Laserdisc | Still awesome!
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- Laserdisc really took off in the late 80s and early 90s. Superseded by DVD around 1997, Laserdisc died a few years later. Seemingly. To fans of the format it never really died and Laserdiscs are still spinning strong!
The Danish video store where I bought my first player is still going strong. Check it out here:
laserdisken.dk/
00:00 Intro - How I got interested in Laserdisc
01:29 Widescreen - Letterboxing
02:16 Audio - Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS
03:50 Extra material - Bonus features
04:22 Japanese releases
04:40 What should you watch them on? CRT of course.
04:54 Collecting Laserdisc today
05:27 Conclusions
Just like LPs, the sleeve/jacket/booklet artwork is unbeatable.
I got a Laserdisc player in 2020, and have been collecting. Love watching movies with it
Cool.
Cooll! I just bought one some weeks ago and stsrted to collected some great movies.
Where did you find your player? Hard in the UK
People today don’t know how lucky we have it today. If you see a movie in the theater you love, you can purchase that on 4k UHD in about 4-6 months. Didn’t use to be that way. Jurassic Park came out in theaters in June of ‘93, it wasn’t on VHS and Laserdisc until October of ‘94. The LD of JP was $40. In todays money that’s $100. I remember thumbing through a magazine in the mid nineties and saw an order form for the Criterion LD of John Carpenter’s classic, Halloween. It was $120!
Still have my very old Pioneer LD-X1 LD player and around 30 LD’s. The DTS discs are amazing!
It was very expensive. Remember it all too well. ;-)
@@5minutesofretro I remember the first time I saw a laserdisc movie for sale in the 1980s. The movies cost around a $75- $100+ each which was really a lot of money back in the 1980s. I think the players were in the one or two thousand dollar range, which was out reach for my family. This format was for wealthier people.
Big movies also were in theatres for like a full year
I didn't get into LD until around 2004, well after the format had died. I was young when they were a current thing, but dad was just not interested in shelling out for it because VHS was "good enough". Got my own money later and got into it.
Fast forward to 2024, I'm still watching them regularly, and now have over 500 titles. Movies, TV shows, concerts. Lots of stuff. There's really something special about the format that keeps me coming back. I have the full experience. CRT, AC3 demodulator and all. It feels, I dunno, warm and cozy? I also appreciate them from a technical standpoint, they were so far ahead of their time. I just love them, and it's a shame they weren't more popular.
I have eight working players and I rotate which one I'm using occasionally. I know that's crazy, but hey they will never make another player! Hopefully this enough to make sure I have at least one working player left when I'm an old man.
What a passionate and informative video, thank you! I was a kid when Laserdiscs were popular, but I always found them fascinating.
Many thanks! I just watched one this afternoon (it's afternoon here as I'm typing this.) I love it!
Yeah same I never got to own or watch any laser disc as a kid but was always fascinated by them my first PC had a DVD player in it which was a big thing so my time was the DVD era I also found it interesting you had to flip them halfway through the movie I'm in Australia and quite sure if they took off here I know my mates older brother always talked about them if I ever get the chance to own one I would definitely watch them for the fun of it
@@davemustaki134 If you are in Melbourne, we should meet up! I have my husband's collection of LDs and the Pioneer player, and I get a kick of watching them now and then.
I remember the first time I saw a Laserdisc movie - It was in an electronics store I think in the late 80s or early 90s, I was a child. I don't know which movie it was but it had something like gorillas running and chasing with loud sudden music, it was scary. The store employee opened the drawer and showed the dual-sided shiny disc, it was quite mesmerizing.
Nice! Must have been awesome for a child at the time.
@@5minutesofretroHi Espen - any way to value laserdisc movies? Is there a site like Discogs Where you Can see if they are worth anything?
Best regards
Anders
@@andersfrend5365 Yeah sure, check out LaserDiscDataBase LDDB. www.lddb.com/index.php
@@5minutesofretroThank you very much - just inherited around 100 laserdiscs which I would like to sell incl a Marantz player 😊
@@andersfrend5365So, did you sell them?
This video bring back lots of memories
It is amazing how many films or things such as some classic animation that were released on Laserdisc still dont have a modern update such as DVD, BRD or 4K.
True. Lots of titles unavailable on newer formats.
@@5minutesofretro however, film companies tend to dust off old film rolls and publish them in the new formats. Just google it. Then it may be that the film that is available on the British market is not available on the Swedish market. . But if it was a film that never sold well, there might be less interest in publishing it
DVD it probably counts as out of date today DVD came in the early 2000s. and they don't look so good on a modern flat screen TV. as the TV has to scale up the image. the resolution on DVD in Europe is 720 × 576 pixels. While the lowest resolution for HD television is 1280 × 720 progressive. although today Is probably 4K that applies in the TV shop. ie 3840 x 2160. The sound here is also improved such as Dolby TrueHD .DTS-HD master. DTSx. Dolby Atmos
cuz 12'' was too big
@@1sonyzzLaserdiscs were too big and that is why a lot of movies are not available on newer formats? Your comment makes no sense...
That Dolby AC3 trailer surely brings back memories. The disc prizes in early 90s was ridiculous, which included a hefty amount of fees to import them here to Finland too. I also regret selling my collection. I had Star Wars sp.ed. trilogy box (the dvd version was further altered) and ofc the Definite collection. The E.T. collectors ed. included a book and a golden soundtrack cd. Plus, it had dozens of outtakes/del.scenes that are not released in later dvd, blu and uhd releases.
I remember I paid 1500NOK for "Close encounters of the third kind" which was totally bonkers in hindsight. That said, some titles cost way more than that now.
YES! Thank you! This is EXACTLY why I love laserdisc; probably the only format (aside from some early dvds) where the color grading and sound are exactly as they were in the theater! I have always felt that home theater should replicate the movie theater experience as closely as possible-I have never understood this penchant for trying to make 40 year old films look and sound like they were shot yesterday-
I'm with you on this. I really enjoy watching and listening to movies knowing I hear and see close to what the director intended and not some souped up version tailored to please the TikTok generation. ;-)
Except the color grading is the not the same. Sure, it has technically the same grading from the og master film, but the output is vastly different - both because the scan is differently from a projector, and because every single CRT (which was the format it was supposed to be played on) wasn't calibrated nor color accurate. In this terms, we still have the issue of any screen being different, but a Blu-Ray or 4K Blu-Ray actually is vastly more accurate on average than a laser disc by a shocking amount.
In regards to audio, DVD had different masters because theaters by the time DVDs started to be popular (March 2000, aka PS2 release) had way more speakers - today we peak at the average 44 speakers for IMAX formats, but for standard we are at 8 - or 12 for Atmos (minimum, of course, it wouldn't be unusual for 14 standard), the decibels standards are vastly different than at home (even enforced by law). It's not as easy as loading the master audio track on ProTools and lower it (which it was what they were doing with Laser Discs), you need a new mix that while different mimics the theatrical one.
Blu-Ray 4K is the format that brings the movie to its closest glory, sometime even improves it (point in case Bridge on River Kwai never looked better, or The Matrix never sounded better).
I'm sorry I had to point these things out, but the statements you guys are making are technically very, very, very wrong.
@@lukeripa You're correct-on average, the UHD Blu-ray master is the most accurate to the cinematic release. There are some cases, like Sleeping Beauty and Lady & The Tramp, where the Blu-ray version is actually superior to anything that would or could have been shown in cinemas at the time (2.55:1 aspect ratio).
This may be a premature take, but UHD Blu-ray will probably be the last, and greatest, physical format for cinephiles. Sure, 8K and 12-bit colour are within spec, but that's only really beneficial for a minority of features (anything shot in 65mm or 70mm). For 35mm content, UHD Blu-ray is pretty much it.
@@5minutesofretro if it was catered to the tiktok generation it would come in 1000's of short segments and be cropped to portrait aspect ratio ;)
🤷🏻♂️ Titanic laserdisc color gradings and image exposition looked awful.
Hello from L.A. (lower alabama:). My last tube or crt tv was a Panasonic 27 inch, the model that closely matched specs of the Trinitron. It had a great picture and the colors, brightness, contrast all popped. Those old heavy crt TVs had some advantages over current flat panel big screen panels. Particularly lack of image stutter/judder, burn-in. I never had a laser disc player but do remember DVDs looking great on my CRT screen.
Thanks for sharing! :)
Nice to see, when somebody loves an old obsolete format.
Like your self, I collected laserdisc’s in the 90’s. Sold it then the DVD was released.
Regretted it like you did, so I also started to collect again. Bought a player 6 months ago, so I can watch my slowly growing collection
Awesome! Best of luck with the collecting. It's so much fun to pick up where I left off in the mid 90s.
This was a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing your beautiful collection.
Thanks!
Moi Yes I love Laserdisc bought from new pioneer 515. Have three here ( now living in Finland 🇫🇮) have a large laserdisc collection as well as other formats aroun 12,000 + collection over 25 years ❤ regards from Finland 🇫🇮
Awesome!
The Fugitive on Laser disc was my introduction to home surround sound. My friends dad has set up a home theater with a big TV, laserdisc and surround system. When the train wreck hits it shook the room and I was SOLD hahaha. I still have my star wars laser discs but no player anymore.
Great disc that. I know a lot of guys with discs, but no player these days. :P
my first contact with laserdisc was a public demo of AC/DC Live in Donington in 1994 and became immediately fan of the format, still watch them today, in fact, yesterday i watched PAL Tora Tora Tora , have about 300 titles.
I have 4 players all pioneers and 300 or so discs..love the concerts not available on bluray..They look great on a 1080p Panasonic ptae8000.projector 150"....nice review
Cheers!
You are so right my dude. Sweet, sweet nostalgia. 💿
You have a lot of excellent laser disc titles, ... Sweet!
My uncle had one back in the 80's and my best memory was watching Tron - One of the best movies ever made!
Tron is awesome! Saw it in the cinemas when it was released.
Very good video thank you, still using Laser Disc’s 😉👍
Cheers!
Flight of the Navigator!!! Loved that film. Amazing soundtrack!
I've heard the term Laserdisc before but never really looked into it, I never knew how big they were and how great the covers look
I too have a soft spot for Laserdisc. I remember the first time I saw the format it was in a Walker Scott store & there was a display of Laserdisc titles (DiscoVision as it was known at that time) & on the display it read something like..."Introducing TV you can play through your Stereo!" or something like that. Not really sure the format had the best promotion back then, but when I saw those shiny discs & some of the titles like "The Birds" "Psycho" "Earthquake" "Jaws" etc, I knew I had to have it. The rest is history.
Nothing beats the look of those big shiny discs. ;-)
I admire your nerdiness. I also have a laser disk player and my disks. I have moved on to Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray’s. I still Also have my dvds. I continue to buy my favorite movies with each new big aniversary re release. I have my space 1999 seasons 1 and 2 on laser disk dvd and Blu-ray.
I too have Blu-Ray and 4K in my projector home cinema room. ;-) I enjoy that as well.
@@5minutesofretro I plan on getting a projector. I have a 65 inch lg oled in my bedroom. I sit 6 feet from it. 😀
Do it!
I took interest in LaserDisc last year and got a player for Christmas. It's basic but works without any problem. I enjoy blu-ray, 4k but there's something charming about LD for sure. I also enjoy the jackets. Some movies I notice the color is different on later releases and prefer the LD for that too. I also have a few JP Laserdiscs. I enjoy it on my CRT TV but I also found it looks decent on my 4K TV. I don't use any noise reduction. I guess this tv has a good comb filter.
Cool man. I too enjoy other formats and I have a nice 4K projection setup where I play 2160 UHD discs. I do prefer laserdiscs though as they represent a time and magic that can never be surpassed. ;-)
Oh sure. I have the Criterion Laserdisc of Blade Runner which is the International Cut and was surprised how good it looks. @@5minutesofretro
I used to have a laserdisc player... but it broke, then someone threw it away on me. But i still do have a big stack of laserdiscs that i don't know what to do with. I actually want to give them away, as long as they're going to the right person, like someone who can use them.
I have been a laser disc fan since 1983. I have 2 Pioneer players ad 1 Panasonic player. Still love them! The audio is the best!
Awesome!
I don't know if you are still working this channel, but I have just discovered it, and have gone down a LD rabbit hole with this video! My husband saw his first LD movie at a friend's house on a wide screen tv (the movie was "Speed") and he was blown away. Within weeks he had a new tv, a Pioneer laserdisc player (CLD-D790) and started buying his favorite action movies on LD. Ths was in the late 1980's I think, a long time ago now! Over time he bought DVD players, BluRay players, etc. but always insisted the laser discs were the best reproduction of the films of that time. The last tv he bought before he died 2 years ago was a Samsung 65" flat screen, and the LDs still look fine to me. We would invite friends over for movie nights, and watching Twister, you could feel the wind (he put our ceiling fan on high speed to add to the ambience!). Independence Day was fun because he had an empty Coke can that he threw at the back of the room when the guy in the movie shot the can in the space ship. I got them out of the cupboard the other day, and showed a friend, who was very impressed. Box editions of Ben Hur, The Alamo, and action movies like True Lies, Volcano, The Abyss, and so on are apparently very cool now!
I'm still here and I have many exciting Laserdisc related videos coming down the line. Since this isn't my main channel I work this in between. ;-)
@@5minutesofretro Great! I 've subscribed now, so will get notifications
great video mr kraft.great memories when i just to borrow laser disc movies from you.i remember spes Aliens special edition,i borrowed it many times.i never forget when you bought a 50 inch pioneer tv.And i loved Laser Disc.)
It was a fun time Mr.Lie. Pool, 9-ball and Yahoo. ;-) I remember the 50 inch yes. Today we would probably not be able to see anything on there ha-ha. You getting the Star Wars trilogy on Laserdisc if I remember correctly. Great times!
The ancestor to the Digital Versatile Discs and Compact Discs.
Excellent video. What memories. I still have my LDs especially those that aren't available on streaming or blu-rays.
Thanks!
for example?
@@bertroost1675 Non-SE Star Wars, Abyss, True Lies, Golden Age of Looney Tunes uncensored, Song of the South Japanese edition to name a few
Excellent video and yes, many happy memories also. Hello from Chelsea, London ✌🏼
Thanks! I miss London, been there many times. Bought a lot of movies (mostly DVD's) over the years there as well.
I first got into laserdisc 2 years ago and still enjoying it today. Have many titles now.
Cool.
With me laserdiscs became a major part of my film viewing experience and even though it's easier now with no changing discs or anything but I think I had the most fun when I was first got into laserdiscs I think the first disc I bought was Aliens special box set,after that I was hooked my first player was the pioneer cld 504 then got the d604
I too remember the Aliens Special Box set and the circumstances leading up to me getting it. A magical time and memories etched into my soul.
@@5minutesofretro yes, I remember seeing it in a glass case at my local vhs rental store.He was a cool store owner he setup a glass case to put just that laserdisc in it to see if it would sell and I bought it right then and there.He sold the store a year later 2 yrs later but he was able to order laserdiscs for me then store l I ke Laserland started opening and then I was in awe I could spend hours there and my gam I ly would watch movies in the back where they had a couch and great setup I remember my son and wife where watching The Fugitve 1993 and it was loud and thats when I hooked up my system great years and great times nothing like laserdisc the artwork the box sets the special edition Criterion collection discs wow I would say from 1991 to 1997 where the best years of movie watching at least at home anyway great times won't happen again no matter if we have 4k 8k or anything it'll never be as fresh and new as when laserdisc was here.
Cool story! I agree to the full about nothing else today can match what we felt back in the day. We're so jaded now. Nothing really impresses any more. ;-)
@5minutesofretro 100% right, it's impossible to be impressed by anything now,its like been there done that or this is too much now if they somehow start making 8k discs I think that will be pushing it too far there areninky a few movies that would benefit 8k maybe Avatar films and or films made with 4 and 8k lenses 8k will look like crap on a 4k or 1080p tv most cable and streaming services still mainly use 1080p and some still use 1080i which would look terrible on 8k tvs
Glad you used the flight of the navigator cover art in your video. Finally tracked down the 2nd release and both covers look so menacing. I’ve heard the LD seen in Norway is amazing so keep sharing more videos about LDs.
Thanks! LD has a strong foothold here and I have several videos in the pipeline showcasing some of my favorites, setups and reviews etc. Cheers
I loved my local laser disc store. It sold and rented the discs. When things moved to DVD, I didn't realize certain titles like the Godfather Saga and Star Wars trilogy would never see a release on DVD or Blu Ray. This gives us a reason to keep laser disc relevant today.
These titles were released on DVD
@@xrrrismickey and bluray
@@xrrrismickey And Blu-ray.
@xrrrismickey the Godfather tv edit in chronological order was never released on dvd.
The unaltered versions of the star wars trilogy were released as bonus features using the same 1993 master created for laserdisc, so some people still seek out star wars on laserdisc because the dvd's aren't remastered.
Also certain audio mixes of star wars and the 1997 re-release never got a dvd version.
Wow. Those discs look beautiful.
Amazing video, thank you!
Thanks!
Wonderful presentation. Thanks Espen!
Many thanks!
I have a huge laserdisc collection that I am starting to catalog. I am now in my mid 50's and looking to start moving my collection as my children are not interested. If there are any collectors in the USA that are interested, please let me know. I live in Southern Indiana.
Nice to see other Laserdisc enthusiasts from Norway here, Nice and informative video :)
Moro! Mange takk! :) More videos to come.
@@5minutesofretro kult, sjekk gjerne ut kanalen min også,) er en del Laserdisc relaterte videoer der
Skal gjøre!
I grew up watching many films on laserdisc. The first time I ever saw the original Star Wars trilogy was on laserdisc. I have found memories and still know exactly what part in films I had to get up and flip the laserdisc.
Holy crap that dolby introduction takes me back reminds me how much i watched the matrix on dvd lol
still have mine bought several Pioneer models for 25 dollars each at hamfest a few years back watch mine on 43 in flat screen some look as good a DVD's or better go figure
Like your video. I still have my pioneer CLD-D406 laserdisc player and movies. and also have my RCA SELECTAVISION VIDEODISC PLAYER and movies. Thank you for the video 👍cool.
Awesome! Cheers!
I still have my Pioneer LaserDisc player and all my movies and music discs.
Awesome!
I have a large collection as well and old games as well. Still like them on newer screens as I never understood the desire to see scan lines even in my retro games.
Important note: the image on laserdiscs is analogue. So you have a certain number of lines of resolution, but no limited number of pixels per line. More of a dynamic range that gives you quite a high resolving power. Of course the TVs had a certain resolution of phosphor dots, but sampling from laserdiscs can yield quite a high horizontal resolution.
There were CRT televisions with 16/9 format ie Wide screen. Didn't have DVD better picture. Then there were laserdisc players with chart RGB. Sony had those. the picture got better, it was said. You probably didn't need to convert from NTCH to PAL either
You definitely needed a clean NTSC video out if you were to watch it in the best quality, from a NTSC disc. I had a Sony Wega 16:9 as the last CRT purchase.
I just bought a LD from Singapore and brought it back to europe. Some LD's are rare, hard to find, and very randomly found nowadays. BUT, it is what you seek is worth the value of some movies I find.
I have to admit I only clicked on your video to see if you were watching LaserDisc as it should be seen, which is on a CRT. And sure enough you're rocking a Sony Trinitron. Good man!
CRT is the "proper" way yes. ;-) I know some will disagree with us though :P
and they are - obviously - utterly wrong :P
I have about 30 laserdiscs. I was going to an Ernest Goes to Camp reunion in 2021 at the place where it was filmed (Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee) and they were gonna have three of the actors from the movie there to sign autographs. I was gonna take the DVD of the movie for them to sign but then I remembered I had the first four Ernest movies on laserdisc. I took my Ernest Goes to Camp laserdisc and the guy that played Counselor Stennis looked at it for a second and said "I never knew I was on laserdisc."
Cool story. Thanks for sharing!
Nice Set Up, Nice TV. The Best. Still have mind, and the last of the SONY TRINITRON XBR. Love the picture quality for the time. No gradients like you get on DVD. Wish they could be properly displayed on new tvs. At least the aspect ratio. Like Formated for Widescreen TV. Thanks. - Toronto, Canada.
Gradients is the worst part about DVDs yes. Cheers ;-)
I was so confused cause I had one of the first DVD Machines. I called up the manufacturer and asked them why they are claiming DVD is better when the picture quality doesn't match the laser disc. My example was the beginning of The Exorcist film and the bright sun. They told me it was because it was smaller in size, you didn't have to flip them, and came with multiple languages. But that I was correct that the laser disc picture is clearer than DVD. But then DVD started to get better with their compression and formatting for WideScreen TVs. I could go on...especially when earlier machines stop being able to play discs a year later, cause they needed firmware updates and their was no easy way for the consumer to get that done till eventually it level off and we started getting ethernet or wifi updates. Geez! :)
Still have mine!
Was the movie Island of Terror (Staring Peter Cushing) ever put on Laserdisc? If so did it show the FIRST autopsy of Ian Bellos performed by Dr. Landers and Constable Harris unedited? It was the scariest part of the entire movie and it is not shown on the VHS, DVD or Blu-ray versions!!!!! We can clearly see that it was edited out. You can hear very scary music playing for no apparent reason at the end of the autopsy!!! In the scene in the theater version you get to see up close the aftermath of a Silicate attack!!!!!
I used too own 3D0 Goldstar very good console, miss those days sorry I got rid of that first movie I had on that was Total Recall but you had get a adapter
Love the video. I share your passion.
Sweet!
I fell in love with Laserdisc the first time I ever saw it I bought my first movie in 1993 it was Cliffhanger since then I've been replacing my collection I'm currently on my 5th time replacing of my entire collection on 4k Uhd Blu-ray.
I feel the same. I just need a CRT tv to enjoy them fully.
Laser Disc is pretty cool.Laser Disc had great picture & Sound back in the day.I like the Jackets that the Disc came in,although I don’t miss flipping a Disc over & the picture quality is better on Blu Ray although the Sound can be better sometimes on a Laser Disc.
Nothing’s perfect!
Nice! Although not the same thing I've been collecting the Blu-ray and UHD big sleeve vinyl editions of films. I love the artwork and presence on the shelf of these editions 👍😎
There's something about that for sure. Cheers :)
Man that Japanese Flight of the Navigator looks awesome!
I love it!
My first device was vcr in the late '80s. Dvd player/recorder in 2000s. Now only stream.
One reason I love boutique labels so much is that they include the original mixes. I couldn't care less about a new 5.1 or 9.2.4 mix. Give me the original stereo and I'm good.
Exactly. Most of the time I listen in stereo as well. I've never been very interested in surround sound at all. I think it mostly interfere with what's on screen.
We had the poor mans version of Laserdisc back in the 1980s , A CED Disc player. , movies were on large 2 sided discs , housed in a hard plastic sleeve... basically these were vinyl records, played with a stylus
If you check out my Poltergeist video you'll see the CED version. ;-)
I did, super incredible collection! of one of my fav movies! @@5minutesofretro
I'm still buying discs people think i'm crazy. I got Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom and Last Crusade Hong Kong releases, and Temple of Doom Korean release. And i just got Star Wars The Definitive collection with the making of trilogy from Japan that was 200 dollars US. Huge box set, very impressive, got it for my birthday. I was smiling like a kid at Christmas getting something they always wanted. Its a set i wanted for twenty years.
I know exactly how you feel. ;-) I have the Definitive collection Japanese edition as well in my Star Wars collection.
Thank you for sharing
Cheers!
Some of the Criterion releases also have really good extras and sometimes you can find them really cheap (at least here where I live)
I really love to watch The Thing on LD, the scanlines give an awesome vibe
The only thing that bugs me on LD is needing to flip the disc in the middle of the movie, if it wasnt for it, it would be my favorite format
Lots of players will flip the side automatically. I have several that does this.
Still got many of mine plus a player for them.
Great collection, just curious, what is your experience with the dreaded “disc rot”?
I have very little disc rot in my collection. A couple of discs that locks up occasionally, but visually I can see nothing so it might not be that. Usually it's easy to spot on the disc itself.
I've never seen a laserdisc, and honestly, I don't think I really care to, because 4K Bluray on an OLED TV is so amazing
Sure, I don't think many people that didn't experience it in the late 80s and 90s will appreciate them very much today anyways.
I have mine hooked up to a 4k OLED and it looks surprisingly decent.
The format was capable of near dvd quality but was from a time when film to video transfers were less consistent.
@@Knightmessenger DVD is already awful in 2023. No thanks.
Long time no see! Great videos on the LD format! I remember when it had it's 'peak' over here. Terminator 2 in all its galore ;) ! It then faded from my mind, though when I moved to Japan I noticed just how popular that format had been (same with minidisc). In all HardOff's you'd find shelves of LD players, and there certainly was no shortage of movies either. Just got my hands on a bunch of LD anime series & movies (Just as I do with cool looking Vinyl Covers, I'm planning on framing a couple of the LD covers), so now I'm digging myself deeper into the world of LD's.... What player to get. You've got a PAL & NTSC, I'm planning on see what I can get directly from the JP market...NTSC converter? Where to find a nice 32" Widescreen CRT...and so on...and so on... (things I left behind many..many years ago). Anyways, I've watched your videos with a great interest! Cheers! =)
LDs rule in my world. ;-)
@@5minutesofretro and contrary to magnetic media, it retains quality over time (excl. the ”disc rot”) as well..and looks darn cool in general. :D
True. I have very little disc rot in my collection. Good storage has had a lot to say. I only wish I'd collected more CED and VHD video discs as well, but these were rare to find here in Norway at the time.
Great setup! I'd love to build something similar though AC3 Receivers are exceedingly rare and expensive in Australia and DC3 demodulators even more so. Are you running a 5.1 setup or do you run it in stereo? I couldn't see a centre. How big is your trinitron?
Thanks! I don't have a surround setup here in the CRT room. In fact, I don't like to watch laserdiscs with Dolby Digital encoding as it means it's not the original theatre stereo mix. Usually. I prefer to watch laserdisc to get as close as possible to the original experience in terms of picture and and sound. All the DST and Dolby Digital releases came later and they'd often remix the whole thing.
I do have a dedicated (Yamaha) AC3 decoder and it works very well though. I have that in my 4K projector room now so I CAN pull out a laserdisc and run it through my main surround speaker setup there.
I do have AC3 decoding in my Denon AVC-1 receiver as well though.
It's a 29" Sony Triniton from 1991.
18 seconds in, and I see my All Time Favourite move displayed: Walt Disney's Fantasia!
I'll do a video about that later. I have different releases of it.
@@5minutesofretro I bought it straight away when it was released on VHS, but that got stolen at one point. I got it later on DVD, and still have it. If you make a video about Fantasia, I'll be sure to watch it!!!
Great video thanks for sharing, enjoy your set up, I also use only a CRT for LD now, a B&O MX4000.
Thanks! That's a sweet TV.
I plan to collect laserdisc again once I move from this house that I'm living at and into a new house. I had to sell all of my laserdisc back in 2013 just so I could have some money
Plenty of laserdiscs out there. :)
Got mine in 2018, a CLD-D606, and then a LaserActive in 2020.
Cool!
I have had laserdisc for many years and the best way to watch is on a CRT projector if you have the room but i am getting a great picture on my Panasonic 65 inc LED LCD tv
Yes, a CRT projector is great. I was tempted to get a Barco, but decided I wanted to keep the same old TV I've always had. It just gives me the same feeling as I always had and that's in many ways the most important part. It's also great for retro gaming, where using a projector, of any kind, just sucks.
Looking behind you I have the Snow White, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Fantasia and Pochuntus boxed sets. Some of the extras on these discs still have not been released else where.
Exactly. Still worth collecting for such reasons. Many of the older releases also didn't see any censorship or change of color/sound either. Some of the newer color gradings are awful.
@@5minutesofretro Yes, that's right. However, I'm pleased to report the latest 4K versions of Snow White and Cinderella have reversed this trend. They have inbuilt grain and indications of the manual animation that has in the past been digitally corrected. The rumour is Sleeping Beauty is next.
Problem is they omit the original mono soundtracks from these 4K UHD releases. That's a big shame.
Funny you should mention you don't have any expensive LaserDiscs yourself, and then you proceed to show 'The Keep' ... one of the more expensive titles on the format ;)
Big fan of Norway, big a-ha fan. Still looking for a-ha LaserDiscs, haha.
Yeah, when I started to go through my collection just the other day I found discs more valuable than "The Keep" as well, but don't say it out loud. ;-) Big fan of A-ha myself. Cheers
@@5minutesofretro If you ever find 'Fakkeltog' by Bridges in the record store, give me a call ;)
Great record (meaning interesting). I don't have that one, but on the look myself. ;-)
Damn - I used to have this exact Laserdisc - Wish I wouldn't have given it away...
My favorite thing about laserdiscs is the theater Thx
I have roughly about 150 laserdiscs maybe 250. My player keeps ejecting the discs as soon as I close the tray so I haven't been able to enjoy them for quite some time.
You might have either a bad grip ring or perhaps a bad belt.
@Thedoomslayer2029 thank you but I can't work on electrics, I have to find a repair shop.
3:39 TURN IT UP!
-Grandpa Simpson ;)
:P
Happily, I ditched ALL my LDs in 1997 the instant DVDs arrived, so they were still worth something. I still keep one to remind me of all the money I pissed away on them. They're the only consumer electronics purchase I've ever regretted. Fortunately my Sony UHD player does a decent enough job upscaling my DVDs so I don't feel terrible about the $$ I spent on those. I replaced MANY of those titles with Blu-rays-I won't be doing that with UHD.
We never got into laser disk .... i remember them but we never bought into them.
My first laser disk was Monty Python and the Hoky Grail in my high school music class
LD, the best looking media ever made.
4K UHD WITH DOLBY ATMOS IS MY NEW FAVOURITE
It's a lot of fun.
The down side is swapping sides or discs halfway through the movie.
A lot of players do that for you.
Upside. It’s an intermission and gives you the opportunity to use the restroom and get another beer.
The players that do play both sides are more complex and subject to malfunction...I owned one that bit the dust while the simpler versions where you flip the disc have lasted25-30 years!@@5minutesofretro
@@ryanyoder7573 Yes! That is what we used to do - invite a few friends around, watch the first disc, open another can/bottle/put the kettle on, and then watch the second disc!
An old friend of mine (before I moved city and later, country) was a big LD fan. He had a nice collection of discs, but if friends came over to watch, they always wanted to see the same film (The Abyss, if memory serves me well). So he got rather fed up of that one.
I know how he feels. I have a great vintage video game collection and all people want to play when they come over is Super Mario Brothers on NES.
I only saw laserdisc demonstrated once, in about 1981 in woolworths. And never saw or or heard of it again, until quite recently on youtube.
It was massive in the late 80s up until the mid 90s, but mostly among movie buffs. In Japan it had about 10% of the home video market and in Europe where I live it was also very popular.
Was not popular in the UK, don’t remember ever seeing them for sale, even in the oxford circus hmv which seemed to have everything
Well, I saw plenty of them in the UK, in the early to mid 90s, but of course it was always an enthusiast format and as such no where near the popularity of VHS that seemed good enough for 95% of home movie people.
@@5minutesofretro I'm in the UK as well, but I didn't go looking for laserdisc in the specialist type places. And can't recall seeing it in regular high street retailers like Dixons, Comet, or Currys, apart from the one time I saw laserdisc been promoted in Woolworths circa 1981.
I have all my CDs and floppies - 3.5 and 5.25 inch !
Nostalgia is a real thing of course- but buddy - I get that from my 77” sony A80j, panny ubp9000 combo, watching Mavrick! Have fun though. ❤
Sure, I have a dedicated home cinema with 4K projection and Dolby Atmos. Great fun. I still prefer my Laserdisc setup upstairs though. ;-)
Yes
Love it!
Nice stack of C&VG!
Cheers!
The last one i got was Star Trek Insurrection. I haven't got around to watching it yet. But it has full LPCM and AC3 tracks. The original theatrical mix which isn't on the 4K. I love my anime collection, James Bond. Star Wars. Its a great way to enjoy them. I have an old TV to watch them on they look terrible on my HDTV.
Always treasured my James Bond on LD too. ;-)
Is that a Denon A1D ? I sold mine but was the first “flagship” bit of tech I ever had. Still have my 919e
It's a A1SE so another version, but yes. ;-)
@@5minutesofretro cracking bit of kit. Can still remember going and buying mine after get my first decent “real” job. Got a pair of b&w 603s2s and a cc6 at same time. Was like a kid at Xmas
I can imagine.
My one regret was buying vhs in the 1980s instead of diving into laserdisc.
I ended up giving all my vhs away when dvd came out.
I think if I had jumped into laserdisc my collection would be in the 3000 mark . Still kept all my DVDs even when upgrading to 4k or Blu Ray .
I only upgrade my favourite dvd movies to 4k.
Hang on to your DVDs, lots of Blu-ray releases alters the movies in different ways so Laserdisc and to some degree DVD is the only way to see them as they were intended to be seen. And heard.
Noice :-) glad the demod's getting some love :-) enjoy my friend it served me well .. nice video but dont knock the flat screen's for cinema experience, but i get it 👍👍👍👍
It works very well so all good! :) I have both a big flat screen TV and a projector in my main cinema room so not knocking it at all, I just prefer to watch LDs on my old CRT, up on the attic. ;-) Cheers
Cool. I envy you for having a properly working unit.
My Sony laserdisc (with a Pioneer OEM mechanism) broke down so I repaired it myself by transplanting components from another unit which worked well for a while, but soon it died the exact same way as the first time. They all seem to have design flaws.
I have 3 players. 2 that has been refurbished with new belts, greased up and some caps replaced. I have 1 player that's never been fixed up, but it still works great. I've had different players as well and not one of them has ever broken down so I can't say my experience is that they've had any design flaws at all. All Pioneers.
I've got a couple Sony players that had some problems.
The adhesive in the disc clamp tends to get sticky and glue the clamp and spindle shut -- but that can be fixed by carefully separating them and cleaning off the offending adhesive.
The main problem is bad caps. There is a PSU board and a main board with a ton of caps on it. Both may have issues, but on the main board, it tends to take some nearby traces and vias out. That can be a real bear to troubleshoot.
One other unit fried the tilt motor by running at full rail voltage because the ground plane had cracked completely through. Those old phenolic boards aren't very durable, and if the unit gets jostled too much in shipping, it'll stress the PCB and crack anywhere it's held tight by mounting screws.
Aside from that, the Sony players are pretty reliable. Which may sound like "except for all their many flaws, they're great!" -- but really, those are "vintage electronics" problems more than Sony problems.
I have another player sold by Kenwood that looks to be a Panasonic design, but it's very similar to Pioneer's way of doing things. It had some mechanical issues that I've mostly fixed. Now I just have to repair the front lid so it won't fall off when opening the tray. :-P
These things aren't guaranteed to be maintenance-free, but if you're willing to get in there and potentially make things worse before making them better, they can be brought back from the dead.
I believe the main problem is the mirrors coming loose and out af alignment