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Posted: 12 Mar 2014, 10:46 

I spent my weekend at the Newcastle Comic Con and managed to collect a few signatures. I got many DVDs signed but my main goal was to get a few scrawls on this thing:
http://i57.tinypic.com/2i2idt.jpg
Dave Prowse: Darth Vader (I collected this signature at a previous event though he was at this one too)
Julian Glover: General Veers
Paul Blake: Greedo (He swore Han shot first)
Kenny Baker: R2D2
Ken Colley: Admiral Piett

Paul Blake and Ken Colley were both really chatty and great characters, a pleasure to chat to if you ever meet them. Neither Julian Glover nor Ken Colley had ever seen a laserdisc before and took great pleasure in having a look through the discs and book.

I've had other laserdiscs signed at previous events. I took pics of everything at the time and can't retake them just now so apologies for the DVDs :)
http://i59.tinypic.com/vgu5nb.jpg
The first laserdiscs I had signed.
Jeremy Bulloch (Empire Strikes Back / Space Museum DVD): Boba Fett / Tor
Laurie Goode (Star Wars): Saurin
Sylvester McCoy (Curse of Fenric DVD): The Doctor (I managed to get this signed by Sophie Aldred, Ace, at the weekend too)

Like Paul Blake and Ken Colley, Jeremy Bulloch was a pleasure to talk to, he made sure he spent time chatting to everyone waiting and answering their questions, a real gentleman.

Again sorry or the DVD
http://i60.tinypic.com/apkaig.jpg
Caroline Munro (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad): Margiana
Craig Charles (Red Dwarf): Lister
Chris Barrie (Red Dwarf): Rimmer

Both Craig Charles and Chris Barrie were great to chat to at this event but it's Caroline Munro I'll remember. Before I could say anything to her she immediately complemented me on my hair (which I keep rather long, yes I'm a hippie) and asked if she could stroke it! I can die happy now that I've had my hair stroked by a Bond Girl!

Anyway, that's the lot for now. It'll probably be another while before I get any more signed but I'll be sure to update here when I do.

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Posted: 14 Nov 2017, 11:13 

I think everyone finds their own answer depending on their equipment and how much they enjoy chasing the dream of perfect picture quality.

If your TV has a decent comb filter on the composite in (which most recent TVs do, surprisingly) and it's got decent zoom controls and picture settings then I imagine for most people that's enough.

Others want to squeeze out every detail possible from LD using equipment that can cost 1000s each. The results can be pretty stunning.

I'm somewhere in the middle. My new 4K TV has a pretty great comb filter on the composite in and some great image quality controls but it's built in scaling/deinterlacing just aren't as good as my AV receiver which has a pretty meaty Marvell Qdeo upscaler built in. The Marvell upscaler gives a really nice analog looking picture when upscaling laserdisc, but my TVs upscaling looks like early digital video.

It sounds like you're pretty happy with your current set up so my only recommendation would be to try and tune the settings using colour and pluge bars. You can find them on many discs already, I think every Criterion laserdisc has them at the end. It's a first step into improving LD picture quality but I think it's the most important. Here's a really useful link on how to use colour bars (https://www.videouniversity.com/articles/color-bars-and-how-to-use-em/).

I'd recommend trying to leave noise reduction and sharpening off or min if possible as they can add some really nasty artefacts and can lead to some really non-analog looking images. I found I was able to eliminate a lot of picture noise with careful tuning of the contrast controls, leaving the detail in the picture unharmed by noise reduction.

Of course laserdisc being analog you've got to keep in mind that "ideal" picture settings vary from disc to disc, player to player, TV to TV, etc, and that's before you get into NTSC/PAL.

Good luck with the first step down the rabbit hole and welcome to the forum : )

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Posted: 15 Nov 2017, 10:47 

2nd make sure that the image is pleasing to YOUR eye only, others don't count unless they are in the room.

This is the best piece of advice you'll get on this matter. If you're happy with how it looks then don't change it :) The same goes for the noise reduction tip. I find noise reduction to be really distracting, but that's just the noise reduction options available on my TV and AV amp, and all noise reduction systems are not equal. I'd generally avoid using any picture settings on the player itself your TV will have much better controls.

I do still recommend calibrating your TV, both for LD and other formats. AVForums tend to have decent general settings for most TVs in their reviews so it's a good place to start. It'll give you a good round about base to start from without calibration discs.

As for LD I noticed you have Aliens: Special Widescreen Collector's Edition (1986) (Uncut) [1504-85] in your collection. I don't have this disc but it sounds like it contains colour bars at the end.

My knowledge on this is far from extensive, but I'm always tweaking with my setup trying to see if I can get any extra improvements.

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 Post subject: Re: Blade Runner 2049
Posted: 24 Nov 2017, 16:55 

This is your daily reminder not to get into arguments with Forper. Logic doesn't work on him.

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Posted: 08 Dec 2017, 09:58 

As someone who loves the format I wholeheartedly agree; laserdisc is a dead format.

Outside of the small fraction of a percent of the population of this big blue marble who obsess about it daily most people have never even heard of the format.

That doesn't mean it can't have a great community though.

Does this thread even have a topic any more or is it just another exercise in bashing the newbie?

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Posted: 03 Jan 2018, 10:52 

As long as we stay newb friendly and don't just beat them all around the head with the FAQ : )

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Posted: 05 Feb 2018, 11:56 

It's happened a few times. Really annoying but I'm not really sure there's much that can be done about it. Julien usually cleans it up pretty quickly.

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Posted: 12 Feb 2018, 11:15 

Sounds like you need to tune your brightness/contrast levels. Do you know how to use colour bars?

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Posted: 14 Feb 2018, 22:39 

I found this article to be a great help and a good first step for calibrating my system. I hope it helps.

https://www.videouniversity.com/articles/color-bars-and-how-to-use-em/

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Posted: 24 Jun 2019, 13:59 

I've just discovered this wonderful track by Anders Enger Jensen; "DiscoVision." Thought you'd enjoy.



Features clips from this video:

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Posted: 09 Oct 2019, 16:20 

daffodil31le wrote:
Yes. Side 1 is 63.49 and side 2 is 63.39.

Phew, for a moment there I thought disc 1 of Star Trek: The Pilots [PLTES 34071] was about to lose it's crown. But it still reigns supreme at 63:55!

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 Post subject: Re: Highlander 2
Posted: 12 Nov 2019, 17:21 

Today I received my laserdisc holy grail in the mail!

https://i.imgur.com/iW48BqW.jpg

A user on here who has a lot of dealings with Hong Kong (I'll let him decide if he wants to stay anonymous) helped me track it down and I'm eternally grateful. I've been searching for this for so long that it's almost surreal holding it in my hands.

I've spent a lot of time during this year reconstructing the First European Cut of Highlander 2 in the best quality available, but the sticking point has always been the audio. This laserdisc is the only known home release to feature the original English audio, and I only had an awful 128 kbps mp3 to work with. So I'll have to look into the best ways of preserving both the analogue and digital audio on this disc.

I'm pretty impressed with the picture quality too. I mean it's rough, but it's watchable. I've seen DVDs of this film that look worse.

Oh, and I don't like to talk cost much but I payed A LOT less than the $999 a certain user above was asking for this :roll:

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 Post subject: Re: Highlander 2
Posted: 12 Nov 2019, 17:51 

Very cool.
So can someone refresh me quick so I don't have to read the 2 pages of posts.

Laserking listed that this is the British cut of the film, but what would I have seen in the theaters that I can't remember anyway as it was such a classic :lol:
would it have been this version? or a mix of this and another to make a US version?
Thanks,
Quick history of Highlander 2 versions:
USA Theatrical Cut - What everyone in North America and France would have seen. Possibly other places too. The insurance company took the film out of the film maker's hands when it went over budget. They re-edited it into a butchered mess that makes no sense.
First European Theatrical Cut - Often called the British version because British company Entertainment Film Distributors provided extra funding to allow the film makers to make this cut. What most of Europe saw when the film was first released.
Second European Theatrical Cut - Sometimes called the German version. What most of Europe saw when the film was nearing the end of it's theatrical run.
Renegade Version - Home Video cut that shows the film mostly as the film makers originally intended but removes Zeist.
Special Edition - Home Video cut that's mostly the same as the Renegade but with new CGI, one scene cut out, and a few audio changes.

Years ago I noticed that LaserKing had listed the running time on the LD as 101 minutes, which is unique to the run time of the First European Cut of the film. I got in touch with him and asked him a few details and we verified that it is indeed the First EU version.

Both EU cuts are actually easily obtainable on official VHS, LD and even DVD, but none of them have featured the original English language audio, all of them being dubbed into their respective languages. All of them except this Hong Kong laserdisc release.

The European Cuts are kind of a half way house between the US Theatrical Cut and the Renegade Version. It keeps all the Zeist references and adds a lot of the material that wasn't seen in the US until the Renegade Version, but it also loses a couple of good scenes from the US Cut. It's a much stronger version than the US Cut as it's structured more closely to the film maker's original intent. The First European Cut is also the only one to feature the infamous "fairytale ending" in which Connor and Louise return to Zeist.

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 Post subject: Re: Highlander 2
Posted: 14 Nov 2019, 12:43 


If we had the internet back then it would have been much easier but it was fun when I think back though I am feeling a bit old now as I type this.

So I do understand & I wish you every success in the preservation project, good luck with it & enjoy!!!

Cheers :thumbup:
I love the Prisoner too. I was always aware of the show but embarrassingly I didn't get the chance to actually see it until the mid 2000s re-run on Sci-Fi UK Channel. I think they used the gate slam on the final episode too! Curse that Channel 4 editor and his lasting influence!

I agree, it's nice to have a mission or quest; to find something lost or hidden treasure. In many ways the internet makes it so much easier today, but at the same time there's a lot of stuff that it's still hard to find information about even on the internet...usually because no one but me cares lol.

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 Post subject: Re: Highlander 2
Posted: 14 Nov 2019, 17:00 


OK one more questions, the only way to get a non renegade version would be either this HK disc, the USA P/S discs, the Japanese LD widescreen or the Japanese Bluray/DVD combo that has the non renegade version?

Would like to see that version again but would like to get it on another format and not tax my LD players with this classic.
This HK disc is the only English friendly release of the European Cut, but there are plenty of European LDs and DVDs out there that are dubbed into their native languages, they're all slightly cut too.

For the US Cut there's the LDs you mentioned and the Japanese Blu Ray/DVD set (it's only the DVD that contains US Cut, the Blu Ray is the Special Edition. The DVD is also letterboxed, essentially a rip of the Japanese LD, though no burned in subtitles). However if you can play PAL DVDs then the best release of the US Cut so far has been the French DVD. It's a fairly decent looking anamorphic DVD, the colours look a bit washed out but that's just how the US Cut looked. The only downside of the French DVD is that the English audio is only available on a pretty poor 5.1 mix, the rear channels are slightly out of sync so there's quite a bit of echo.

I'm also aware of the US cut being on UK and Australian DVD, but these are Pan and Scan and pretty poor transfers. PAL too.

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 Post subject: Re: Highlander 2
Posted: 13 Mar 2020, 17:11 

Only have netflix free streaming and they have the original theatrical release, haven't finished it yet so I don't know the ending but it
has the Ziest during the opera scene in the beginning.
Interesting to know. I'll have to check and see if it's on UK NetFlix too. If it helps the Full EU cut is 100 minutes, the US Cut is 91.

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 Post subject: Re: Coloured Laserdiscs
Posted: 16 May 2020, 13:37 

That's funny, I created a thread last week asking about these, but when I searched for a "colored Laserdisc" thread none existed.

Should have checked for UK English, now I feel silly :lol:

Mwahaha, my UK English spelling strikes again. Glad to see this topic is still going. I never did track down that mythical green disc.

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Posted: 08 Jul 2020, 20:38 

I got it for £50 about ten years ago. Good to know that it was an investment that will allow me to retire to life of tequila and hookers.

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Posted: 17 Aug 2020, 11:51 

Should be the place to ask.

I remember a movie where a bunch of people could not get into club/movie and decided to go home to watch laserdiscs,
One suggests a movie which the female says 'if only its in Pan and Scan' which everyone looks dissapointed.
One person boasts he has imported the Japanese Planet of apes in widescreen.
Ring any bells for someone? :wtf:

Sounds like "Free Enterprise" to me. One of the characters mentions his Japanese "Planet of the Apes" laserdisc set when trying to pick up a girl, and later they all get kicked out of a 70mm screening of "Wrath of Khan," I can't remember if they suggest going home and watching laserdiscs or not (been too long since I last saw it).

I actually posted about the film back in one of the early pages of this thread. Here's the "Planet of the Apes" scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W93XW6zaMnc

I often talk to the director, Robert Meyer Burnett, on Twitter; he's a great guy with a massive love of laserdiscs. He used to work in a LD store and fought to get the film released on LD right at the end of the format's life.

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Posted: 01 Oct 2021, 15:23 

Well done, Julien, please keep up the excellent work!

I joined back in November 2011, I never realised how new the forums were back then! I always just thought of myself as a newbie arriving into a well established forum; there was so much happening even back then!

Here's to another 10 years!
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