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Author Topic: The Laserdisc Appreciation Thread Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 02-06-2005 09:21 PM                     Recently, I've been on a kick of watching my 12" platters. It just gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling on an age where terms like CLV, CAV, and THX actually meant something. Sure, DVD is cool but there is something more special about the Laserdisc. It's big, it's old, it's REALLY shiny, and the quality still holds up today. I miss the old days, but DVD perhaps may have been a good thing because it made LDs much cheaper to buy. I have two players, and only one is currently working. I'm looking for a new one, and hopefully going more higher end (my current players are both Pioneers: CLD-D406 and the CLD-D504). Anyone else still into the big discs? AJG  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 02-06-2005 09:41 PM                     quote: Aaron Garman Anyone else still into the big discs? AJG Yeppers, buying them cheap off of eBay, and finding gobloads in thrift stores for a buck or two apiece in excellent condition. The same for my player: a Pioneer CLD-D503 unit that I picked up at a thrift store for 30 bucks with 10 discs included. This player reads both sides of the LD, plus having an inner drawer to do the conventional audio CD's. Unit's in excellent condition-just missing the remote. Now, anyone doing CED - the RCA's answer to the Laserdisk? ...and the stylus are still available for these CED players. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-06-2005 10:05 PM                     Yep, I still support the Laserdisc format...it is better in some ways than DVD but like all pressings...there are good and bad. My favorite player was my CLD-D701 (RIP) which died suddenly . I still have a pair of DVL-700s. Steve  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-06-2005 11:02 PM                        My last LaserDisc player was a Pioneer Elite CLD-91. I sold it on eBay a few years ago, along with most of my collection of movies. I've always been partial to Pioneer stuff.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-07-2005 11:03 AM                     My Aunt Patricia had a couple RCA SelectaVision players and ton of discs. The players died years ago. She recently got rid of all those old discs. I suppose such discs are more a curiosity for collectors than anything. While the video and sound quality was generally good (at least noticeably better than VHS), most of the movies had panned and scanned transfers. I definitely prefer my DVDs over those things.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 02-07-2005 11:37 AM                        Still have all of my old LDs, a couple hundred at least. Haven't played most of them in years except for a handful of titles that still haven't been released on DVD. Prize of the collection is one of my first LD purchases--Goodfellas, which Marty, Bob, Joe, and Thelma were happy to sign for me during dailies on Casino. Player is a Quasar (Maggotbox) LD500 that I bought during a closeout. Still works just fine but I do need to replace the output coupling capacitors. Getting some long-term horizontal clamp streaking in the video nowadays--it's especially noticeable on credit crawls. These ever faster technology jumps just suck. Think I'll skip the next-generation of hi-def DVDs and wait for the 1-Terabyte HVD (Holographic Versatile Disc) coming in a few short years.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 02-08-2005 10:11 AM                    I've got the CLD-59 Elite model. Still works great. Here lately I have been watching some of my collection.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 02-08-2005 01:27 PM                     LaserDiscs are evil. They are the Devil's home video format. They temp you in with great picture and sound, and then they rot! Still have my Pioneer LD-S1 player, but I am trying to repent. /M.  |  IP: Logged Bruce Hansen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 847 From: Stone Mountain, GA, USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-11-2005 07:56 PM                     I still have my laser disc players and discs. They still look and sound better than DVD. The sound on a laser disc (AFM) sounds much richer than the sound from a DVD, because of the compression used on DVDs. This was the first thing I noticed when I bought my first DVD player. I played a DVD than I played a LD. There was a very noticeable difference in the quality of the sound. I wasn't even looking for it, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. The video compression on DVDs takes away all the suttle shading differences, and makes everything look cartoonish. I was very sad to see laser disc put to death, and I still wonder if some of the studios had a hand in the very quick demise of LD, because LD never had any sort of copy protection. BTW, laser rot was a problem with mold getting into the glue used to hold the two halfs of the LD together, growing, and eating the reflective layer. This problem only happened for a short time, before it was taken care of. There is a problem with some of the early CDs that is something like laser rot. The edge of the CD was not sealed, and mold can get into the CD and eat the reflective layer. Check your early CDs, and you may see this happening around the center hole, and the outside edge of the disc. You may want to copy any CDs you see this happening to.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 02-12-2005 02:22 AM                     Laser rot was also notorious on many titles from Columbia/Tristar...well into the 90s. Just got me a new player on eBay: the CLD-79 from Pioneer. Hopefully it is all the seller said it was. AJG  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 02-12-2005 09:21 AM                        Yeah, Sony's US pressing plant was notorious for putting out discs that rotted rather quickly. Out of the around 200 LDs I have, only a couple have rotted. Got lucky I guess. AFAIK laser rot was not biological in nature; it was simple oxidation of the aluminum layer of the discs. The plastic used in LDs was hygroscopic--it absorbed moisture. This led to warping which could cause the edge seals to fail leaving the aluminum layer exposed to the atmosphere. DVDs and CDs can also suffer edge failures that lead to oxidation, but at least warping won't be the root cause--the plastic used in them isn't hygroscopic. I won't be getting rid of my LDs anytime soon. Like LPs, properly stored they age well. There's still a few titles on LD that haven't made it to DVD yet.  |  IP: Logged Phil Blake Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 558 From: esperance western australia Registered: Nov 2003 posted 02-13-2005 08:48 AM                        even in the land down under laser still exists. I still have my collection of 100 or so discs and my pioneer player. As stated by many others , the quality does exceed DVD without a doubt. I don't play them much but I am proud to have them stored away with my Betamax tapes and super 8mm films.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 02-16-2005 01:25 AM                     My CLD-79 showed up and WOW! I didn't know what I was missing all these years on my LDs. Makes me want one of those $2000+ Japanese machines now. This unit really looks great, and I would reccomend it to anyone, especially if you can get a good deal on it. Back to Laserland... AJG  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 02-16-2005 02:22 AM                     quote: David Stambaugh I've always been partial to Pioneer stuff. I've been faithful to Pioneer ever since 1976 when I put my first cassette auto-reverse player in my Toyota Corolla with Pioneer speakers. Then afterwards, practically every car that I owned had a Pioneer in it. I've got two Pioneer reel to reel machines - RT-1050 and a RT-1011L SuperTuner RULES! -Monte  |  IP: Logged Andy Summers Master Film Handler Posts: 397 From: Bournemouth Dorset United kingdom Registered: Jun 2005 posted 07-15-2005 05:59 PM                 Yeah you bet I am, still have around 87 Laserdiscs NTSC and PAL 11 DTS Laserdiscs and my Top DTS Laserdisc is “Apollo 13 THX Laserdisc” And I played it last week so its still very active in my THX home cinema…. The Audience is Listening…  |  IP: Logged

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