my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » The Afterlife   » Movies on CAV laserdiscs are a pain to watch! (Page 1)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Author Topic: Movies on CAV laserdiscs are a pain to watch! Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-01-2003 11:36 AM                        When laserdiscs was very popular before DVD replaced that format, videophliles like me were very pleased when a film would be released in the CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) insead of the standard CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) because of the supposedely better picture quality. The only problem with CAV was the limited playing time per side at only 30 minutes compared to an hour on CLV. I just watched "VENGENCE IS MINE" a Japanese film by Shohei Imamura about a notorius serial killer, Iwao Enokizu last night from a Criterion CAV box set and what a pain it was watching it when I had to change discs twice because of the limited playing time. Thank God, I was not watching the movie on one of my earlier laserdisc machines that did not automatically turn the disc over. If I did, I would have had to get up and flip discs at least five times. I must admit with the awesome picture and sound quality DVD's offer not to mention the opportunity to watch a film non stop as long as slightly over three hours, it's no wonder laserdiscs is dead. Although LD's are no longer manufactured, I still have a sizeable collerction of movies that might never see the light of day in the foreseeble future ON DVD such as my MGM film classcs including "THE GOOD EARTH", "GOODBYE MR. CHIPS" (Original & Musical), "MRS MINNIVER" and so many others. The two versions of the original "STAR WARS" trilogy is also a cherished posession especially the original theatrical version which will never be released on DVD based on what George Lucas said not too long ago. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 04-01-2003 12:57 PM                     I see two options for you. #1 Have a friend with the appropriate non-linear editing software and DVD authoring software make you a personal DVD version of your movies that are exclusive to Laserdisc. (For your own personal use only, of course.) #2 Hire Steve Guttag to run Laserdisc changeovers.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-01-2003 04:23 PM                     I bought "The Coal Miner's Daughter" on MCA DiscoVision a few weeks ago at Goodwill for $1. 3 discs, 5 sides. Almost seems like a side per reel. I don't have a LaserDisc player, but it's cool to have I guess, heh. =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-01-2003 05:06 PM                        Thomas, MCA Discovision discs were very bad even at the time they were first released. It was very common to find at least one or two sides of a multi CAV disc set totally unplayable because of 'Laser Rot". All of my Discovision discs have all been returned to dealers as soon as they developed problems and today, I have none. MCA was having a lot of problems with the optical disc process that they almost pulled the plug until Pioneer Electronics of Japan took over with discs that were less suseptible to laser rot caused by oxidation. It did not take long for Pioneer to establish a very successful laserdisc market and make it the best way to watch a film on home video because of it's much superior picture and sound quality compared to VHS and Beta tapes. The only problem with laserdiscs was the costs of the software. The least expensive price for a movie was MGM's $29.94 titles. All of the other studios were charging $34.95 for a sincle disc movie and $39.95 for a double disc set. All of the movies released on discs at this time came with no extras on the standard set. The only way one can get extras that is common with most DVDs today was when studios released special editions that almost cost about a hundred dollars or more. The first "STAR WARS" trilogy in a box cost $250.00 and people like myself were gladly paying that price because we had to have the discs. Getting back to your MCA Discovision, I doubt it is good anymore. At the most, pride yourself of havin a piece of early home video history even tough the disc itself might be unplayable. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-01-2003 05:26 PM                     Thomas here is the frame counts for "Coal Miner's Daughter" CAV. Side 1 38,210 frames 26 mins. 32 sec. Side 2 34,982 frames 24 mins. 18 sec. Side 3 36,782 frames 25 mins. 32 sec. Side 4 36,340 frames 25 mins. 14 sec. Side 5 33,329 frames 23 mins. 9 sec. Total Frames: 179,643 TRT: 124 mins. 45 sec. The CLV version had 3 sides. Side 1 42 mins. Side 2 41 mins. Side 3 40 mins. It was issued from MCA, May of 1980 from their plant in Carson, California. The next piece of history you need to find is a RCA CED disc.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-01-2003 05:36 PM                     I remember CED. Those were "Capacitance Electronic Discs" IIRC. Those discs were the same size as the large LaserDiscs and their hard plastic cases were designed so that the discs themselves were never handled by the user. The entire case went into the player, then the user removed the case, leaving the disc inside. Of course, THERE WERE WAYS to gain access to the disc itself. We had to do that once to sort out a skipping problem. Again -- IIRC -- the disc was cleaned with alcohol, but they put it back into the case backwards and Side A and Side B were flipped. Did those machines use a stylus?  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-01-2003 05:53 PM                        Yes, Manny the CED discs used a stylus. Because it did, the process was also known by it's sarcastic name "NeedleVision. I was never impressed with the CED process introduced by RCA and never invested in the system. When I started to collect movies on laserdiscs, MCA was just turning everything over to Pioneer and I have continued to buy discs until DVD took over the market in 1997. I had a friend who had almost every title released on CED and it was very sad when I helped him take his collection to the city dump for disposal when he could no longer get parts for his two players. The biggest fear I have right now is the same thing happening to laserdiscs. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 04-01-2003 07:06 PM                    I have the box sets for Jaws and Toy Story. Both are CAV. My laserdisc player has the capability to play both sides without having to flip the disc. I can also do freeze frame and jog functions on CLV discs with my player.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-01-2003 08:40 PM                        Darryl, With that machine you and I have, you will need to get up and change disc once if you were watching only the "TOY STORY" movie and three times for the "JAWS" film not counting all of the extra stuff on the discs that will require you to get off your fanny more often than you would want to. I never felt getting up to change discs was a problem before DVD's, but when those little discs hit the market, the necessity to often change CAV discs during playback has became a huge pain in the butt! -Claude  |  IP: Logged Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 04-02-2003 05:38 AM                     CAV discs are best primarily to analyze something frame-by-frame. I have "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Fantasia" and the first "Jurassic Park" in CAV. I think "All Dogs Go To Heaven" came only in CAV at no extra cost. One thing I found in Jurassic Park is for one frame, the veloceraptor is missing from the T-Rex's mouth when it first picks it up in the main hall. I'm wondering if that's been fixed in the DVD edition. Once, a friend was watching a standard CLV laserdisc with me, and when I had to flip it, he said, "That's the only thing wrong with these things, you have to interrupt the movie." I pointed out to him, as he sucked on his 64 ounce soda that we've been pausing the film every 20 minutes so he could go to the bathroom! At that point, the conversation was over. And CED. In my basement, an ersatz archaic video equipment museum, is a mono, and a stereo CED player. On Sunday, I dug out the mono player (which now works better than the stereo) to watch "The Stunt Man." It played okay with only one skipping section, but the picture quality really isn't all that great. At the time it seemed okay enough to invest in about 70 movies. When one ceases to play, I'll replace it with DVD (if it's available).  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 04-02-2003 06:28 PM                    My original laserdisc player did not have the ability to switch sides. I got the one I have now because my old one did not have the RF output on it. I purchased my current one from a local high end dealer for $300. It originaly sold for over $800. I never really had a problem with changing sides or anything for that technology. I do remember the CED players. I remember our local Radio shack had them. I thought they were cool but at the time I did not have the money to spend on one. They didn't last long anyway and the idea of the movie skipping did not appeal to me.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-02-2003 09:20 PM                        Darryl, I also had to upgrade or should I say down because my previous high end Pioneer machine I had paid over $800.00 for did not have an RF output in order to play laserdiscs with Dolby Digital 5.1 digital sound. The new machine like yours cost me about $300.00 discounted from about $500,00. The only problem with laserdiscs with 5.1 sound is their inability to be played back in that sound format because most current receivers do not have RF inputs like my new Denon AVR 3802. Thank God, I can still play my large collection of full bit DTS laserdiscs. -Claude  |  IP: Logged Chase Taylor Expert Film Handler Posts: 175 From: Troy, Alabama, USA Registered: Mar 2001 posted 04-02-2003 09:53 PM                        Get a RF Demod. I've got the same reciever and love it.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-02-2003 11:01 PM                     Yeah, they had another title there too but the discs were obviously rotted. (Looked like little bubbles underneath the plastic). I just bought Coal Miner's Daughter for the sake of hanging those "Giant CDs" in the screening room bathroom. My friend bought some "Select-o-Vision" discs of old horror movies a while back. They came in big plastic cases that fed into the player. The discs themselves were black like a record, I believe. My parents have a timeshare they bought when we lived in Chicago back in the 80s. (It's in Orlando Florida -- who would have known back then?? hehe) I believe they had those CED players in every villa, and you could rent the discs from the front desk. It was so cool watching movies on those back then, never having to rewind. Everyone was talking about how that was the future. The next year when we went back to the resort, they had replaced all of the CED players with VHS VCRs and started renting tapes. So much for the future. =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 04-03-2003 01:20 AM                    yes that is true I use a Yamaha RF demodulator that cost about $75 at the time.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.