Siskel And Ebert : The Difference Between VHS And Laserdisc

someone was making big money on vhs! but, the high price was due to the rental market...many early VHS movies were only available to rent...O' how times have changed!

 

every Christmas we bought our Son the latest gaming "system"if a new one was out that year...they were not cheap! add the games and we're talkin lots of coin...

 

I heard that something akin to that happened at Fox. I read on the AVS Forum about a decade ago that the top management at Fox did not know that I Robot and a bunch of other Fox titles were on D-Theater tape. They promptly forbid anymore Fox D-Theater tapes. The demise of the fledgling format happened soon after this episode.

 

I think D-VHS was dead the moment the studios saw the prototypes for Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

 

I bought LD because the sound was so much better then VHS back then. Now I can pick up used LD's for $5.00.

 

I bought a player to take advantage of LaserDisc rentals. I never wanted to pay for or own the discs, but there was a place in the Boston suburbs that had a humongous collection, including lots of Japanese discs not released here, like "The Great Rock and Roll Swindle" and Japanese pron with the naughty bits fuzzed out. If I remember right they had a special where you'd get three or four discs for a week for probably less than $10.

 

I remember very early the prices to buy VHS for first rate movies was in the $89 range for retail sales. We had a store here called "Video Concepts" and I remember talking my dad into buying me "The Empire Strikes Back" for that price. I still have that copy.

 

Oh come on, what about CED discs?

Actually, what a disaster that was! How those things got released is beyond me, but I fell for it because the movies were cheaper than laserdisc. With good reason it turned out! Loved laser though...a fun time to be a movie collector.

 

Ken Cranes Laserdisc in CA almost always had copies of that on sale as imports.

 

I used to go laserdisc shopping just about every weekend. The discovery of new titles was awfully fun as dvds werent out yet. I remember being shocked when there it was, in all its glory...my favorite show in a box set...an import of Columbo! A whopping six episodes for the low low, low low price of just $250! And I bought it! What a sucker. But wait, theres more! I went to see a Columbo seminar in Hollywood a few years later and Peter Falk signed it! I thought I was so cool...I was SURE he would give me an inquisitive look, wondering what this cool special thing was and that he would want to talk to me for hours about what laserdiscs were while signing it for me. Yes, I would hog up all his time while others waited in line, making a new friend! Ha...he barely noticed. But, I got his signature right across the front and still have the box set to this day. And I doubt the set is even worth half what I paid for it...with his signature!

 

Say what you will about laserdiscs, but they were the premier home video format for 20 years.

DVDs were out for how long before blu-rays superseded them as the top format - less than 10 years? And something else will come along that will made blu-rays seem old hat.

20 years is a heck of a run. And I think the fact LDs were a niche format in the USA allowed for more of a variety of titles (letterbox, special editions, etc.) because the powers-that-be were probably unaware certain things were getting released. (For example, the old "Golden Age of Looney Tunes" sets had cartoons that WB would never release to the more mainstream audience of DVDs. In fact, things only got derailed for the LDs years later after Turner/MGM reissued the first collection on VHS (LT/MM fans are sure to know what I'm referring to).

Living in Japan, I was thrilled when complete sets of TV series came out on LD. The various boxed "perfect editions" were just that - including rare content that DVDs might now contain, but 20-25 years ago, you could never find on VHS, or lesser single-disc titles. (Getting all of Star Trek on LD was a $1500 expense. And I paid it, because the sets were so gorgeous.)

Back in the early 90's, LD shops in Japan resembled well-stocked record stores you'd see in the US. Thousands of titles to choose from. Definitely more of an established format than it ever became in the USA, and one that you'd never think would die.

Even now, I occasionally buy LDs, as there are still loads that have never been released on DVD, just as there are many old LPs never released on CD.

But, 20 years as the top format is fairly remarkable, IMO.

 

I enjoyed browsing the huge LD section at Tower Records. They always had plenty of interesting imports from Japan that never saw domestic release. The complete series sets were the best; I would have loved to own every episode of Star Trek or X-Files on LD.... but the prices!

I don't really see any mainstream physical format following Blu-ray. We're already seeing the demise of special features as most downloadable content doesn't have any. Specialty labels like Criterion or Kino might stay active, but for the most part the major studios have stopped releasing catalog titles. The few physical media retailers that still exist have drastically reduced their stock and only carry the newest titles. I miss going to a large, well stocked music or movie store to browse and not have to worry about it being unavailable the next time I come in.

 

I think laserdisc releases were a lot more ecclectic...you never knew what you were going to find, and it seemed every week there were a lot of new titles. I think back then it was very exciting. Now we take it for granted, and I dont think many releases on dvd surprises us.

 

Wasn't Top Gun what really kicked off the massive prerecorded VHS movie sales for the masses? Paramount allowed a Pepsi commercial to be placed before the film and that help reduce to price around $25? Platoon was released at the same time with a $99.98 list price.

How much better did LD sound compared to Dolby Pro Logic via HiFi VHS? I was always impressed with the latter. I'd have to think Siskel & Ebert were talking about the LD sound improvement over VHS linear track audio, which is what the vast majority were still hearing in 1989.

 

There were several high-profile sell through titles released in the late 80's. Batman was a big one, as well as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? McDonald's also got into the act when you could pick up Raiders of the Lost Ark or Hoosiers for under $10 along with your McNuggets. Top Gun may have been one of the early ones.

It took a while for the studios to figure out that people wanted to own films on VHS.

 

Good lord, can that loading time on the LD player in the clip take any longer? And the mock up HDTV with the blue background is incredible.The tracking issue near the end brings wonderful memories. In the 90's we had a very good rental store called Boite Noire that had an incredible selection of LDs, and the old Sam the Record Man had a very good selection for sale as well. And being the good copier that I am, I used to pretty much transfer all those rental LDs to VHS.

 

This clip including the tracking issues is definitely proof that it is a period piece.

 

MUCH, much better. For one thing, it lacked the switching noise from the head-drum arrangement on VHS. Then LDs went first to CD sound & then to DD & DTS, all of which blew away any VHS. LD was viable as a music format, VHS was not.

 

Before the Internet, all we had was a handful of magazines or talking to people in the stores to keep us informed of new releases or issues with existing ones. Now it's as simple as reading a review and clicking on the "Pre-Order" link to Amazon. It was much more fun to walk into a store and find something that you had no idea existed.

I do miss the social aspect of going to the store. You never knew what you'd find or who would be there. We'd spend hours talking about new releases and our favorite films and several celebrities shopped at our local videophile store.

 

Pioneer used to produce a great 16-page (or so) monthly flyer/catalog that showed all of the upcoming releases. When I lived out in rural Japan (in the days before the internet), I always looked forward to these things.

Later on, other LD outfits stated producing their own, but Pioneer had the best. The flyers really presented the titles well and really played up all of the special content.

 

You couldnt be more right. Its fun getting the package with the Amazon smiley face, but it was a lot more fun to hold it in your hand, walk out the store with it and have it spinning as soon ad you got home! Those were the days.

 

Wasnt there a small newsletter type monthly called Laserdisc Reviews, or something to that effect? Really looked forward to that each month. Kind of assume they are gone now!

 

As good as HiFi VHS could sound, and it could be pretty awesome, laserdisc was amazing with the right recording. A few concerts I own are far better in the sound dept than the DVD (though Im using old dvd titles as an example) but I think if they remastered it the DVD could beat it. Sometimes you would hear some artifacts pop up but overall the audio was stellar.

 

As much as I hope you are completely wrong, sadly Im in your camp. I think blu ray is the end of the line for physical media. My issue with streaming is that my favorite films and shows could just arbitrarily disappear at any time. Thats why I like buying my favorite TV shows on DVD. I hope they keep going....so far stuff is still coming out. I just dont think anyone is going to invest in yet another medium, and I hear unit sales on dvd are plunging. Wonder if Vidiot knows anything about that?

 

Doug Pratt's Laserdisc newsletter. I used to read it before I had a LD player simply for his reviews.

http://dvdlaser.com