Laserdisc

[noobish hat]

Could anybody tell me anything about this format? I'm interested in starting a collection as I like tacky obsolete crap, but I know that the biggest market for laserdiscs was Japan, followed by the U.S, so my questions are; are the players region locked? Are there any real rarities that go for large amounts? Is it difficult to collect for in the UK?

Thanks dudes

[paulus]

Ld

I can help a bit as I had this system before DVD. No region codes but you do get PAL & NTSC Discs. My player (Pioneer played both). You also get CLV & CAV Discs which was realted to the quality of the paused image.

As for buying the players & discs just head off to ebay. Oh & yes you will find rare ones are expensive.

BTW - Google D-Theatre / D-VHS too, I had this system before HD-DVD & Blu Ray, very collectible!

[Baseley09]

USA & JAP players will play any NTSC disc, UK players mostly are multi region, but check the model first to be sure. The Laserdisc Wiki has most of the required info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc

There a lot teh r@rez, check out ebay!

[wakka]

BTW - Google D-Theatre / D-VHS too, I had this system before HD-DVD & Blu Ray, very collectible!

That's cool, I've always been interested in this format...what kind of HDTV did you have back then? How much did your player and tapes cost you?

Hope you don't mind the questions ^.^

[paulus]

Player was about ?220 from ebay, was running it on a Panny AE500 PJ. Tapes were mainly ?18 from DVDBoxoffice. I sold one (Alien) for $120 to a video library in the states.

Good luck!

[noobish hat]

Yay, I won a laserdisc player and 17 discs, including Indiana Jones 1-3, so not too shabby. Will probably have a few to trade if anyone's interested. Has anyone got any picture discs? I'd love to see one. Also, has anyone ever seen laserdiscs in the wild, e.g. charity shops etc? I hadn't even heard of them until about a year ago, much less seen any in real life. Can't wait for them to turn up!

[wakka]

That's great noobish hat, how much did you pay?

[noobish hat]

£71 including shipping. It's a pioneer, don't know the model number but it plays ntsc and pal. I was quite happy with it, seeing as the last one I was bidding on (and lost cos my internet disconnected at the last second) went for a similar amount with no laserdiscs (although it was boxed). Lots of them on ebay are pick up only too, which is annoying. I'm after a record player as well now, since my old one broke, and my girlfriend is bringing our record collection back from taiwan.

[beecee]

hope that the seller packages up the player really well, i had 3 players sent to me all borked in transit, had over 100 discs ready to be played and never managed to get a working player, neadless to say i was gutted. sold all the discs (for a small proffit) including the star wars definitive collection.

good luck, hope all goes well

[noobish hat]

That doesn't sound promising. If this one arrives knackered I think I will try to get a boxed one. I wish I could drive, I would just go pick one up

[Baseley09]

I've also had 2 players smashed in transit, one the tray wouldnt come out, the other the guy put 15 lasers ontop of the machine and by the time it got to me they had smashed through its roof and destroyed it!

Saying that ive also had a player come all the way from Japan and be fine, and of course the current player I have so just needs a sensible sender. Hope you enjoy the format, it's highly addictive!

[Lyris]

Could anybody tell me anything about this format?

Vinyl-sized discs that look like CDs. Usually with uncompressed PCM audio on them. Films usually split over more than 1 disc, the discs are double sided and need flipped over (unless you have a player that can read both sides).

The video is stored as a Composite signal and is best watched on a good CRT TV. Play it on a flat panel display and you'll reveal the modern ugliness of what was once the best consumer format.

[charlesr]

My friend who has laserdiscs did some hardware hacks on his so that they output pure ntsc rather than pal60 when you put an ntsc disc in, thus allowing adjustment of hue or something. "A million times better" he said.

Check out the CAV edition of Aliens - it has a picture disc section, where every frame is something new e.g. concept art. Frankly awesome.

On CAV you really can do proper slo-mo rather than the frame buffer stuff you get on DVD. Flipside is that you have to flip the disc every 20 mins....

[Baseley09]

It's good fun using the jog shuttle to make actors do the robot.

[Lyris]

My friend who has laserdiscs did some hardware hacks on his so that they output pure ntsc rather than pal60 when you put an ntsc disc in, thus allowing adjustment of hue or something. "A million times better" he said.

Yeah, that's especially the case on modern TVs with 3D Comb Filters. They work a lot better on real NTSC.