection of large shrink-wrapped classic Hollywood product staring back at me from the shelves. And sure, we complain about slow release schedules, the lack of extras and the cheapness of DVD and BluRay packaging, but remember high prices, disc-flipping and laser rot? No matter how superb the laserdisc transfer was, you would always find speckling and color noise even in the best transfers of that analog world. I still have my laserdiscs and my memories, but it's BluRay that I watch in the evening.
 

SilverWook

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Laserdisc often still gets the last laugh when it comes to uncompressed original theatrical sound mixes though.

My DTS LD of Mortal Kombat blows the Blu Ray audio mix out of the water.
 

Gary Seven

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I watched Highlander 2 Renegade Version LD last night. Not as good as the first but a fun watch nonetheless. The DD track was quite good and the packaging is excellent.
 

Tina_H_V

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I have numerous LD players, a few AC-3 RF demodulators and about 500 LD titles. I really enjoy having and watching laserdiscs in my home theaters and continue to add a few titles on an as-I-go basis. They co-exist nicely with all the other formats I have going on in my theaters (Blu-ray Disc, HD/DVD, D/VHS and cable HDTV). Upon seeing those Ken Cranes Laserdisc store photographs, now I wish I had gotten into the format sooner in the 1990s than when I finally did in that decade. But once I got into laserdisc, I did so gladly and happily--as I accordingly remain so to this day!!!!!
 

Charles Smith

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Good sentiments, Rob_Ray.The reason I remember the Hawthorne Blvd. store are that I bought my first "real" TV there, the LARGE (25") Mitsubishi monitor with separate tuner and control box in 1984. I finally let it go in 2010.But though the place was mainly electronics, that's also where I splurged on my first laserdiscs, one favorite still being The Magnificent Ambersons.
 

Rob_Ray

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I bought some of my earliest laserdiscs at Big Ben Records and Tapes around 1983. And when in L.A.'s South Bay in later years, I would check out the Tower Records on Hawthorne Blvd.
 

Moe Dickstein

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i know the store you mean in Chicago - that was my source. It was in Park Ridge and I believe it was called "Laser Audio/Video". They later moved to another location and went out of business in the late 90s I believe.I bought my Pioneer 1776 there and many others when I could save up enough and get my mom to drive 40 minutes each way. When I got a car I got out there a bit more often, and there was also a rental place in Mt. Prospect that had all kinds of rare discs I would rent and tape off. I still have 3 players and one on the way, I only paid for one of them, and it was $10 at a garage sale, the other three were given to me in lieu of the dumpster. I've got 70 Criterion discs (of 322, and eventually want to have them all) and about 50-60 other discs. I used to have more actually but they've been lost and I still have several back at my moms house. They're great for the artwork, the exclusive content, and even occasionally to watch ;)
 

YANG

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Oh yeah... YEAH!
Count me in, not giving up on my LDs.
My collection was recently given a new lease of life by a Mitsubishi Laserdisc player which i had picked up during some company's dumping of expired assets, with little image defect(kind of disturbance on the left side of the screen where vertical lines are observed, affecting about 5% of the whole movie image presentation), The player seems to be kind of high-end stuff, and rose wood decoration on the sides, with auto-reverse playability.
With both optical and coaxial as well as AC3 RF digital output connection sound was compensated by connection from the optical output of the player to the recently acquired PHILIPS SOUNDBAR that accepts optical connection input.
YES!!! Laserdisc's DTS digital surround from the digital track can be reproduced thru the soundbar's on board digital surround decoder!

Been rocking my home with these discs since last week, during the weekends.
Last week's program:
APOCALYPSE NOW(non-R.E, Dolby Surr edition)
TWISTER(THX-ed, S.W.E)

Yesterday:
LONG KISS GOODNIGHT(listened to DTS)
SPACE JAM(DB Surround)

Today:
THE FUGITIVE(DB Surround)
U.S Marshals(DB Surround)

Hmm... what's for next week...?
Maybe a FOX/Cameron Saturday, with THE ABYSS D.C R.E, and TRUELIES
or a RON HOWARD Sunday with BACKDRAFT and APOLLO 13
 

Matt Hough

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I played last weekend the laser of Raintree County which I recently acquired on Ebay. Color was much stronger than I was expecting.
 

David_B_K

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I am now back to having a back-up player. My Pioneer CLD-D406 has been sitting in the attic for several years. I bought it new back in the late 90's. One day a few years ago, it would not power on. So, I stored it and brought out my RCA LDR-310. It's been bothering me that I was down to my last player, so I started looking on ebay. I almost re-purchased a used Pioneer of the same model, when I decided to google the "won't power on" problem. On several archived posts, the name Kurtis Bahr kept coming up as an expert at repairing and advising others on how to repair their own laserdisc players. With his guidance, I now have my Pioneer operating again, and the RCA is back in the attic. I much prefer the Pioneer, as it plays both sides and has a digital optical out and AC3 out. Thank goodness I didn't toss the Pioneer to the curbside when it didn't power on!
 

Randy Korstick

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Wow What a blast from the past with those Ken Cranes photos. I was a regular shopper there from 1986 to 1999. I remember those employees very well. I used to have well over 2,000 LD's which were bought in that 14 year period. I'm down to about a thousand now. Sold many on e-bay over the past 12 years but I will probably keep the majority of what I have left. Still love my LD's although I seldom watch one. I have two players a Pioneer Elite and a Pioneer CLD-919 that plays DVD's and Laserdiscs.
 

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