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| je280 |
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Posted: 22 Sep 2019, 18:36
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sixersfan1 wrote: And they said I wouldn't find a replacement tray. Thank you Kurtis Bahr for the brand new tray. No more isopropyl alcohol or anything else near this machine!
Good news  . |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 03 Oct 2019, 19:26
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je280 Just want to make sure you see as it took me a few minutes to see.
That block of Kanji after Laserdisc on the top.
I'm sure all the samples have that.
Also wanted to post this for others as its not easy to notice that block of Kanji for non Japanese readers.
Yeh got that thanks rein-o :thumbup: .
Cheers |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 07 Oct 2019, 04:51
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admin wrote: Same seller has multiple accounts (not sure why) but always shoots pics the same way and the prices are really, really high
Is that the seller on here as Maniac Laserdisc
Some interesting titles, some rather optimistic pricing.
Cheers |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 18 Oct 2019, 01:28
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It's the laser pickup. You need to replace it.
Lets not jump to repairs Tech Kaflo when he has it connected a wrong way or the computer is not picking up the analog signal.
Yeh please don't do any tweeks or "repairs" till you have fed it directly to your TV & not through anything else - that could fix the issue.
Hope it is a simple fix & a direct feed helps, please keep us posted.
Cheers |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 24 Oct 2019, 00:06
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firehorse_44 wrote: Michael Mann - A top tier Director of our times.....
The Keep☆☆☆☆☆
Plus ~
Heat☆☆☆☆☆
Thief☆☆☆☆☆
Collateral☆☆☆☆☆
Last of the Mohicans☆☆☆☆☆
- and more ......
What a legacy !
& Manhunter |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 02 Nov 2019, 17:35
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Back to the thread topic :
Just viewed Citizen Kane and The Stranger with the infamous Orson Wells.....
They don't make em like that genre anymore !
Cheers to the membership
That's true.
I do remember one quote from Orson Welles in short feature from '53 (Return to Glennascaul) at the start where he meets a guy at the side of a road beside his broken down car.....
Welles - What happened to your car?
Man by car - I've had trouble with the distributor. I say, aren't you.....?
Welles - Yes I am & I have had trouble with my distributor too.
Pure class.
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| je280 |
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Posted: 03 Nov 2019, 02:38
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daffodil31le wrote: Hi,
Maybe a silly question, but wouldn't it be nice to add an option in the LD section to select the type of dead side on a disc?
Like "Turtle", "Mirror", "Spray", "Program Material..." and others.
That is not a bad idea at all . |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 03 Nov 2019, 05:21
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Just watched How to Murder Your Wife, I noticed that the picture was shifted slightly to the left which put the que marks off screen, only once being partially shown.
There are many transfers on LD (& other formats) like that.
Also many LDs that quote "presented in the original aspect ratio" or similar wording are often way off the original ratio - surprisingly quite a number of the ROAN LDs carry the "original ratio" quote but are way off & I really would have expected them to have taken more care with details like that. |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 12 Nov 2019, 10:19
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Very interesting posts here, thanks for the info & pictures.
MUSE on the rear of VHS units I have never seen before, thanks for the pictures.
The MUSE thing was mentioned at a couple exhibitors meetings in the early to mid '90s that usually turned into a bit of a bicker match though some useful & interesting information & facts would sometimes emerge.
Fuji TV were talked about as being involved in early HD broadcasts in Japan & they are mentioned on a couple of LDs that I have that have High-Vision or HD mentioned on the covers.
The MUSE format was discussed but it was not covered in any great detail. As far as the home media market was concerned here in the UK it was mostly about VHS rental & retail sales figures, even where the LD market was concerned that was usually skimmed over as the sales were a fraction of the VHS market & the DVD system was getting ready for a then future release so it was starting to gain a bit more time being discussed though quite a bit of that at the time was about who were in & who were dragging their heals. Paramount were apparently "not helping" though when the DVD format was ready for the consumer market they "were in" by the launch date.
The number of MUSE units produced really do appear to be so low compared to the predicted sales figures which were rather optimistic.
Pretty sure it was around 1992 or '93-ish or so & Panasonic(?) had quoted a predicted figure of 1,000,000 MUSE player unit sales by 1999 or 2000 though it may have been even higher - it was a while ago now but pretty sure the quoted figures were around that mark. The predictions from PIONEER were much much lower & again it was a while ago but pretty sure they were talking of producing 1000 units or so per month to start with & total sales of 250,000 or 300,000 or so by 1998 or 1999.
Not long after the MUSE format was released in Japan it was clear that the predictions were way off the mark & it was not mentioned much at all after that but I do recall talk of how the unit & disc costs were so high that the uptake was very low indeed & the releases to that point did not help & looking back there may have been something in that. Also much more attention was being given to the then up & coming new DVD format which did take off much faster than most had expected back then.
Any talk of a US or UK/European release of the MUSE format was very short & it was clear that it was never going to happen.
Are the MUSE unit numbers produced confirmed as if they are correct it must have been rather costly for PIONEER & the other manufacturers who were involved back then. The consumer cost of the MUSE discs that were released was high & it was mentioned that as the cost to produce the MUSE discs was not that much more than the cost to produce a standard laserdisc made them a bit of a "rip-off" & that was the term used, perhaps a little arrogant as far as the disc pricing was concerned.
I have only ever seen a couple of MUSE discs - Lawrence of Arabia & one with fish on the cover, sorry but can't remember the name of the title - but I have not seen a MUSE player in the flesh & so have never seen one in action as such but the covers/cases were rather nice.
It was a while ago, must be 25+ years now, so I may be way off on some of the figures & it was not something I would have taken any more than a passing interest in back then as I could not afford a decent standard LD player but it was of interest. The VHD format was also mentioned a couple of times also but again it was clear that other than brief mentions it was never getting a US or European release so again only skimmed over to keep us up to date on what was happening in the consumer market worldwide at that time.
Has anyone got any idea of how many working MUSE player units have survived? Given the numbers produced or what I have been lead to believe were produced it cannot be that many now surely or am I seriously mistaken?
I do wish I had paid a bit more attention to the few times the MUSE format was mentioned but as the meetings were more to do with the cinema exhibition side of things & it was only mentioned among other things to keep us informed of what was happening or not happening in the consumer market I am perhaps lucky to have heard anything about them at all.
One point that was made was that the retail cost of the players plus the required decoders & the cost of the discs was very high but the expectation was that so called serious AV buyers in Japan would buy enough product to keep it viable on the retail market but that clearly did not happen. If nothing else it was an interesting diversion within the LD format.
I would like to see some of the MUSE discs in action but I doubt that will ever happen, don't think many at all got to the UK & I would not be able to shell out the funds to start going down that route.
Cheers to all.
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| je280 |
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Posted: 12 Nov 2019, 18:17
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Hi hippiedalek,
I can see from your post that you are to say the least very happy with your LD acquisition, it is great when you finally bag the "holy grail" that you have been waiting perhaps a long time for :thumbup: .
Thanks also for the info on the feature, very interesting.
Enjoy!
Cheers |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 13 Nov 2019, 03:02
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Ah the Prisoner, what a great show.
I know I posted this elsewhere but I just watched that series again about 3 or so months ago.
Really need to search that list of the important episodes and just watch those without the other filler ones.
Sad they made that reboot about 10 or so years ago that was total garbage.
Yes the 2009 reboot, that was really painful.
Mel Gibson was apparently wanting to make a feature film of The Prisoner, Ridley Scott was in talks with Universal in 2015/16 about making a feature film also but I really hope it does not happen. I do like quite a bit of the work from Ridley Scott but how on earth can anyone remake something that is truly unique. The episodes that matter from the original series still stand up today so best leave it as is IMO.
Some things are best left to stand alone but sadly...... |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 18 Nov 2019, 00:47
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benmbe wrote: I hope everyone here are well and taking good care Kind Regards 
& the same back to you benmbe
Cheers,
John |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 19 Nov 2019, 16:53
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I got a message a few days ago from a chap who bought LDs from me when I was buying & selling players & discs years ago before my back put a stop to that, it can't take the running about the country buying collections & players anymore.
He is fairly close so back then he would often come to me to pick up any discs he had bought or I would drop them off if I was out his way - he made a a damn fine cup of coffee too.
He is moving house soon & has passed the player with most of the discs on to his son but it appears that his son took all the discs that he might get round to watching & has left around 20 to 25 LDs that he did not want.
It looks like the LDs he has left behind are mostly Japanese & there are one or two F1 discs among them & he just wants to see them gone before the house move.
He remembered that I collected LDs also but not in general as such & that I was looking for mainly F1 LDs & other Japanese discs.
He has kindly offered them to me if I want them or they will end up being binned, I did suggest as they were Japanese LDs they might sell fairly quickly on ebay if he listed them at a low start price but he does not want the hassle (his word) that goes with that.
So I am off now to pick them up & any that are not on here or don't have cover pictures on I will update.
There are nice people around & I am pleased that the LDs are not going to a landfill site, that would be a bit sad.
As above, very kind & thoughtful.
Cheers for now.
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| je280 |
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Posted: 19 Nov 2019, 21:55
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Is this the guy who made a thread a while back or somebody else?
No I do not think he has ever posted on the forum here, he is fairly close to me on the west coast of Scotland.
Just back home with a box of LDs including a couple of boxed sets.
Time to put the kettle on, make a cup of coffee & dig through the LDs :thumbup: .
Cheers |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 22 Nov 2019, 00:32
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Can we be sure these are actually part of a separate sample (or 'final test') run (ie: some form of mint marking on the disc itself) or the initial pressings off the production run that had 'sample' stickers applied to the packaging and disc to discourage resale of something likely given out free for promotional purposes?
Any sample LDs that I have seen have the same mint & stamp run numbers as the "normal" (for want of a better word) issues on the LDs.
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| je280 |
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Posted: 26 Nov 2019, 00:53
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After a disaster renting saga I almost ended up homeless with my stuff in storage. But yesterday, in the midst of legal action and b******t at work and all kinds of s**t that's hit the fan I got my LD stuff hooked up for the first time in almost 3 months.
Yet again, like in my whole life, people and family fail and have betrayed me and my stuff saves my life.
Reminds me why I keep trying. I almost forgot, my love for stuff has always gotten me through, I truly love it more than people.
Akina Nakamori Bitter Sweet followed by many more music LDs last night. I know you will scoff at my pic but IRL I love this image so much.
https://i.postimg.cc/3W5fXWdz/DSC-2061-800x450.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/FFMhWZcX/DSC-2064-800x450.jpg
The media shelf in dissaray, I'll get it sorted out over the next few weeks:
https://i.postimg.cc/Wb0TQk6F/DSC-2069-800x450.jpg
:thumbup: :clap: looks bloody brilliant.
hopefully I can start the new year like this. with all my stuff in my own apartment that's mine. I hate where I am now since this is the result of a journy that started October 19th when I went to the hospital but it will finish with getting my own place. I just have to bear a little longer with a house full of other people. [long story-semi jist of it but I couldn't go back to my brother's after the house. meds and local county help with my case worker]
I really hope that whatever is happening with you guys gets better soon & things get sorted out in whatever manner that makes things if nothing else more stable & easier for you.
Take care guys.
Cheers & regards to all :thumbup: .
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| je280 |
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Posted: 03 Dec 2019, 05:03
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You are not far off the mark on the LD numbers zeta though anything above six figures was pretty major but there were quite a few titles that did hit very high numbers but they were a fraction of the then VHS sales figures that often went into millions of copies sold in the US.
The Fantasia thing in the early 90s was a piece of marketing genius with the tag something like "the last chance ever to buy the film on video in its original form" & also a similar line to push the LD release which resulted in quite staggering sales of something like 15,000,000 VHS tapes sold in the US & the LD sales around the 200,000+ mark - a very similar style of marketing was done on the original STAR WARS features on its VHS & LD marketing push which resulted in huge sales with a high price tag on the tapes & the LDs & of course very high profits for Disney & FOX at the time. The STAR WARS Definitive Collection LD set is a saga in itself.
There were quite a number of LD titles issued in the US though that were pressed in very low numbers indeed but they were often issued due to licensing contract reasons & the like with little chance if any of profit as such being returned. Could mention a few titles but is there really any point as that may have some people going down the "a very rare LD title pressed in very low numbers" bullcrap & other such babble & there is more than enough of that nonsense around already. Others titles were pressed in what could be looked on as low numbers simply because that was the number that had a realistic chance of selling & if it did warrant more copies they were simply repressed in whatever number was required. Extra covers were often printed up on the initial run & held until sales figures were returned & in no further copies were required then the remaining covers were simply binned. The same thing was often done with vinyl releases, a fairly common practice.
It is surprising to me that there is so little accurate information on LD numbers pressed & even sales figures, a pity as unless someone who was actually involved in the sales & marketing back then pops up with that information it is pretty well lost now. Even back in the day the LDs were looked on as a very small market, everything was centered around the VHS sales & from the point of view of the side of the business I was working in then even that was basically a sideline as it was future cinema releases that we were most interested in. Also the UK market for LDs was so small compared to the US it was pretty well mostly skimmed over, again figures here are pretty well non existent now.
Sadly I do think quite a lot of such information is now most likely lost.
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| je280 |
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Posted: 26 Dec 2019, 06:38
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| Enter the Dragon: 25th Anniversary on PILF-2656 |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 07 Jan 2020, 02:01
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Not 100% sure but were Sonopress & PDO LDs not pressed/manufactured in exactly the same way using the same system types & processes? Pretty sure they were though & on the video of the Sonopress manufacturing plant they are pressing LDs with Philips on some labels.
Were Sonopress not involved in LDs for only a few short years? Started pressing LDs in 1982 but unsure of when they stopped.
Still huge in many things, a bit below from their site.
60 Years of Sonopress
Press Release04/18/2018
International provider of media services celebrates anniversary
From LP to UHD – 60 Years of Sonopress
The international media service provider Sonopress celebrates its 60th anniversary this month. On April 22, 1958 in Gütersloh, a company was founded that has since developed into one of the most innovative and successful replication service providers. What began in the late 1950s with six record presses in a small workshop is now one of the globally leading providers for digital storage media production, and the preferred service provider of all music majors, numerous games manufacturers, and world-famous Hollywood studios such as Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures International. Over the past six decades, more than one billion vinyl records and as many as seven billion storage media have left its production halls. Along the way, some important innovations were developed, most recently the Ultra HD Blu-ray 100.
Milestones in the company's history:
1958 Record production begins in Gütersloh
1969 Start of music cassette production
1977 Establishment of the Mexpress record plant in Mexico City
1982 Start of laser disc/optical disc/video disc production
1984 Foundation of Topac - Gesellschaft für Tonträgerpackung [a company specializing in the manufacturing of packaging for recorded media]
1985 Start of CD production
1986 Acquisition of RCA’s music division by Bertelsmann in the U.S.
1991 Foundation of Sonopress Pan Asia in Hong Kong
1992 Discontinuation of record production in Gütersloh
1994 Establishment of digital storage media production in Dublin, Ireland
1997 Entry into DVD production
2001 Start of production of the first Xbox console games for Microsoft
2004 Presentation of the first storage medium with HDTV content
2006 Opening of the Sonopress site in Yaroslavl, Russia
2008 Celebration of the 50th anniversary in Bielefeld
2011 Takeover of Universal Music Group International’s archiving
2016 Market launch of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray |
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| je280 |
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Posted: 07 Jan 2020, 23:38
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I'm pretty sure all of these examples are actually PDO. Which PDO facility is unknown. All of the Sonopress titles I have have stamped mint markings, going all the way back to the "Elton John: Live in Central Park" disc issued in 1982.
Really helpful info - thanks blam :thumbup: .
Were PDO pressing in plants other than Blackburn?
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| je280 |
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Posted: 15 Jan 2020, 00:26
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It is not that rare & does pop up on ebay, might have to be a little patient though.
As mentioned above just keep a look out for it in the usual places & pretty sure you will bag one but don't pay silly money for it.
I myself have waited sometimes years for some of the LDs I have been looking for & have never overpaid for any.
Good luck with your hunt :thumbup: .
,
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| je280 |
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Posted: 17 Jan 2020, 15:53
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Thanks to all for the really interesting & helpful input on this so far :thumbup: .
Dug out the PDO Great Railways LD & made a start removing the disc label, really good adhesive used on them & not the easiest to get off - tried a bit of iso hoping it would help but still rather stubborn to say the least.
So far have found a barcode sticker below the label, printed on very thin paper, with *4BX227* on it.
Will get the rest of the label off later & update any other markings.
Thanks again guys.
Cheers for now.
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| je280 |
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Posted: 17 Jan 2020, 16:32
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Clockwork Orange was banned in the UK due to hooligans imitating the characters in the movie.
Hi firehorse,
the Clockwork Orange UK ban thing, it was never banned as such here in the UK but pulled at the request of Mr. Kubrick.
It was after protests that took place outside his home & the police at the time apparently said to him that although the protesters were perhaps intimidating & a nuisance what would happen if a gang of "droogs" turned up.
The bit below pretty well covers the withdrawal of the feature in the UK.
The myth of A Clockwork Orange’s ban.
Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange was unavailable in the UK for nearly three decades. And yet it was never banned...
Throughout much of the 1980s and early 1990s, there were two films that many film nerds wanted to get their hands on, but in the UK at least, they couldn’t. For The Exorcist and A Clockwork Orange were arguably the two highest profile films that, for much of VHS’ popularity, you simply weren’t able to rent or buy on tape in the UK. As such, an under the counter industry in illegal, poor quality copies was booming, whilst many cinemas traded off late night shows of The Exorcist, where the film could still be seen freely.
Yet not on VHS. Warner Bros. opted, in the midst and aftermath of the video nasty scandal in the UK in the early 1980s, not to submit The Exorcist for a VHS release. It was probably wise not to do so, given that the chances of actually getting a certificate for a home release were very slim. By not submitting it at all, The Exorcist would thus never be banned. As it happened, it wasn’t until 1999 that the film finally was submitted for such a certificate, and was passed uncut with an 18 rating.
But behind A Clockwork Orange’s unavailability lay a different story. Whilst The Exorcist was at least staring down the barrel of an official ban, A Clockwork Orange was never banned in the UK at all either. Moreover, it hadn’t been explicitly threatened with one for a VHS release. Instead, the reason that A Clockwork Orange was pulled from UK cinemas in 1973 and not officially seen in the UK again for over 25 years was down to its director, the late Stanley Kubrick.
Upon the film’s release in 1971, it didn’t take long for the film of A Clockwork Orange to stir controversy. Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, the movie – of course – stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge, in arguably his career-best performance. But the film earned particular notoriety in March of 1972, when it was cited by a prosecutor in a court case. A 14-year old had been accused of manslaughter, and the prosecution argued that the film of A Clockwork Orange had relevance to the case. The film was linked with further cases too, with many ‘copycat’ crimes reported. The story gathered requisite fuel, and unhappiness with the film grew. It got to a point where protests were mounted, at times outside Kubrick’s family home.
The director himself was taken aback. Kubrick argued that pinning violence on the film was incorrect, stating a side of a debate that’s reared several times in the history of cinema. That is, that film cannot make someone do something they weren’t capable of doing already. That the crimes would have happened anyway. A Clockwork Orange was being used as a media scapegoat. Not that such an argument often holds shrift in the court of public opinion, of course.
Kubrick, though, decided to act. When the film had completed its theatrical run in the UK in early 1973, he asked Warner Bros. to withdraw the film from circulation altogether. The studio agreed, although for over a half a decade, nobody noticed (this was in a pre-video age, of course). It was only, in 1979, when the National Film Theatre was refused permission to screen it as part of a retrospective of Kubrick’s work that the withdrawal came to attention for the first time.
But that’s all it was. Kubrick, without explanation, asked for the film to be taken out of circulation, and because people couldn’t get hold of it in Britain, the myth began to spread that it had been banned. But it hadn’t at all. Warner Bros. continued to work with Kubrick for the rest of his life, and continued to accept his wishes where A Clockwork Orange was concerned.
It took until March 2000 for the film to return – legally – to British screens. Shortly after the death of Kubrick – who passed away days after locking his final cut of his last film, Eyes Wide Shut – Warner Bros. finally applied for a certificate for the film, and it was granted. An 18, as you might expect.
On March 17th 2000, it thus made its way back to UK cinema screens, and a home release followed shortly after. Removed from the context of its original release, the response was surprisingly tame, with any arguments about it inciting or informing violence long rested. Instead, a classic film from a one-off filmmaker could finally be seen, without fuzzy lines and interference all over the screen…
Cheers
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| je280 |
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Posted: 17 Jan 2020, 16:50
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Thanks for the recommendation. Won't be doing any actual adjusting until it's much more than "1 or 2 junk discs" (actually 4 at this point) that my player can't play, but I appreciate the concern.
Hi jd213,
rather than adjusting what appears to be a perfectly good player would it not be better to try to flatten the discs if they are indeed warped?
There are a few threads here on how others have done this.
Had a few, 3 or 4-ish, very badly warped LDs years ago & using heat & pressure got them to play again, they had been poorly stored for many years before they fell into my hands. Don't overdo the heat though as some binding glue is quite soft on some LDs, the warped ones I had were a couple of PDO pressed discs & I cannot remember who pressed the other badly warped LDs.
Hope you get them sorted but they may just be poor discs & adjusting your player may not help at all.
Cheers
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Thanks list