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 Post subject: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 17 Nov 2017, 06:24 
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Hello everyone. I'm a long time laserdisc fan who is just getting back in to the format.

I bought my first and only player, a Sony MDP 600, from Circuit City way back in 1994. I used the bonus from my first "real" job to get it. I honestly can't remember what drew me to LD in the first place. It may have been my love of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace in the 80s.

I rented discs regularly throughout the mid-90s. My roommate at the time used to joke that I'd seen just about every movie that was out, which made it hard to rent something that I hadn't seen. It is funny to look back on that time and think about having to actually go somewhere to rent discs. Fortunately, where I lived in the Chicago suburbs the rental stores all had a great selection of laserdiscs to choose from.

I started building a small collection of LDs from Columbia House right around the time laserdisc started to fade out due to the release of the DVD format.

In 1997, my best friend (who also has an MDP 600) modded both of our machines with an AC3 output. Neither of us even had AC3 decoders or receivers so we hauled our machines over to another friends house who had the right gear to see if the AC3 really worked. It did. And that was the first and only time the AC3 output was used on my player for the next 23 years.

I've had my MDP 600 hooekd up to my TV and receiver for the last 10 years but never really watched anything. My discs sat in storage, unwatched.

Within the last few weeks, for no real reason, the LD bug bit again. I went out on eBay, found and bought a LD of an old favorite movie (Colossus: the Forbin Project) and rediscovered why I love laserdisc. That's when I joined the forum here.

My current receiver has an AC3 decoder but no AC3RF input. So I picked up a Yamaha ADP-1 decoder and for the first time in 23 years, I watched an LD movie (Goldeneye) with full 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. Incredible stuff.

So here I am. I've started picking up some older titles to add to my collection and have been watching LD movies again and enjoying the experience - just like I did so many years ago.

Sure, newer formats are superior to LD, but there is just soemthing really pure about watching a movie on laserdisc.

I'm glad to be here on the forum and I'll try to contribute where I can.

Randy
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 17 Nov 2017, 08:54 
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randyv wrote:
Sure, newer formats are superior to LD


er, no they're not..

Quote:
there is just soemthing really pure about watching a movie on laserdisc.


that's why 8-)
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 17 Nov 2017, 10:45 
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Welcome back to the format and welcome to the forum! We're mostly a friendly bunch here so I hope you have a great time here.

Interesting to hear your story, particularly about the AC3 mods. Did you and your friend get them done just because you could? Glad it's finally getting used now : )
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 17 Nov 2017, 22:21 
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randyv wrote:
Hello everyone. I'm a long time laserdisc fan who is just getting back in to the format.

I bought my first and only player, a Sony MDP 600, from Circuit City way back in 1994. I used the bonus from my first "real" job to get it. I honestly can't remember what drew me to LD in the first place. It may have been my love of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace in the 80s.

I rented discs regularly throughout the mid-90s. My roommate at the time used to joke that I'd seen just about every movie that was out, which made it hard to rent something that I hadn't seen. It is funny to look back on that time and think about having to actually go somewhere to rent discs. Fortunately, where I lived in the Chicago suburbs the rental stores all had a great selection of laserdiscs to choose from.

I started building a small collection of LDs from Columbia House right around the time laserdisc started to fade out due to the release of the DVD format.

In 1997, my best friend (who also has an MDP 600) modded both of our machines with an AC3 output. Neither of us even had AC3 decoders or receivers so we hauled our machines over to another friends house who had the right gear to see if the AC3 really worked. It did. And that was the first and only time the AC3 output was used on my player for the next 23 years.

I've had my MDP 600 hooekd up to my TV and receiver for the last 10 years but never really watched anything. My discs sat in storage, unwatched.

Within the last few weeks, for no real reason, the LD bug bit again. I went out on eBay, found and bought a LD of an old favorite movie (Colossus: the Forbin Project) and rediscovered why I love laserdisc. That's when I joined the forum here.

My current receiver has an AC3 decoder but no AC3RF input. So I picked up a Yamaha ADP-1 decoder and for the first time in 23 years, I watched an LD movie (Goldeneye) with full 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. Incredible stuff.

So here I am. I've started picking up some older titles to add to my collection and have been watching LD movies again and enjoying the experience - just like I did so many years ago.

Sure, newer formats are superior to LD, but there is just soemthing really pure about watching a movie on laserdisc.

I'm glad to be here on the forum and I'll try to contribute where I can.

Randy


Hi Randy,

Welcome to LDDb and to the forum. We're glad to have you on board with us here! Your unique perspective on things is always welcome here, so just feel free to chime in whenever you feel you have something to offer to the discussion. I couldn't agree with you more about the purity of watching a movie on laserdisc. There's truly nothing quite like it, a genuinely special experience! There was a time when I too drifted away from collecting LDs for a short period in the early new millenium. This was shortly after the format had been pushed aside by the fledgling DVD format, and all of my local sources had dried up. However, this period didn't last too long, maybe 2 or 3 years. Then, I discovered eBay, as well as this wonderful place that Julien created for us. Shortly thereafter, the magic returned, and all of my fond memories came rushing back! I was drawn back in, and I've never looked back! :thumbup: My collection once again began to grow, and has flourished in the subsequent years, particularly since I discovered the wealth of material available in the Asian import markets, things I never knew existed before! You see, no one in my local area ever sold Asian imports back in the day. The disc you mentioned, the Colossus: The Forbin Project/Silent Running double feature is a really nice piece to have. I own it myself, and I bought my copy used, although in very good condition. At the time I bought it, it was a fairly hard piece to come by, and generally went for a pretty high price. Needless to say, I was thankful when I located a nice copy without having to give a fortune for it. I looked at your collection listing, and although not a big collection (yet), you have some nice titles. You said you would "try to contribute where I can". Well, I'll tell you one place where you can contribute something already. Why don't you start by taking pictures of the front and back covers of the "Speed Racer: The Movie" disc that you own, and send them to Julien so he can add pictures of that disc to the site? I noticed it's the only disc in your collection which is not yet pictured here on LDDb. I'm sure Julien would be most grateful to you if you are able to do that, as well as all of the other users here who would like to see what it looks like! That would be a great starting point for something you can contribute to the site right away! No one else who owns that disc has ever bothered to do that up to now. I'm sure Julien would love to add pictures of it, and it sure would look good to see your name listed as the member who contributed them! :thumbup: I am just finishing up a batch of cover photos myself of recent additions to my collection which I hope to send to Julien in the next few days. There are over 125 of them, and he will really be busy for a while after I get those to him! :lol: So, you see, you only just joined us here, and already you have something to offer! It's great having you back in the worldwide laserdisc community, and we'll look forward to hearing from you in the future!

Best Regards,
David :wave:
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 18 Nov 2017, 00:25 
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Hello Randy & thanks for a very interesting intro.

Enjoy your time on the lddb site, lots of info & very useful indeed.

Cheers for now,

John
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 18 Nov 2017, 03:55 
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Welcome back to the fold .........

Cheers
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 18 Nov 2017, 06:13 
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hippiedalek wrote:
Welcome back to the format and welcome to the forum! We're mostly a friendly bunch here so I hope you have a great time here.

Interesting to hear your story, particularly about the AC3 mods. Did you and your friend get them done just because you could? Glad it's finally getting used now : )
We did the AC3 mod because we are just geeks. :) I was also engaged to my wife at the time and she and I were building a new place. I was expecting to build a home theater so having AC3 was something I was going to need.

Back then, I found a guy on the internet who had posted the parts needed (from Radio Shack) to build the interface board, how to assemble it and where to solder it in to the audio section of the MDP 600. At the time, I couldn't solder to save my life and my buddy has a degree in electrical engineering, so I bought the parts and he put everything together and installed it in the machines.

I Google'd the other night to see if I could find that original mod docs -- but no luck. I did, however, find my original post from 1997 on the old alt.video.laserdisc newsgroup asking about it. Nothing on the internet ever goes away and it was kind of funny re-reading my post from 20 years ago. I had a good laugh at how much I truly did not understand.

Randy
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 18 Nov 2017, 06:22 
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laserking wrote:
Why don't you start by taking pictures of the front and back covers of the "Speed Racer: The Movie" disc that you own, and send them to Julien so he can add pictures of that disc to the site?
Thanks for the warm welcome David. Sounds like you and I took similar paths. I think I've bought 10 or so discs in the last few weeks and every night I find myself browsing people who have discs for sale here and on eBay. It's been a lot of fun to rediscover how much material was released on laserdisc.

Funny you mention the Speed Racer: The Movie disc covers. I noticed those pictures were missing from the database and had planned to send them to Julien. I wasn't exactly sure how to do that since they're way too big to scan. I guess taking a picture is the way to do it.

Glad to be here and thanks again for replying to my intro post!

Randy
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 18 Nov 2017, 06:27 
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Just a quick thanks to everyone for the welcome messages. I was a lurker here for a couple of weeks before I posted. From what I have seen so far, the community here is really great. A big thanks to Julien for creating and hosting the site.

It really reminds me of the early days of the internet when forums (or newsgroups, I suppose) were places where great people could exchange information and the drama was non-existent.

Randy
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 18 Nov 2017, 13:03 
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randyv wrote:
Just a quick thanks to everyone for the welcome messages. I was a lurker here for a couple of weeks before I posted. From what I have seen so far, the community here is really great. A big thanks to Julien for creating and hosting the site.

It really reminds me of the early days of the internet when forums (or newsgroups, I suppose) were places where great people could exchange information and the drama was non-existent.

Randy


Greetings Randyv,

So grateful to have members such as yourself join this site...It's very simple really ''we all get it, where you're coming from that is''

After reading your introduction I felt compelled to write the following;

Of what you shared struck a chord with a number of members and no doubt, when others come along to your post will also strike a few personal keys of their own, in showing appreciation and to concur with that connection, the passion & depth that we all have for this fine format that is of Course Laserdisc.

To those members who wrote each welcome to Randy: Firehorse_44, Je280, Laserking, Hippiedalek, Forper,
Randy my Friend you are in good company so very welcome to you and thank you for sharing a little about yourself.

I have to mention the reply / Welcome from Laserking WOW! That was a good read Squire.

The reason for writing all of your names within the welcome, is due to one's personal respect and gratitude for the community here.

Randy We all look forward to reading more from yourself in good time and with no pressure.

Take care everyone and hope that you are all well and taking good care of yourselves.

Enjoy spinning those Disc's,

Kindest Regards

Mark :thumbup: :wave: :thumbup: :wave:
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 18 Nov 2017, 22:30 
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randyv wrote:
laserking wrote:
Why don't you start by taking pictures of the front and back covers of the "Speed Racer: The Movie" disc that you own, and send them to Julien so he can add pictures of that disc to the site?
Thanks for the warm welcome David. Sounds like you and I took similar paths. I think I've bought 10 or so discs in the last few weeks and every night I find myself browsing people who have discs for sale here and on eBay. It's been a lot of fun to rediscover how much material was released on laserdisc.

Funny you mention the Speed Racer: The Movie disc covers. I noticed those pictures were missing from the database and had planned to send them to Julien. I wasn't exactly sure how to do that since they're way too big to scan. I guess taking a picture is the way to do it.

Glad to be here and thanks again for replying to my intro post!

Randy


Hi Randy,

Yes, taking a picture is definitely the best course of action. Due to the unusual large dimensions of the laserdisc jacket, it can't be scanned with a normal size scanner. It would have to be a large industrial type of scanner. I looked into having this done at a local print/copy shop several years ago. They told me that they could do it for me, but it was going to be entirely too cost prohibitive, since at the time I had several thousand of my discs which did not have cover photos on LDDb. I wanted, if at all possible, to add all of the missing ones to the database, so that everyone here would be able to look at them at their leisure, and enjoy the beauty of these rare treasures. I opted instead to invest in a good quality digital camera and take the pictures myself, as well as performing the editing/cropping duties on my own, to save a great deal of money which it would have cost to have someone do it for me. The initial investment in the camera was not insignificant, but it was much less than I could have spent farming out the task to a "professional". As you can imagine, it takes a fair amount of time when you are doing several thousand pictures, but once you get the hang of it, the process speeds up considerably. I'm not the least bit sorry that I have done it, as this hobby has been a labor of love to me for many years. I enjoy sharing it with like-minded individuals, such as the fine folks who frequent this marvelous site. Julien seems to have been happy with the results I have obtained, so it appears that I'm doing a reasonably satisfactory job with it. If you have a decent quality digital camera, I'm sure that you will have no trouble doing the same. If you click on the "wanted poster" icon on any page with a missing cover photo, you will see Julien's advice on how to do it. You just e-mail the pictures to him after you have them cropped down to just the jacket itself. They need to be JPEG format photos between 400 and 800 pixels square after cropping out the background. Mine are usually around 740-760 pixels square, and Julien seems to have no problem with them at that size. Also, please give Julien the LDDB number of the title for each cover photo you are sending to him. You will find this number on the page for the title right below the "wanted poster" icon. This is the internal cataloging number he assigns to each release here on the website. By giving him this number for each cover photo you are sending to him, it makes his job much easier when he adds them to the database for everyone to see. You may have to play around with it a little to get the lighting just right for a clear view of the jacket with no glare or reflection from the light showing to ruin the quality of the picture. With a little practice, I'm sure you will become a pro at it in no time at all. Good luck, and we'll look forward to perhaps seeing those front and back cover photos for "Speed Racer: The Movie" here very soon, with your username right below them in the lower left corner of the listing page! :thumbup:

Best Regards,
David :wave:
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 19 Nov 2017, 04:52 
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laserking wrote:
If you have a decent quality digital camera, I'm sure that you will have no trouble doing the same.
Oh yeah - have a good Canon P&S camera and if that fails me, my friend I mentioned above (the one who did the AC3 hack) has a really, really high-end Nikon digital SLR. I have some time to kill tonight so I think I'll try getting that done.

Thanks for the info on the JPG dimensions. That'll save me some time.

Randy
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 20 Nov 2017, 00:30 
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Submitted the Speed Racer: The Movie covers to Julien (and even spelled his name wrong in the email I sent him ... ugh). Told him to write me back if they weren't good enough to post on the site...
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 20 Nov 2017, 03:43 
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randyv wrote:
Submitted the Speed Racer: The Movie covers to Julien (and even spelled his name wrong in the email I sent him ... ugh). Told him to write me back if they weren't good enough to post on the site...


Added!

Speed Racer: The Movie (1993) [LD 27505]

Julien
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 20 Nov 2017, 23:29 
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randyv wrote:
Submitted the Speed Racer: The Movie covers to Julien (and even spelled his name wrong in the email I sent him ... ugh). Told him to write me back if they weren't good enough to post on the site...


Hi Randy,

Thanks for sending the pictures to Julien. Man, he really got on adding those fast! They look great here on the site! I'm not sure if you have taken a look at them yet. When you do, please notice your username right below them on the listing page. See, you have already made a difference here for the benefit of everyone! :clap: Please don't hesitate to do the same with any discs you might add to your collection in the future that are missing cover photos. Also, feel free to add any information that is missing from any of the titles you might acquire. Anything you are able to fill in on the listing pages would be greatly appreciated as well. Just remember that it all has to be validated by Julien before it gets added to the site. This can sometimes take a little time, because he can get rather busy handling this when many users submit information to him. Keep in mind that he has to fit all of this work he does on the site around his sometimes hectic schedule with his "real job". This can be challenging at times, so please be patient with him. He handles all of this with a real sense of pride and excellence. :thumbup: It's the price we have to pay for the site to be maintained with as much accuracy and legitimacy as possible. In the long run, we all benefit from doing it the right way. We'll look forward to your future contributions, and to hearing from you often on The Forum!

Best Regards,
David
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 Post subject: Re: Long Time Fan Coming Back to LD
PostPosted: 21 Nov 2017, 00:58 
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