Are laserdiscs worth getting or am I better off with DVDs?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by AxC., Feb 15, 2014.

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  1. mdm08033

    mdm08033 Senior Member

    Apocalypse Now.
    Guns n Roses in Tokyo
    Heat.
     
  2. The Hud

    The Hud Breath of the Kingdom, Tears of the Wild

    The only one of those I own is Apocalypse Now, but it is on Blu-Ray. Sounds great, though.
     
  3. Rachael Bee

    Rachael Bee Miembra muy loca

    Nearly every LD with Digital Sound exceeded DVD. There were some botched titles, especially before Dolby Surround became the standard. I got DVD in '97 and I was disappointed in the audio from the start.
     
    MikeJedi likes this.
  4. TeacFan

    TeacFan Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Arcadia, Ca.
    I still have my Pioneer LD CLD-M90 in my rack. Bought it thinking the carousel function would be value added as it played CDs. Was not inexpensive and I thought I was cutting edge. Still works but is slow & sounds like a thrashing machine. Do not use it much but have a few classical music selections I still play. Never scored the Let It Be disc. I guess the Japanese market for this was amazing. I remember when Pioneer had their blow-out disc sale at the warehouse in Long Beach when they were getting out of the biz The line to get in was around the building and stuff was stacked on pallets. Got Anthology for cents on the dollar. They had LOTS of them.
     
  5. MikeJedi

    MikeJedi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    Top gun , Star Wars trilogy, abyss , Star Trek films to start with
     
  6. The Hud

    The Hud Breath of the Kingdom, Tears of the Wild

    Huh, never would have guessed that. I never had a LD player, so I didn't know what I was missing.
     
  7. Well, LaserDisc with analogic sound are intresting. "Elkie Brooks: Perals, the video shows" sound acceptable too good. A kind of vynil (not phisically compared, since L.D. is an optical discs and is made from more slicesc) that dosen't weres out because of fricition with a stilus.
     
  8. Rachael Bee

    Rachael Bee Miembra muy loca

    On some of the late days LD's, you had your choice of the superb PCM or the lossy AC-3 (Dolby Digital) 5.1 , both great choices. The DVD's of older movies that were mostly 1 or 2 channels that sounded great in PCM really stunk when turned into Dolby Digital. I'm glad Blu-ray came along fairly promptly. I was never all that enamored with the DVD format.
     
    mdm08033 likes this.
  9. mdm08033

    mdm08033 Senior Member

    You nailed it.
     
  10. Rachael Bee

    Rachael Bee Miembra muy loca

    I think that the most disappointing DVD I ever bought was .....Dr. Phibes. On the LD his organ was powerful with deep bass. On the DVD it sounded like a bad cassette recording.
     
    melstapler, Shawn and mdm08033 like this.
  11. Jeff Edwards

    Jeff Edwards Senior Member

    I was incredibly disappointed with DVD sound in the early days, coming from laserdisc.

    I have never understood why Dolby Digital or DTS coming from a DVD should be worse than from a Laserdisc, but they were.
     
    mdm08033 likes this.
  12. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Aside from Abyss, all those titles have noticeably better DVD/Blu-ray equivalents. Yes, even Star Wars (1977 version!) if you know where to look.

    Higher bitrates for the audio, on the LD.
     
  13. mdm08033

    mdm08033 Senior Member

    Still patiently waiting for The Abyss.
     
  14. dbsea

    dbsea Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    I ran across a cheap Pioneer LD-V4400 on Craigslist the other day and decided to add some additional clutter to my media room :). I picked up Neil Young Unplugged and Sting Ten Summoner's Tales at a local record shop. At least on my TV, the video on these releases looks quite good considering the resolution. Both discs sound excellent.

    I'm only going to buy music stuff that hasn't been released on DVD and the non-special versions of the original Star Wars trilogy. All in all, I'm really digging having added a LD player to my setup.
     
    nokia2010 likes this.
  15. I'll get me this disc on saturday. Some one will bring me it from U.K.
     
  16. captainsolo

    captainsolo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Murfreesboro, TN
    I still get shocked at how many titles sound better on Laser. Sometimes I pick one up for dirt cheap just to compare and maybe keep for the artwork...then realize that it is superior in ways.
    Then there are the ones that best BDs. Mission Impossible, Heat, Apocalypse Now and others.
     
  17. bamaaudio

    bamaaudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    Paramount definitely was lazy with only offering a DD+ track on this one. A few countries do, however, offer the first three movies in DTS-HD and they're an improvement.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2016
  18. Combination

    Combination Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans
    Is this something where the tray comes out just fine, but when you go to put the disc in to play a movie, the tray stops on the way back in and makes a bad, creaky noise? I never found a solution to it either. All you can do is gently push the tray back in by hand...
     
  19. Jason Pumphrey

    Jason Pumphrey Forum Resident

    Will be moving in few months, I have a ton of LD's an old co worker gave me, sadly never viewed many of them, off to the curb they go, along with the Pioneer dual sided Pioneer player I bought from Goodwill.
     
  20. bamaaudio

    bamaaudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    The tray wouldn't open at all. I remember taking it to 3 different local repair techs who couldn't figure out how to solve the problem. Sadly, very few people are used to servicing these players.
     
  21. jimbags

    jimbags Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leeds
    Never knew these existed until recently. The big covers look cool if nothing else.
     
  22. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    If people are getting LDs cheap, then why not! People are now paying big bucks for 8-Tracks & Cassettes. What comes around......
     
  23. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I recently picked up another Pioneer CLD-99 to replace my ailing 99. The original player had developed issues with playing discs and I was unable to fix the problem after opening up the unit.

    The new 99 is in excellent shape and has barely been used. Unfortunately it has a loud squeal when a disc is first played. If I stop the player and restart it usually goes away. I've open the unit and lubricat obvious places but the squeal remains. Maybe it's the bearings in the clamping mechanism and I just need to disassemble and lubricate the piece or, worst case, take the parts out of my old 99?

    Anyone with experience with this issue?
     
  24. Rachael Bee

    Rachael Bee Miembra muy loca

    It sounds like the pad on the disc clamp has gotten slick and the LD slides on it. I think you rough up the pad a bit with an nail file.
     
  25. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Cleaning the pads on a Pioneer 703

    This references a 703 but the procedure is the same for a 99.
     
    DreadPikathulhu likes this.
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