Never said analogue was infinitely precise, it's infinitely variable with perfect blending, not the closest approximation of changes in colour, as digital is and will always be.
It's like AI, it can never be human, it can only approximate a human because it is fundamentally different.
Digital can never emulate analogue because it is fundamentally a different thing.
Analogue video and sound is also closer to the real world because the real world is an infinite uncompressed continuous stream, just like analogue signals.
Learn with your eyes and ears, not theories and numbers.
I’ve seen people make vacuum tubes (Nixie tubes) in their garages in Russia. I’ve seen people make computer video cards from scratch with discrete components.
Broken down to its basic components, making a compatible laser disc isn’t so crazy. Let’s not ask why or even discourage someone from doing such a task. It’s not our money. It’s not our effort. It’s just our ideas and assistance he needs.
Once he makes a laser-etched metal master, getting them stamped is likely the most expensive part.
Then it’s keeping them clean and plating the stamped masters.
I think the likelihood of getting it right the first time is pretty slim unless the plating shop has experience actually plating laserdiscs. It sure would make a great YouTube series, even if it ended in failure.
So my girlfriend recently bought a CLD-1030 through eBay. The unit was shipped and marked as “fragile” but UPS still managed to drop or throw the thing to where there was physical damage to the outside of the unit. I got it apart and got it fixed properly but when testing the unit, it would click nonstop after the tray is fully ejected and when it goes into play mode, it clicks constant as well.
I did some digging online with this model prior to finding this forum and found a guy with similar issues. His problem was there was a piece missing that sits inside of a cam gear that raises the disc up into place. I opened this unit and found the same piece missing. I couldn’t find the missing piece inside the unit anywhere and was wondering if anyone here knew of a fix for this? Possibly a 3D printed part or had any old parts that could be salvaged or sold with this piece? I’ll attach a photo of the schematic and have the part in question highlighted in red. Any and all help would be appreciated.
It really sucks…because this unit is in otherwise such great shape. All the components on the board are new and it’s been greased up fresh and been thoroughly cleaned. I’m not sure if the UPS drop caused this piece to break or what.
EDIT - for some reason the video I linked to originally was slightly edited - now amended to show a different YouTube upload with a longer explanation of LD...
This is an earth-shattering moment for video, optical media, and so on.
Keep in mind, LaserDisc didn't even release until 1978. This would be like showing a Blu-ray prototype in 2000. To be fair, home video was far bigger by then. Home video was more or less nonexistent before the releases of Beta, VHS, and LaserDisc in the 1970s.
I am especially fascinated to see the "VLP" logo on the sample laser videodisc. That is the same name, maybe even the same style, that was used on the original Magnavox VH8000 players sold in 1978-1980 or so.
At the time that I saw the VLP designation on those Magnavox players, I had read (or maybe guessed?) that it stood for Video Long Play, and that it was a reference to the Extended Play disc format (that was just developed/added to the laser videodisc system specifications in 1976-1977). Obviously the name is not related that way at all.
Thank you for posting that video link, yaffle2345.
EDIT - for some reason the video I linked to originally was slightly edited - now amended to show a different YouTube upload with a longer explanation of LD...
I previously edited your post to make the YouTube video start from 28min+ when the LD was shown.
Utterly fantastic to have lived with the progression of Tech in hindsight. One can only imagine the Nano and Quantum Tech advances in the last few decades. What a time to be alive.
Since it's that time of year where ABC has the annual airing of Cecil B DeMille's 1956 version of The Ten Commandments , the question came back to me again--is the transfer on the 1998 Dolby Digital re-release of the film the same as the 1992 box set ?
Initially you would be lead to believe no since the AR for both are different; 1.75:1 for the 1998 version and 1.66:1 for the box set, but the possibility is there that Paramount might have just taken the old transfer from the box set and just cropped the top and bottom a little more. Does anyone have both and made the comparison? It's times like this that I wish I had more issues of Doug Pratt's Laserdisc Newsletter from back then since he used to go into detail on framing differences between releases.
Honestly surprised not a single chinese company just copied a decent later player with all the outputs needed in today’s world. Seeing new ld releases…. This whole thing is a "fun, cool" project, but for any actual companies in business, what would the market be? There is, and would be, --absolutely no-- group of thousands of people who "want to buy movies on discs in 2026-2030 or later, but who want them to be standard-definition, analog-picture discs in a large physical format rather than what Blu-ray and UHD discs offer now".
I do not know, maybe there would/could be a couple of -hundred- or so people who fit that description, all or most of whom are likely members of this forum now, but if that hypothetical group can support such a project on their own, it will just be a true hobby activity, I would expect. Fun to watch what happens in any case, for sure.
Can I make money producing LD? Actually, I don't care. :) This is what I meant by modern laser disc production being a "true hobby activity", indeed. I restore early TV sets from the 1940s to the early 1960s to working condition, and I have done a couple of VCRs so far, but I do not do any of it hoping to sell any of the devices with a profit (if I ever sell any of them at all :) ). I am starting on a restoration of an early Magnavox laser disc player now, too.
My comments about "practicality" were mostly responding to the idea of Chinese companies making laser disc players with HDMI outputs, as one possible example, or to the idea of a resurrected/ongoing new-laser-disc market.
However, hardly anyone will buy a VHS tape for actual consumption. It's usually for emotional reasons. This is a very good and interesting point; I was not aware that any retail-content producers were making or trying/hoping to make VHS tapes of their work even. But your comments probably apply perfectly to the "modern vinyl album" market! (That business seems to be succeeding, so I imagine that anything can happen.)
I wish you much success with this fascinating project.
Thanks list
