GW Laserdisc Score!

[vinyldavid]

Well, I stopped in at a local GW today, and among the normal vinyl (nothing good), I saw some laserdiscs intermixed. Turns out, they are priced same as vinyl ($0.50/ea disc), so I bought everything that they had.

Here's what I got:
Dave
Congo
Alaska
Body Double
Big Buisness
Big
Bird on a Wire
Beverly Hills Cop 2
Daylight
Basic Instinct
Close Encoounters of the Third Kind
Back to the future part 3
Chain Reaction
The Client
Capricorn One
Crimson Tide
Apollo 13
Dances with Wolves
The Alamo Directors Cut (3disc)
Broken Arrow
Dante's Peak
The Cutting Edge
City Slickers
The American President
Company Business
The Bodyguard
Clear and Present Danger

Not bad for $9.75.

What do you all think?

Don't have a player yet, but I am working on getting one to borrow from a friend until I find one of my own.

[westgate]

What do you all think?
great titles! but, for me anyway, way obsolete technology. dvds and now blu ray have taken over with much better picture and sound quality.

i really like vintage audio stuff but when it comes to video i prefer more modern tech. i guess cuz the picture quality is so much better.

but, enjoy the LDs, anyway.

[vinyldavid]

But you cannot dny the cool factor that goes with the laserdiscs. Also, they have fully uncompresed video on them, which can and oftentimes looks better than the equivalent DVD. I have not seen bluray yet, so no comment there, but considering that I will be using standard definition video for a long time to come, it really doesn't matter all that much to me.

[westgate]

[QUOTE=vinyldavid;77078]But you cannot deny the cool factor that goes with the laserdiscs. /QUOTE]
================================================== ===========================
no offense dv but yes i can. i never even heard of LDs til a few yrs ago (yes, i live under a rock!) and after having read up on them a bit, i think they've been around since what, early '80s. and i've never watched them either.
so to me they're not cool and not not cool. they just are. so no opinion at all really.

have i confoosed you yet?

edit-and you don't need my or anyone elses approval for them. if you like them that is what counts.
(but i know you already know that.)*headtunes*

[Pentium100]

no offense dv but yes i can. i never even heard of LDs til a few yrs ago (yes, i live under a rock!) ...

Me too. Laserdiscs were not available (or were not popular if they were available) in my country, so nobody has even heard of them. But when I found out I decided that I should buy a player. I bought one disk first and then the player (so I would have something to test the player with).

I like LDs (but not their price), they look cool to me. Also, it's interesting to see the reaction of someone whom I showed a "record sized CD" to :)

I like big formats: LDs, r2r tapes, records etc.

[Beechwoods]

I have a single Capacitance Electronic Disc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc) (CED) which has the same form factor as LaserDisc, but was 'more analogue' in that it used a plated grooved disc, and an electronic stylus to extract the data.

The disc I've got is 'Live At Pompeii' by Pink Floyd. No player yet, but it's a great little artefact.

http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss49/aos_images/beechwoods/BfbYMjCGkKGrHqYH-DoErgwiGhVKBLBOZHf.jpg

Excellent score, by the way!

[gamve]

great titles! but, for me anyway, way obsolete technology. dvds and now blu ray have taken over with much better picture and sound quality.

i really like vintage audio stuff but when it comes to video i prefer more modern tech. i guess cuz the picture quality is so much better.

but, enjoy the LDs, anyway.

Sorry westgate but I beg to differ. The video seems to be much better with DVD and blu ray but LD is stil king for sound quality as it is in full CD form. Both DVD and blu ray are mp3 quality.

[Eldorado]

I don't think laserdiscs really compete with DVDs on video quality, and it seems you need a pretty good player to get the best out of them anyway. So although I can pick up LDs very cheaply, I don't generally bother for movies. But a lot of music video was not that well served on DVD, and there's quite a bit that was released on laser but still hasn't appeared on DVD - and in at least one case (Allman Brothers at Great Woods), the DVD version was butchered. So I've been using laserdisc to get hold of music, mostly concerts, that I can't find on DVD. And the video quality can be surprisingly good (but it does vary wildly on my player). I'll go with the idea that it's cool, too, though I don't really care if anyone else doesn't find it so.

[westgate]

Sorry westgate but I beg to differ. The video seems to be much better with DVD and blu ray but LD is stil king for sound quality as it is in full CD form. Both DVD and blu ray are mp3 quality.

hmmm, well i've never seen nor heard an LD so i wouldn't know if an LD sounded better or not.

[clhboa]

I don't think laserdiscs really compete with DVDs on video quality, and it seems you need a pretty good player to get the best out of them anyway. So although I can pick up LDs very cheaply, I don't generally bother for movies. But a lot of music video was not that well served on DVD, and there's quite a bit that was released on laser but still hasn't appeared on DVD - and in at least one case (Allman Brothers at Great Woods), the DVD version was butchered. So I've been using laserdisc to get hold of music, mostly concerts, that I can't find on DVD. And the video quality can be surprisingly good (but it does vary wildly on my player). I'll go with the idea that it's cool, too, though I don't really care if anyone else doesn't find it so.

Did you notice on the Allman Bros. dvd that Warren and Dickey's guitars seem to be flip-flopped in the mix? Not to mention inserting interviews into the middle of songs. I have it on vhs too and none of those problems are present. There was very little quality control on that dvd.

[KatCassidy]

I have a single Capacitance Electronic Disc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc) (CED).....The disc I've got is 'Live At Pompeii' by Pink Floyd. No player yet, but it's a great little artefact.
From what I have read about these, when you do eventually find a player, copy the disc to a DVD (or, even better, a hard drive) as soon as possible as (aparrently) these discs wore out increidbly quickly! Also, when you find a player, get it inspected/serviced as a worn stylus on one of these will do more damage than a 1950's mono stylus on a stereo LP!

Sorry if it sounds like I'm raining on your parade. I'm not meaning to. In fact, I would love to see the disc in action (and the disc itself!) Just letting you know in advance that it was a very problematic format. So when you find a player, make the most of the disc you have.

[Naknut]

Great deal on the laser discs vinyldavid. I still collect laser discs and think that they are very cool, I'm also a sucker for obsolete technology. With over 600 disc and 8 players I'm covered. In fact I have a want list that I carry around with me and I peruse ebay periodically for the rarer items on that list.

[Eldorado]

Did you notice on the Allman Bros. dvd that Warren and Dickey's guitars seem to be flip-flopped in the mix? Not to mention inserting interviews into the middle of songs. I have it on vhs too and none of those problems are present. There was very little quality control on that dvd.

I am still looking to pick up a laser version at a decent price. I only have a DVD taken from the laserdisc at the moment. But the reviews of the official DVD are enough to put me off ever buying it. I'm trying to concentrate on things I can't get on DVD, or where the DVD version is known to be inferior in some way. As I pick up anything by Neil Young I can get my hands on, LD is a necessity: Unplugged, Weld, the Complex Sessions, Solo Trans, Freedom, and Human Highway are all LD and VHS only.

[DaveInVA]

But you cannot dny the cool factor that goes with the laserdiscs. Also, they have fully uncompresed video on them, which can and oftentimes looks better than the equivalent DVD. I have not seen bluray yet, so no comment there, but considering that I will be using standard definition video for a long time to come, it really doesn't matter all that much to me.

I just sold my Pioneer Elite CLD-53 on Fleabay last month. I owned it since new and it maybe had 50 hours on it. I will be listing the 20 or so Laserdiscs I have next week if you need more..

Dave

[vinyldavid]

I just got back from my friend's house, with a Pioneer CLD-980. Works flawlessly, and I can keep it for as long as I want.

Eventually, I want a CLD-M90, which is what my father bought when I was younger, and I believe has an AC-3 output. My girlfriend's parents have an external yamaha decoder for AC-3, and I can probably have use of that for a while.

[4tified]

Nice score!

Laserdiscs are something that you either love or hate, and in my case, I'd love to have more of them. Granted, the video quality may not be as great, but you have to consider the fact that the video was pulled from an analogue medium. Same went with the audio up until the late 80's to early 90's when they started using digital lossless sound on laserdiscs.

I have a Pioneer CLD-3080 and that thing is beautiful. All-metal transport and solid metal body. Built to last, that's for sure!

[retrokeeper]

Hey David!! Very nice score on the Laserdisc,I have a few disc,but never made a score of that many movies before,all at once.I do have a few Laserdisc Players,including the rare/hard-to-find CLD-A100 with the Sega Genesis game pack,which fits in nicely with the videogaming section of the Mantuary.Here are some scans of laserdisc players by Pioneer,who was a big player back then....Sony and a few others also made laserdisc players. Rob

[Elite-ist]

I just sold my Pioneer Elite CLD-53 on Fleabay last month. I owned it since new and it maybe had 50 hours on it. I will be listing the 20 or so Laserdiscs I have next week if you need more..

Dave

Hi Dave,

I would be interested in which LD titles you have to offer. The picture resolution for LDs are actually higher than DVD. Braxus posted a comparison of the different formats, some time ago, for line resolution. I have some great music laserdiscs.

Nando.

[DaveInVA]

Hi Dave,

I would be interested in which LD titles you have to offer. The picture resolution for LDs are actually higher than DVD. Braxus posted a comparison of the different formats, some time ago, for line resolution. I have some great music laserdiscs.

Nando.
Here is what I will be listing:

The War of the Worlds -EP
The Time Machine - EP
20,000 Leagues under the Sea - EP + WS
Citizen Cane - Criterion
Boris Karloff's Thriller EP Box Set 5 hours multiple discs - Very Rare!
the Black- Adder series 1
Forbidden Planet -EP- Stereo
Hitchcock - The Third Man - Criterion
Hitchcock Shadow of a Doubt
Hitchcock Topaz with alt endings
Casablanca - EP
The Big Sleep - Bogart -EP
Monty Python Life of Brian - Stereo
Monty Python Meaning of Life - Stereo
Monty Python Holy Grail - Criterion
Faulty Towers Boxed Set -368 Mins
Chieftains The Bells of Dublin - Still sealed

All but one or two I bought new and many only played once, none more than twice.
If interested make me an offer for the whole lot or? I just ebayed the CLD-53 I bought new for big bucks and got a whopping $84 for it. Was like new with box, packing etc,,,

Dave

[Elite-ist]

Here is what I will be listing:

The War of the Worlds -EP
The Time Machine - EP
20,000 Leagues under the Sea - EP + WS
Citizen Cane - Criterion
Boris Karloff's Thriller EP Box Set 5 hours multiple discs - Very Rare!
the Black- Adder series 1
Forbidden Planet -EP- Stereo
Hitchcock - The Third Man - Criterion
Hitchcock Shadow of a Doubt
Hitchcock Topaz with alt endings
Casablanca - EP
The Big Sleep - Bogart -EP
Monty Python Life of Brian - Stereo
Monty Python Meaning of Life - Stereo
Monty Python Holy Grail - Criterion
Faulty Towers Boxed Set -368 Mins
Chieftains The Bells of Dublin - Still sealed

All but one or two I bought new and many only played once, none more than twice.
If interested make me an offer for the whole lot or? I just ebayed the CLD-53 I bought new for big bucks and got a whopping $84 for it. Was like new with box, packing etc,,,

Dave

Hi Dave,

I'll PM my offer.

Thanks,

Nando.

[Elite-ist]

Well, I stopped in at a local GW today, and among the normal vinyl (nothing good), I saw some laserdiscs intermixed. Turns out, they are priced same as vinyl ($0.50/ea disc), so I bought everything that they had.

Here's what I got:
Dave
Congo
Alaska
Body Double
Big Buisness
Big
Bird on a Wire
Beverly Hills Cop 2
Daylight
Basic Instinct
Close Encoounters of the Third Kind
Back to the future part 3
Chain Reaction
The Client
Capricorn One
Crimson Tide
Apollo 13
Dances with Wolves
The Alamo Directors Cut (3disc)
Broken Arrow
Dante's Peak
The Cutting Edge
City Slickers
The American President
Company Business
The Bodyguard
Clear and Present Danger

Not bad for $9.75.

What do you all think?

Don't have a player yet, but I am working on getting one to borrow from a friend until I find one of my own.

Hi David,

That's an excellent deal for that grouping of laserdiscs. Depending on the manufacture, some LDs will play back better than others. Any of the Jurassic Park titles are better, in playback picture quality, than their DVD counterparts.

If possiible, try to find an LD player which will play A and B sides, without flipping the disc.

Nando.

[vinyldavid]

Hi David,

That's an excellent deal for that grouping of laserdiscs. Depending on the manufacture, some LDs will play back better than others. Any of the Jurassic Park titles are better, in playback picture quality, than their DVD counterparts.

If possiible, try to find an LD player which will play A and B sides, without flipping the disc.

Nando.

The player that I am borrowing from a friend can play both sides of the disc.

I am quite impressed with the format. Just have it hooked up to my 32'' trinitron for picture and sound, as the main system is still being reworked over the next couple weeks, but I am thuroughly impressed with both picture and sound. Still not sure why the format was abandoned, other than cost. This almost has a better picture than some DVD's that I have.

[Des-Lab]

Still not sure why the format was abandoned, other than cost.

I believe you answered your own question. But wasn't there also the issue of binder separation a-la Ampex 456 Sticky Shed that resulted in countless disc failures that plagued the format?

Cost and convenience have almost always been the Trump cards in the technology wars. Very seldom has the 'superior' format also been the dominant one. If that were the case, Beta would've triumphed over VHS, reel to reel would've reigned supreme over the cassette, and DAT or DCC would've stunted MP3's from catching on.

Yes I realize that in all of those instances, there were extenuating circumstances as well that hindered their growth (such as half a decade of litigation that resulted in SCMS for all digital recording formats). But all other things absent the equation, low cost and ease of use is what usually makes a format the "winner".

[close652]

I always wanted a LD player, I simply love the format. There are some concerts that are still not avaiable on dvd, especially for the Japan market. That is said the video and audio quality is not better than cd or dvd (cf. the wikipedia articles).

[Elite-ist]

There are advantages and disadvantages of laserdiscs over dvd. In the audio and picture resolution comparison between the two formats:

http://www.starlaser.com/dvd-lasr.htm

Also, in reading through Wikipedia:

350×240 (250 TVL): Video CD
330×480 (250 TVL): U-matic, Betamax, VHS, Video8
400×480 (300 TVL): Super Betamax, Betacam (professional)
440×480 (330 TVL): analog broadcast
560×480 (420 TVL): LaserDisc, S-VHS, Hi8
670×480 (500 TVL): ED Betamax
720×480 (500 TVL): DVD, MiniDV, Digital8, Digital Betacam (professional)
720×480 (400 TVL): Widescreen DVD (anamorphic)
1280×720 (720 TVL): D-VHS, HD DVD, Blu-ray, HDV (miniDV - 720p)
1920×1080 (1080 TVL): Hi-Vision/MUSE, D-VHS, HD DVD, Blu-ray, HDV (miniDV - 1080i - 1440 horizontal pixels interpolated to 1920), HDCAM SR (professional)


Nando.

[Warped Bezel]

I have a single Capacitance Electronic Disc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc) (CED) which has the same form factor as LaserDisc, but was 'more analogue' in that it used a plated grooved disc, and an electronic stylus to extract the data.

The disc I've got is 'Live At Pompeii' by Pink Floyd. No player yet, but it's a great little artefact.

http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss49/aos_images/beechwoods/BfbYMjCGkKGrHqYH-DoErgwiGhVKBLBOZHf.jpg

Excellent score, by the way!

Indeed! My favorite thrift got a boatload of good titles in and my friends and the staff weren't sure and even tried to figure out how you got them out of the sleeves (one guy tried hard enough) and once I saw them I explained them to the manager. I have 6 1/2 titles (1/2 of Women In Love I think it's called) and one about girl groups of the 60s as well as Woody Allen...

I too have no CED player. A stereo model would give an opportunity to at least compare the LD and CED versions of Neil Diamond-The Jazz Singer (I have the LD).

By the way, I picked up my fifth (non-powering) LD player for 10 dollars today, the dual side player Pioneer CLD-2090. Time to open it and find a fuse or burnt spot in the PS, or who knows?

[Warped Bezel]

I need to find the site with specs on the LD system...it would blow your minds!

Once the production defects were pretty much tackled the greater than 7 megahertz FM-modulated signal made them the 'analog digital' of their time. The discs and players were a creation of the mid to late 1970s with the optical technologies that made them possible date to at least 1966, through inventions of Gauss and others, notably Philips.

The initial woes with production had a lot to do with the fact that the original design was one sided, although a flexible sheet that ran through rollers to load it was demonstrated in the early 1970s. The solution of the prime producer, Discovision Associates (an MCA subsidiary whose direct decendent would be Universal) was to GLUE two sides together which, under less than perfect assembly conditions caused damage underneath the playing surface and created picture artifacts and playback malfunctions. The assumptiom by the head of MCA that you could just press titles much like an LP had proven to be terribly wrong. Pioneer Electronics stepped in by the early 80s and made many changes to try and save the optical disc format which probably gave it an extra 20 years of life until the introduction of DVD. Titles were phased out of production by 2000-01 and the legacy player DVL-919, a combination player handling LD, CD and DVD playback was finally discontinued in 2009.

During it's very long life the laserdisc introduced nearly every system and concept now available though a DVD, including subtitles, multichannel audio (Dolby Surround, AC-3, DTS), digital audio soundtracks, alternate audio and video combinations, widescreen (letterboxing), interactive programming, multiple media types, and in Japan even laserdiscs in the old Japanese analog high-definition MUSE format were produced.

CED and RCA Selectavision production did not make it too far into the 1980s. The CED division workers were quite dedicated none the less. With the sales of Laserdisc titles more or less not as robust as they should've been (with VHS and Beta wars and several other attempts and CED really confusing the buyers) the efforts to keep the system alive until it's successor DVD could take off was a heroic feat, one that probably held Pioneer together ITSELF.



I don't think laserdiscs really compete with DVDs on video quality, and it seems you need a pretty good player to get the best out of them anyway. So although I can pick up LDs very cheaply, I don't generally bother for movies. But a lot of music video was not that well served on DVD, and there's quite a bit that was released on laser but still hasn't appeared on DVD - and in at least one case (Allman Brothers at Great Woods), the DVD version was butchered. So I've been using laserdisc to get hold of music, mostly concerts, that I can't find on DVD. And the video quality can be surprisingly good (but it does vary wildly on my player). I'll go with the idea that it's cool, too, though I don't really care if anyone else doesn't find it so.

[Elite-ist]

Here's a site I often refer to when researching different models of laserdisc players:

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/default.htm

Nando.

[Warped Bezel]

That's the one and the CED site is called CED Magic I believe.

[Elite-ist]

Hi Warped Bezel,

Thanks for the background information on laserdic technology. Have you been successful in repairing the non-powering LD players? Are you currently using one for viewing? Which LD player would be your favourite?

Nando.

[Warped Bezel]

Hi Warped Bezel,

Thanks for the background information on laserdic technology. Have you been successful in repairing the non-powering LD players? Are you currently using one for viewing? Which LD player would be your favourite?

Nando.

The only non working one is the two-sided CLD-2090. I've found one fuse, 2 amp and it seems to be A-OK.

I now have over forty CEDs and no player. I shall remedy that soon.

I like the working ones in general and the CLD-M90 with it's pick action 5-disc CD changer certainly is intriguing as it's a somewhat complicated mechanisn I would think.

The M series are more often broken at this stage and mine is fine.

[vinyldavid]

The only non working one is the two-sided CLD-2090. I've found one fuse, 2 amp and it seems to be A-OK.

I now have over forty CEDs and no player. I shall remedy that soon.

I like the working ones in general and the CLD-M90 with it's pick action 5-disc CD changer certainly is intriguing as it's a somewhat complicated mechanisn I would think.

The M series are more often broken at this stage and mine is fine.

Nice!

The M90 is the one I want, because I had one when I was a toddler (or more accurately, my father did).

[Maxell-LN]

Well, I stopped in at a local GW today, and among the normal vinyl (nothing good), I saw some laserdiscs intermixed. Turns out, they are priced same as vinyl ($0.50/ea disc), so I bought everything that they had.

Here's what I got:
Dave
Congo
Alaska
Body Double
Big Buisness
Big
Bird on a Wire
Beverly Hills Cop 2
Daylight
Basic Instinct
Close Encoounters of the Third Kind
Back to the future part 3
Chain Reaction
The Client
Capricorn One
Crimson Tide
Apollo 13
Dances with Wolves
The Alamo Directors Cut (3disc)
Broken Arrow
Dante's Peak
The Cutting Edge
City Slickers
The American President
Company Business
The Bodyguard
Clear and Present Danger

Not bad for $9.75.

What do you all think?

Don't have a player yet, but I am working on getting one to borrow from a friend until I find one of my own.

That's a great find David, Laserdisc is one of those eras that I would of love to been part of, particularly as there was more of a special kind of something with Laserdiscs. Just like LPs I loved the impacting art of the covers (just can't stand the sound of vinyl), and I do like the picture quality better to a DVD as they are uncompressed.

Unfortunately in this part of the world, they were far out of my budget, and buy the time prices of laserdiscs came down to good second hand prices, my DVD collection was well established. For me to even entertain the idea of getting into Laserdisc now is somewhat crazy, as my flat is already packed to the rafters with CDs, records, cassettes, VHS tapes, and DVDs, I'm pretty much pushing stuff in, to wherever I can squeeze it in.

So for me the laserdisc phase is one that I missed.