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 Post subject: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2018, 02:57 
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I'm just gonna come out and say it, Laserdisc didn't really hold much of an interest to me before, beyond the "wow" factor. My first, and to date, only brush with the format was at a trade show back in the late 90's, some guy was playing movie trailers off a Laserdisc (the only one I remember was the Roland Emmerich Godzilla), and I still remember my "what is THAT" reaction to seeing it. This was back before DVD had made any appearance over here so I was completely unaware of any sort of disc-based video media. The existence of CD-ROMs seemed to have just completely passed my mind.

That all changed when discovered I actually do need to get into it because I came across one title that I really wanted, but it hasn't been released on DVD at all, and VHS is pretty terrible from a collecting perspective. And that title is "The Mind's Eye" - the sequels to which do exist on DVD, but apparently aren't very good from a technical standpoint. And those DVDs all came out nearly 20 years ago, there's no re-release in sight (or the release of the first one, which Simitar skipped for some reason), and I don't see that changing anytime soon, so LD really is the only way to go here.

Unfortunately for me I also live in Finland, and the format never picked up here except as a karaoke machine, so outside of those, the only players I ever see crop up for sale are probably ones originally imported by their owners way back, who undoubtedly paid through the nose for the privilege. Fat chance of finding one in a thrift shop or a flea market.

I'm this close to finally buying a player, but I'm getting cold feet - it's not exactly a high-end player (nor could I afford one), nor is it all that expensive, but with all the whole prospect of the player breaking down and being damn near impossible for me to repair (both because of my lack of tech savvy and the lack of replacement parts), this whole endeavour just seems like yet another one of those luxuries that make my heart go "yes!" but my wallet go "no!". In the other hand, everything might turn out fine, the player will last longer than my interest in the format and doesn't turn into a boat anchor in a couple of months like that blu-ray player I got a few years back.

So I guess this is less of a "say hi to a (potential) new collector!" and more of a "please talk me out of getting into this expensive hobby that you're all into so I'm sure you're totally going to give me an unbiased advice!" post. :mrgreen:
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2018, 09:21 
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I would not buy into LD because of The Mind’s Eye. Or, I don’t know, it’s kind of the epitome of the LD era in a lot of ways I guess but you have to have special interest in animation that was once great but now seems hugely unimpressive and of course electronic music that has saxophones in it for some reason. :)

Don’t get into LD for a specific title. Get into it because you want to get into it. To be honest though I wouldn’t recommend any noobs getting into LD.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2018, 12:08 
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What a tough post to follow ... Geez signofzeta, your getting too predictable brother .......
I waited to post cause I had a feeling your opinion was coming .......

Now to counter the first post to your noob query takeshi666.

I advise moderation. Get a player of ANY kind, preferred is a semi good resolution model. (Quite happy with my DVL-919's)
Find some material that interests you and enjoy it.... Period.....Amen .....

Simple, non addicted enjoyment of LaserDiscs is possible. One does not not have to invest fort knox, thus no meals or homes need to go to the wayside.
If you click with the format, go with it .... if not, no harm no foul .......

I find music LaserDisc's to be quite enjoyable.......
Documentary type LD's are occupying a good deal of space on my shelves currently.
As an old sci fi buff, revisiting classic yarns from the 70's, 60's, and 50's is my fav thing to do when in the mood for a flick .....
I would own a LaserDisc Player JUST to play Kubrick movies for the wonder and splendor of his creative talent .......

If you have an ADDICT type personality then you may wish to just avoid LaserDisc completely .....
Inoculate yourself to wasting too much resources from the beginning so as not to fall into that pitfall...... :twisted:

Basically go with your gut..... Only you can choose to "go or no go" down that road of shiny spinning wonderment .... :angel:

Good fortune,

Cheers

JCA aka firehorse_44
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2018, 14:54 
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Laserdisc collecting is something you can start gradually and add further titles as you see fit.

I remember one infamous buyer from the UK who claimed he was going to buy every LD title ever released!
Well that same person couldn't even complete his first LDDB.com transaction for a set of cheap PAL LDs he ordered from me. :lol:

I've been collecting for 12 years and own about 10,000 LDs now but you don't have to follow suit!
Most of my collection are music titles but I'd be inclined to agree with signofzeta that Mind's Eyes is certainly no classic!
With its dated graphics and even more dated synth music its not one that springs to mind as an essential purchase but I guess whatever floats your boat.

Just don't fall for the common mistake of buying the first player you see which comes with 200 free discs most of which are rubbish.
Better to locate a player at your leisure and build the kind of collection you want rather than endup with a pile of unwanted titles from someone else.

Like firehorse_44 says you don't need to sell your home to finance LDs unless you want everything now and also all of the rarest titles at once - If that's what your aim is then your home may not cover it!! Most titles are pretty inexpensive still. The main issue is the shipping costs so I'd advise researching a cheap source and purchase the ones you really want in batches to keep costs down.

Other than that's its a great hobby and one you will likely not regret.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2018, 19:30 
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signofzeta wrote:
I would not buy into LD because of The Mind’s Eye. Or, I don’t know, it’s kind of the epitome of the LD era in a lot of ways I guess but you have to have special interest in animation that was once great but now seems hugely unimpressive and of course electronic music that has saxophones in it for some reason. :)

I've always gotten a big kick out of the really early computer generated imagery. It's actually far more impressive to me than most modern CGI solely because of the effort that went into making it. I mean sure, I guess it still takes a lot of effort, but now it's more dependent on the artist than the limitations of the hardware and software. Luckily there doesn't seem to be a shortage of this sort of material on the LD format, even beyond series like The Mind's Eye or Dream Machine. That era really kind of came to a close with Toy Story - a title I actually considered getting on LD as well, just as a kind of a bookend entry.

I guess I just find the idea of getting into a format like the LD just for specific novelty content like this hugely appealing. Like that old Discovision promo disc, it'd be perfect for when I have guests over and need something to show it off with - Leonard Nimoy talking to a beeping rock, how can you say no to that :mrgreen:

Plus a lot of the titles I'm interested in are far from rare and valuable so it's a kind of thing I could easily buy one or two of each month.

firehorse_44 wrote:
I advise moderation. Get a player of ANY kind, preferred is a semi good resolution model. (Quite happy with my DVL-919's)

The one I'm eyeballing is a CLD-950 - definitely not a high-end model, but it does fill my sole requirements for getting any sort of player at all, which are getting it from a seller closeby (even if the player is cheap, the shipping from somewhere like the US would be murder), playing both NTSC and PAL, and actually working. Considering I don't own any sort of a home theater amp or anything, I wouldn't have much use for AC3 or DTS capability anyway.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2018, 21:58 
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The main reason I got into LD was for Japanese animation. This was 1992 when it was still being released every week, if not something new then something from the late 60s on up. As LD was dying in 2000 or so, so was the anime industry as I knew it, the shows were getting really derivative and cels were being phased out.

So in the LD ends up being, by hook or by crook, the best format for collecting anime from this era. The same can be true when it comes to certain kinds of sports and music release which will never be reprinted for mutiple reasons. Early “shot on film” CG...yeah, is pretty well represented as well. If it’s really your thing then there are probably at least a dozen LD-only releases.

The reason I dissuade noobs is because most of them just watch too much YouTube junk and think they need LD because of that time they saw one when they were eight. There are too many players being broken in the mail for people to own an LD player for a week. If you at least know what you want and it’s not six copies of Red October then I think you’re on the right track.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 02 Feb 2018, 22:23 
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signofzeta wrote:
There are too many players being broken in the mail for people to own an LD player for a week.

You watch LDF too then? This factor alone makes me cringe. Though TBH my first attempt to import a Japanese player via ebay gave the same result. Found a proxy bidder and specified the packaging I wanted and multiple imports since with no problem.
Perhaps we need an FAQ on player shipping (it's going to happen after all - let's minimise the risks?).
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 03 Feb 2018, 00:17 
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signofzeta wrote:
The main reason I got into LD was for Japanese animation. This was 1992 when it was still being released every week, if not something new then something from the late 60s on up. As LD was dying in 2000 or so, so was the anime industry as I knew it, the shows were getting really derivative and cels were being phased out.


I think you're a bit older than me or were a rich kid. In 1992 I was 14 years old and went to some of my first anime society meetings. The adult public servants who earned good money and ran the meetings had LD equipment they'd bring in and I saw some of their LD collections later.

Delivering papers I wasn't ever going to be able to afford LD in 1992 but I scammed and traded and sold off and was able to get a lot of fansubs, bootlegs and official US tapes with subs over the '90s.

Yeah it was the best time for anime but if you didn't have money you couldn't get into LD back then. I had to wait until 2000 to get my first title in a bargain bin in Ikebukuro from part time English teaching and scholarship money, 2001 to get my first player at a pawn store in Australia which was PAL only and I returned and then had other interests like clothes.

Finally got a working player in 2009 and have been slowly collecting since then. Still earn a lot less than average in my country and rent eats up almost all of my income so even though I don't own a car, don't travel, don't eat out I can only afford some meagre LD titles each year. My biggest regret was saving up and buying a "serious" player. a "refurbished Pioneer LD-S9. Broke within a month and cost me over $1000 to import in 2014. I hate how it looks too. Wish I'd spent that on a Sony MDP-999, looks better, much more reliable on all accounts and I would have had change left over. You should never follow the heard.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 03 Feb 2018, 00:42 
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audioboyz1973 wrote:
signofzeta wrote:
There are too many players being broken in the mail for people to own an LD player for a week.

You watch LDF too then? This factor alone makes me cringe. Though TBH my first attempt to import a Japanese player via ebay gave the same result. Found a proxy bidder and specified the packaging I wanted and multiple imports since with no problem.

What is LDF and do I even want to know?

Also I don't need to be reminded of the risks; I dread that after dishing out the cash, all I end up with is a broken player, a big hole in my wallet, a lot of tears - and guilt over being partly responsible for the dwindling number of functioning players in the wild.

But again, like I said, I should also stop being such a pessimist. Expect the worst but hope for the best, right?

forper wrote:
Finally got a working player in 2009 and have been slowly collecting since then. Still earn a lot less than average in my country and rent eats up almost all of my income so even though I don't own a car, don't travel, don't eat out I can only afford some meagre LD titles each year.

I'm in the same spot, except I'm not quite that strapped for cash. Except when I get irresponsible with it and decide to buy a Laserdisc player. :P

I could easily afford several LDs each month, but I do have other hobbies already!
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 03 Feb 2018, 00:46 
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audioboyz1973 wrote:
signofzeta wrote:
There are too many players being broken in the mail for people to own an LD player for a week.

You watch LDF too then? This factor alone makes me cringe. Though TBH my first attempt to import a Japanese player via ebay gave the same result. Found a proxy bidder and specified the packaging I wanted and multiple imports since with no problem.
Perhaps we need an FAQ on player shipping (it's going to happen after all - let's minimise the risks?).


I don’t know what LDF is.

forper wrote:
signofzeta wrote:
The main reason I got into LD was for Japanese animation. This was 1992 when it was still being released every week, if not something new then something from the late 60s on up. As LD was dying in 2000 or so, so was the anime industry as I knew it, the shows were getting really derivative and cels were being phased out.


I think you're a bit older than me or were a rich kid. In 1992 I was 14 years old and went to some of my first anime society meetings. The adult public servants who earned good money and ran the meetings had LD equipment they'd bring in and I saw some of their LD collections later.

Delivering papers I wasn't ever going to be able to afford LD in 1992 but I scammed and traded and sold off and was able to get a lot of fansubs, bootlegs and official US tapes with subs over the '90s.

Yeah it was the best time for anime but if you didn't have money you couldn't get into LD back then. I had to wait until 2000 to get my first title in a bargain bin in Ikebukuro from part time English teaching and scholarship money, 2001 to get my first player at a pawn store in Australia which was PAL only and I returned and then had other interests like clothes.

Finally got a working player in 2009 and have been slowly collecting since then. Still earn a lot less than average in my country and rent eats up almost all of my income so even though I don't own a car, don't travel, don't eat out I can only afford some meagre LD titles each year. My biggest regret was saving up and buying a "serious" player. a "refurbished Pioneer LD-S9. Broke within a month and cost me over $1000 to import in 2014. I hate how it looks too. Wish I'd spent that on a Sony MDP-999, looks better, much more reliable on all accounts and I would have had change left over. You should never follow the heard.


Well, yeah. With my paper route I bought a Goldstar dual cassette deck and my first polyphonic keyboard. A video format designed to be affordable to kids on paper routes...Netflix is probably the first time that happened.

I was 19 in 1992 and making $200 a week before taxes. That’s why I bought a CLDS201 instead of something decent! It was hard but nobody worked harder for their AV year than Benmbe so I’m not going to brag.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 03 Feb 2018, 07:11 
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The facebook group 'laserdisc forever'. When I scroll though it seems there's always a smashed player or discs due to poor shipping......
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 03 Feb 2018, 11:07 
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takeshi666 wrote:
I've always gotten a big kick out of the really early computer generated imagery. It's actually far more impressive to me than most modern CGI solely because of the effort that went into making it.


This is one I do own and I have to admit I love it: Luminous Visions [ID4455SM]
I personally bought it for the unique and very catchy synthesizer score but the images are still pretty impressive, possible because it was later than most (1998).
There's even a copy still for sale. :thumbup:
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 03 Feb 2018, 14:55 
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laserdisc_fan wrote:
This is one I do own and I have to admit I love it: Luminous Visions [ID4455SM]
I personally bought it for the unique and very catchy synthesizer score but the images are still pretty impressive, possible because it was later than most (1998).
There's even a copy still for sale. :thumbup:

Thanks for the info, although I doubt I'm gonna be buying it at this time - the player along with some other auction stuff are seriously biting into my disposable cash reserves! Also I'm wondering how I'm gonna be changing the audio tracks without a remote.

By the way, the seller also has a CLD-1750 for sale for same price, should I buy that instead or just stick with the 950?
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 08 Feb 2018, 01:14 
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That question is now moot because I just paid for the CLD-950.

IT BEGINS.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 08 Feb 2018, 03:09 
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takeshi666 wrote:
That question is now moot because I just paid for the CLD-950.

IT BEGINS.



Enjoy!!! :thumbup:
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 14 Feb 2018, 16:57 
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I think at least part of everything I say and do as far as this entirely new hobby is concerned is influenced by bad habit of always taking the most bleak outlook - instead of expecting the worst and hoping for the best, I end up expecting the best and practically hoping for the worst. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but every bad experience just leads me to think that's the standard rather than the exception.

That said? Well, I got the player today. Plugged it into the VCR with RCA cables, into the wall, turned it on, pressed "eject" and the tray was jammed. I tried again, this time prying the tray slightly with a fingernail to make it come out. I put in a disc, pressed play and the picture was a complete mess. Pressed the system button, all it did was change the video into black & white. Plugged it straight into the TV with a SCART tho, that works fine; I guess the AV connectors in the VCR front panel don't like the signal they're receiving. I should try the SCART connectors in the back of the VCR next.

The guy selling the machine included two discs so I could test it. I had no idea what they were gonna be, but they ended up being The Saint and Chain Reaction - neither of which I have seen before, so this is a great opportunity to both watch them and try out the machine :D Also I didn't have to pry the tray when I flipped the disc; just a small hiccup, maybe?

I also tried both of the universal remotes I have since the code lists for both had (LD) suffix in some of the entries, and managed to get both to operate the player, albeit at a very basic level. You can jump to chapters but the layout makes it kind of difficult to figure out which button does what, outside of pause, stop and play. But that should be good enough until I get the actual remote for this thing.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 15 Feb 2018, 01:17 
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Tray thing sounds like a bang in shipping, but since you popped it out and it works now don't mess with the inside until you get a problem.
So how do you like the image??
Now you will need to get Die Hard on LD if you like what you have seen.
DTS or AC-3 are the ones to get.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 15 Feb 2018, 02:27 
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Yeah, the tray seems to be working fine now.

As for the picture quality, well, I can tell it's an analog format. It's like watching an exceptionally good VHS tape. I did notice one particular video artifact, a kind of red and green bands running across the screen diagonally that're most noticeable in black and dark areas, what is that called? Anyway, it won't be my go-to format when I want to sit down and watch a movie, but again, I didn't get this thing so I can watch movies I already own on another, different format.

Also The Saint disc is a rotter.
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 15 Feb 2018, 08:18 
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You might want to keep an eye out for the Visual Pathfinders series, too...
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 Post subject: Re: Total LD noob
PostPosted: 15 Feb 2018, 16:08 
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Twin Peaks: Visual Soundtrack probably qualifies as well!
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