I notice there starting to pop up, so I thought it might be a good idea to have a dedicated sub catergoryintroduction thread. That way we could have where people are from and when/why they got into laserdiscs ect all in the one thread, instead of mixed through the welcome to LDDB section. Just a thought. I'd particularly like to hear about Julians (admin) story. When did you buy your first laserdisc?

Just created a "Presentation thread", sounds about right to put it aside from other discussions!

And to answer your question... Even as a young kid, I was never happy with the overall quality of VHS and bought maybe 3 in 15 years (Star Wars, Le Grand Bleu, Blues Brothers, that's it).

But I had experienced LDs at a friend's big brother's place when I was about 15. It was only Europe in America (1987) [080 370-1] but I liked the sound and quality a lot more.

I got to get into movies as I grew older and, at that time, you had to wait 2 full years to get a movie to be aired on (private, paying) TV and another 1 to 2 years to see it on public TV. I didn't want to wait. And I wanted the original soundtrack, not a badly dubbed one. I could buy imported US NTSC LDs in some dedicated shops. But they weren't cheap at all. I think the price for regular releases was around 250 FF or about $50~60 for each, up to 500~1000 FF for regular Criterion ($250). That was quite a budget for the student I was back in the end of the 90's.

The only way to afford this was to give private maths lessons and mod PlayStation (1) for a fee. Then I could buy 2 or 3/months. In some cases, I would be able to buy the imported LD even before the theater release in France (Scream 2, Alien Resurrection). I had 10+ LDs way before I ever got a player (Pioneer CLD-D925).

I think the first one was: Fifth Element, The (1997) [82406] (luckily the Pioneer pressing)

Then I moved to Japan and started buying hundreds of them. Got a CLD-R5 (the D925 is in the league of the CLD-R4 in Japan), then a LD-S9 (Nicolas Santini), then finally a HLD-X9 in 2003 (Akihabara). By that time I had above 1,500 LDs.

Talk about "missed opportunity". I think I was buying back all the LDs I was dreaming of but could never afford... only at a discounted rate and in volume when most people left LD to DVD

Here you go!

What a story !
Thanks for sharing that Julien !
So thats how it alll started !?!
WOW......

That's really good. And you have stuck with LD ever since, it seems!

I did buy DVDs like a pig at the beginning but slowed down after about 50... Unhappy with the crappy packaging, the errors in mastering settings, the overall dull bonuses, the too 5.1-aggressive remix, the compressed stereo tracks where LPCM would have been a better choice, etc.

Jumped back a little for HD DVD but skipping BluRay. If I'm going to spend money on movies these days, it's going to be on IMAX theaters now that they can release IMAX conversion of regular releases at the same time.

I have to confess I saw "Batman: Dark Night" 1 times in 35mm and... 3 times in IMAX...
It's just SO good. Hard to get back to 35mm after that!

But I'd say that I'm content-oriented more than format-oriented. I never stopped listening to LPs even when everyone was dropping it for CDs. My parents' MOTOWN collection surely helped!

And, somehow, there is something a little too "disposable" about today's Hollywood movies. I can hardly find 5 movies I'd like to buy each year and watch over and over again like some of the 60/70/80's classics. They don't have the depth that make them truly enjoyable at different levels.

Maybe:

• "Matrix" (only the 1st one, but oh... Keanu Reeves is such a bad actor)
• "Pirates of the ..." (only the first one, for humor)
• "Dark Night" (if you remove all the annoying Harvey Dent scenes)
• "Lord of the Rings" once in a while.
• "Kill Bill" (1st part)
• The Studio Ghibli's productions directed by Hayao Miyazaki
• PIXAR productions

I agree with a lot of what you said Julien, but I also think there are a lot of great films out on the festival circuit right now that you seem to be missing out on.

Thanks for creating this wonderful community of laserdisc lovers & giving us a place to catalogue our collections