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. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    my friend had thousands of LD and lost his shirt trying to sell them...he said DVD blew most of them away...although there are still some LD that have more bonus features and have not yet turned up in any digital format. I can see why some ppl still love them...I skipped the whole LD thing...was too expensive for my liking...
     
  2. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    great feeling when that rarely happens!
     
  3. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I used to score a few big ticket items at thrifts every year. Certain VHS, LPs, etc. but in the last 5 years or so it is extremely tough. Vinyl has dried up badly.

    I've found speakers and quickly done a Google search for reviews..... only to find horrid ratings. Tall towers that look quite nice and older, yet poor reviews, unsold on the bay.
     
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  4. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I usually found great CDs and DVDs that I wanted for peanuts, but never any that would command big bucks...these days there are dealers that go to thrift shops early armed with phone scanners that gobble up anything they can sell for a profit.
     
  5. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I think parts availability is the biggest issue. It's usually the case with every obsolete technology that replacement parts become unobtainable at some point, but there are almost always at least a handful of people who retain the requisite knowledge and skills to perform repairs, if they can source the parts. With LD players, there are some critical parts (like laser pickup assemblies) that eventually wear out, aren't being made anymore, and aren't easily reproducible in a manner that would make economic sense.

    There are still at least two highly-qualified laserdisc service resources that I'm aware of - Bayview Electronics in Olympia, Washington (http://www.laserdiscservice.com/), and Kurtis Bahr, who services, repairs, and refurbishes players as a hobby. Anyone who's ever been on the various laserdisc forums over the years probably knows Kurtis. He can currently be found on the AVS forums.
     
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  6. weaselriot

    weaselriot Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    Until at least the end of the 20th century, when the availability of DVD titles was only just starting to really bloom, LD was THE gold standard for high end home video enjoyment. DVD did provide a better picture, even if compressed to varying degrees depending on bit rate, but only for titles actually available. DVD still provided only a 25% increase in resolution over LD (compared to Beta's nearly 50% increase over VHS, which nobody but me apparently seemed to notice). And there was still some tradeoff on the sound, particularly on music titles, the majority of which never made it to DVD in any event. It took Blu-Ray to really change the game. Expense was high but I was able to enjoy better viewing and listening when I was much younger than I am now.

    Then again, I am a person who stuck with Beta through the end of 1996, switching to Hi8 VCRs for recording until DVD-R arrived at the end of 2001. I have never once regretted it. When I transferred my sports archive on Beta and Hi8 to DVD-R, the result remains so much more watchable, even on a bigger screen plasma display, than VHS ever could be.

    Even in the early 1970s, when I was still in high school, I ported the line audio out from my Heathkit color TV through Dynaco to my Advent speakers. Gearhead from birth, apparently.

    The Cubans would tell you they have no problem keeping a '57 (or even older) Buick running. The streets of Havana are full of them. I have a gut feeling, though, that sixty years of worker's paradise has not likely made them similarly adept at maintaining LD players.

    That is all the more reason to copy those rare titles over to digital files or DVD-R while it is still possible. Watching (and listening to) "Take the Highway", "Pack Up the Plantation", "Delicate Sound of Thunder" and the like on YouTube is not a future I wish to embrace. And that bus is getting ready to leave the station.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2016
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  7. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I know. I owned a laserdisc player in 1979 and wrote about the format and reviewed discs for 20 years for 11 different magazines. I probably owned about 15 or 20 different players during that time and wound up with somewhere north of 10,000 laserdiscs when the format finally crashed and burned at the end of the 1990s. I also mastered several hundred studio films that were released on laserdisc, including at least 70 or 80 THX titles. And I had a Betamax in March of 1976, which led to me writing as West coast editor for Video Review magazine for most of the late 1970s and 1980s.

    So yeah, I'm already aware of what you're talking about. And if you do a search on the forum, you've seen that dozens of times, I've told people that they should transfer highly rare laserdisc titles to digital files as soon as they can to prepare for the day when either a) the discs rot away or b) the players stop playing.
     
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  8. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    DVDs are good for me.
    Reluctant to buy BD titles ( only 3D now) firmware meh, so no biggie. Laser discs looked impressive 30 years ago, but they were lp sized.
     
  9. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I recently captured some laser discs to fresh AVI files for the pending arrival of my music server that does video. I paid special attention to getting audio levels perfect this time. These files are going to server hard drives as their final resting place. No DVD-Rs this time.

    My Panasonic LX 900 purred like a kitten through every disc. You know something, I think getting the player warmed up and playing 10 or 15 sides is a good thing to do at least twice a year. It keeps the parts moving and grooving.
     
  10. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    yes, but DVD was just a blessings compared to the LP size of LD...better pic regardless and size made it all worth it to many...
     
  11. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    DVD was a huge improvement over LD, though there seems to be a growing audience for collecting LDs due to the large cover art and packaging. I still go through the used discs when I find them, but unless the price is under $3 or a desirable music title I probably won't buy it.
     
  12. weaselriot

    weaselriot Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    I absolutely agree about the convenience and size of DVD over LD, which similar to the advantage of CD over LP, but all the more so because of the much greater weight of an LD over LP. Shipping cost, storage space, portability all enter into it. And it DID offer a better picture in the vast majority of cases (with some notable exceptions), though mandatory previews and menu negotiation can be a pain. I dove in during summer 1998 with an LD/DVD combo player (Pioneer Elite DVL-91), obviously still hedging my bets.

    I boycotted Circuit City about DIVX as well. Nobody needed to pay each time they watch, and worry about their kids putting a DIVX in and watching 10 minutes of several discs every Saturday morning with parents sleeping upstairs, resulting in a huge credit card bill at the end of the month. Also no need of Big Brother knowing what I am watching. And no spam telemarketing calls, or robocalls from a pizza joint asking if I need a pizza after I load the disc. Going out of business is exactly what Circuit City deserved.


    Cover art and packaging for SOME titles is an attraction to me, but not enough to buy for that reason alone. Mostly it is desirable titles that never made it to DVD or Blu-Ray, and titles where sound is of great importance. Music performance titles just happen to fall under both categories. Otherwise it is for the other reasons I cited. I am keeping a few of the CAV titles for access to each and every frame of top films, and hilarious animation gags inserted by subversive animators.
     
  13. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Many of the later MGM releases have great painted cover art, similar to what they were doing on VHS at the same time but in a much nicer format with gate fold covers. Criterion are hit or miss, as many of their releases are just stills from the movie with a bland border around them, though they got much better towards the end. Disney's box sets were fantastic.

    I think the worst studios were Universal and Fox, with most titles just being a frame from a famous scene slapped onto the cover.
     
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  14. captainsolo

    captainsolo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Murfreesboro, TN
    It's something to tinker with. They only work well when you are dedicated and have a nice 4:3 higher end CRT running 480i, and then with a good comb filter. Some have grabbed TBCs and they seem to make a big difference. I'd give it a go if I ever find one. Currently I enjoy LD for what it is, and the big draw for me is the usually un-tinkered with audio. The digital PCM tracks are my big draw, along with some films being without the revisionist color timing they got on newer releases. Of course you have to deal with things like tape damage and the usage of IPs and prints at times along with poor encoding on some discs, but it's a charming thing for me. i'm just tired of people trying to rip me off. I'd rather spend some money on a better player than the ridiculous prices some people ask for discs.

    Speaking of which I need to get a good solid stand for my 32" Sony CRT so I can fire it up again for LDs and old games. Any suggestions on a cheap stand for big old CRTs? nobody seems to have one locally any longer.

    I'll certainly try them via an upscaler on my xbr960, but so far LD works only in SD on a CRT. The upscaler in the 960 is very good but also underlines all of LDs inherent problems. When properly setup via Video Essentials, LDs will rival early DVDs or ones that are poorly encoded. Otherwise in the PQ department they lose on all technical levels. It's only when things are messed with by some folks later on that LDs come out superior. Audiowise is where LD can and frequently does win. I've done many direct comparisons with favorite films where LDs win out, even over BD. It just matters how well each disc was mastered and how much time and care went into the process. What I enjoy most is where the LD audio will largely be the master directly transferred over (with or without slight tape noise etc.) and will pummel DVD or BD because they are remixed for nearfield setups/phones etc. or a copy of some sort was used in mastering.

    My biggest draw now is collecting favorites for the PCM original audio which is only on DVD/BD in lossy DD or not at all. I HATE remixes, particularly for mono-only films. Some have never had their original tracks released and we are forever stuck with awful old stereoized tracks or tinny 5.1 remixes. (Bullitt and many others.)

    Agreed that collecting un-bastardized Disney CAV discs is fun, but each film has been manipulated for video on practically every release. It's a nightmare just trying to nail down what was done to each film over the years.

    Give LD a try and see if you like it. It's a never-ending hobby though.
     
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  15. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    For Dumbo on LD, you should get the original issue of it as it is unrestored, the original analog audio and in fact, the original theatrical prints look exactly the way it looks like on the LD. If you come across Academy ratio Disney films on LD with the same artwork as the original rental VHS releases, pick them up.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2016
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  16. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    I was lucky to have gotten just the right size stand for a large CRT at the right time when they still made those.
     
  17. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Last edited: Jan 26, 2016
  18. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    [​IMG]

    The unrestored LD of Dumbo using the original analog audio, flat from the theatrical print.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2016
  19. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    DIVX was a last ditch hope for total control...
     
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  20. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Most of the Japanese Kylie Minogue Laser Discs sell for between $AU70 and $AU200. You can't give away Madonna. ;)
     
  21. weaselriot

    weaselriot Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL



    No it isn't. It's just pining for the fjords...
     
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  22. weaselriot

    weaselriot Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL

    Well then, for those to whom rare LD titles (especially music) are important, what you are REALLY saying is NOT "don't get into laserdisc at all", but rather "do it soon, if not NOW, while you still can transfer those titles to digital or DVD-R". And for VHS/LD-only music titles, where sound actually trumps picture, the LD sound is still about as good as it gets. More importantly, for those Japan-only music titles which were never issued in US, VHS wouldn't even be an option anyway, even if one didn't mind the characteristic tracking problems for the AFM tracks, and an even worse picture.
     
  23. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    No, laserdisc is a dead format. I wouldn't suggest anybody get into it. But if you currently own laserdiscs, transfer them quickly before they rot and before the players no longer work. The iceberg is coming up fast, and it's gonna hit pretty hard.

    It is an ex-format! It's pushin' up the daisies! It has ceased to be!
     
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  24. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    Wow, LD there is a blast from the 30 year old past.
     
  25. quadjoe

    quadjoe Senior Member

    I love it!

    I haven't experienced any laser rot, yet and I have some fairly old discs. However, the player is another matter: I have nice ProScan player (a re-badged Pioneer, naturally) which is developing a sticky drawer. I have to press the button 3-4 times to cycle the mechanism before the drawer will open when I first try to use it. Once it opens, it will open reliably for the next viewing session, but I know that it's going to fail with a disc in the player at some point. I've looked on eBay for another player, but I really don't want to spend the money to transfer the handful of films I want from my collection to DVD. I suppose I should bite the bullet, but I also know that there's no guarantee that the player I'd buy would be in better shape than mine. I'd advise anyone to not get into LD, either. Once the hardware fails (and it all will), there will be no way to watch the discs. Unlike vinyl, there simply aren't enough discs in circulation to make it profitable for anyone to manufacture new players. The problem isn't about the electronics either: it's about the mechanical parts of the players. There are simply no reliable sources for replacement parts, and what supply there is (mostly Pioneer parts) is diminishing steadily.
     
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