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Posted: 03 Oct 2017, 22:00 

I found what I believe is a bootleg of Heat (1995) in Hong Kong recently. No bar code, reference number and the inside of the gatefold is literally the same as the front and back cover! I'm gonna add it to the DB but just wondered if anyone has seen this before...

Hi brmanuk,

From the picture of the label, I suspect what you have may be a bootleg, possibly Taiwanese. The label looks very similar to some of those released by the Taiwanese publisher Jei Wea. However, I don't see any reference number on the label, so it may indeed be a bootleg of some sort. It's definitely not the official Hong Kong release, which was done by ERA Home Video with the reference number ERA-35-96. I have a copy of it, and the label looks nothing like the one you have. I'll be interested to see what your jacket looks like.

Best Regards,
David

Hi David,

I've updated the photo links so hopefully they work now.

Yeah, I'm convinced it's a bootleg. Funnily enough, the picture is subtitled however it's actually in widescreen (unlike the ERA release) and isn't the same print as the U.S. release; the black bars are even on the screen whereas the U.S. release is shifted up slightly. According to my colleague, the Chinese used is Traditional which means it's either a HK release or (as you said) most likely a Taiwanese release.

ps. thanks for all your hard work updating the database, 9 times out of 10 when I search for a HK disc your name is attached :)

Hi brmanuk,

Yes, I have done quite a bit of work to help out Julien with the database on these releases. About 10 years ago, I was buying a lot of discs from a brother and sister team in Chicago. The brother was a serious laserdisc collector like myself, and he owned a collection which at the time was about the same size as mine. However, whereas my collection was then almost entirely U.S. releases, his was full of Asian imports. They were selling off his collection, and most of the best that he had is now in my collection. Prior to dealing with them, I had absolutely no Hong Kong or Taiwanese discs whatsoever. When I saw what he had from those countries, I fell in love with them completely. I started buying as many of them as I could afford, and did so for probably 2 or 3 years. At that point, it became obvious that his collection was running out, and they were "scraping the bottom of the barrel". Believe me, that was a sad day indeed. :cry: During the period when I was dealing with them, I noticed very quickly that almost everything I was buying from them from Hong Kong and Taiwan was not listed here on LDDb! :o I decided that would be the best way that I could contribute to the global laserdisc community here. By submitting as much information as possible to Julien to update the database, a permanent record could be created of what was available in the "lesser Asian markets". You see, there was much better documentation of what was released in Japan, which was obviously the "big" Asian market. However, very little reference material was available on the other Asian countries. Although it is still far from complete, what we have here on LDDb is the best and most accurate record of what was released on the format in that part of the world. To this day, I still consider every newly discovered release from these countries to be a rare and exciting treasure! By documenting them here, we can share this information with collectors throughout the world, and preserve this sometimes strange and fascinating part of the history of the format. Keep watching the "newly added" section on the homepage for the latest discoveries!

Best Regards,
David :wave:

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 Post subject: Re: Late LD releases (2004)
Posted: 07 Jul 2020, 14:54 


Teichiku Laser Karaoke: vol.279 [30LV-279]

It's a 18/03/2004 release, 12" with 2 sides and 28 tracks, would be interesting to see which factory still manufactured this late.
Anyone has such discs in their collection or a picture available ?

I had to double check the 8" vs. 12" but 14 songs of 4~5 minutes is really a full 1h CLV side.
First batch would seem to have started in 1982 with Teichiku Laser Karaoke: vol. 1 [30LV-1] .

It might be the longest running LD collection ever!


The next series I added were the 01DK-XXX and these are 8" also from Teichiku.

Most recent known/confirmed is Utaemon: vol.370 [01DK-370] (1999).

Julien

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Posted: 08 Feb 2021, 03:53 

Now I tried 1998 and 1997 Mitsubish series :roll: I based myself on movies or titles I am sure of to be released in that year...

I found this SYMMxxxxx

Seems to work fine:

Hard Rain (1998) [TWLD-1002]
A90C07636 => 07? March 1999

Could 07 be the day?

Magic Knight Rayearth: OVA vol.1 (1997) [POLV-3181]
A70G12122 => July 1997

Magic Knight Rayearth: OVA vol.3 (1997) [POLV-3183]
A71A06981 => October 1997

Marc Almond: Memorabilia - The Video Singles (1991) [VALP-3264]
A10G00817 => July 1991

Mark Knopfler: Night in London (1996) [POLS-1019]
A60F0345 => June 1996

Mask of Zorro, The (1998) [LLD-26102]
A90B01102 => February 1999

Julien

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Posted: 16 Nov 2021, 13:52 

Here it is!

Pioneer LDC: LaserDisc + DVD Video Database CD-ROM Ver.2 1998 Summer (1998) [LPR-290]

=> https://lddb.com/_misc/ISOs/

Julien

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 Post subject: Re: Hardware Database
Posted: 16 Nov 2021, 19:58 

edwin240170 wrote:
Yes works perfect now :thumbup:


Processed, after a few more bugs fixed:

https://www.lddb.com/hardware/update/0008/laserdisc/Pioneer/CLD-D925

Actually I updated your update :-)

CLD-D925 has a 3-line 2D adaptive comb filter, not a 3-line comb filter.

Julien

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Posted: 28 Feb 2022, 00:10 

Hi Everyone,

I know this is a long belated reply to this topic, but I felt compelled to post it, in the event that anyone still cares about it. I felt I finally had something of greater substance to offer on it, as I just recently acquired a copy of the U.S. release of this title from one of the local Half Price Books locations for about $3! Although I have not done a direct side-by-side comparison with the Hong Kong release, there are a couple of things I can say for certain. First, the U.S. release has an incorrect running time listed on the disc labels (there is no time shown on the jacket itself). The labels state 101 minutes, but the actual running time is 91 minutes, which would make it the unrated cut of the film. Second, my recollection on the Hong Kong release is that one thing missing from it was a short scene with a brief flash of nudity. It is a scene fairly early in the film, in which Jeff Speakman is in bed. He wakes up, gets out of bed, and walks over to the window, and you see a shot of him naked from the rear. That is missing from the Hong Kong release, but it is definitely included on the U.S. release. The odd thing is that is is also included on the Taiwan release, which is noticeably shorter, mostly due to numerous cuts in various scenes to remove bad language and violence. I got my copy of the Taiwanese release several years ago from a seller in Singapore. They evidently have a very strict censorship code there, and are not at all tolerant when it comes to certain curse words and extreme violence. Although released by a Taiwanese publisher, this disc was obviously distributed in Singapore as well, as it spent a portion of its' lifetime as an active rental disc there. It obviously had to conform to the stringent censorship standards there, hence the numerous cuts in various scenes. It is surprising, however that it does include the aforementioned scene with the brief bit of male nudity by Jeff Speakman. Apparently they didn't mind that in Singapore! :lol: Well, I hope that clears things up somewhat regarding the various releases of this title.

David :wave:

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 Post subject: Inside Technidisc
Posted: 23 Mar 2022, 14:47 

The following is from a conversation I had with a former Technidisc employee. I made minor edits (readability), and it is shared with permission. This is strictly going off of that person's memory, so take from it what you will.

This was a large factory that had four different cleanroom modules inside of it. In front was the mastering module. It was both a cleanroom and it had filtered light. They had three other modules that were devoted to laserdisc and one to CD. Entire production lines from beginning to end inside each module. They had positive air pressure: each of the clean rooms was being pumped full of clean air from a HEPA filter. Any leaks will be pouring out clean air rather than letting dirty air in. They also had a giant library room full of rolling shelves that contained stampers in canisters. One item I liked was a very old laserdisc player that they had rigged up to play master discs. Because it was working with a mirror image of the data it had to play backwards. They had one engineer who actually knew what he was doing. And a bunch of potheads who did the actual work. Every once in awhile he would come in and check up on them and straighten out that work. Each of the modules was crewed by a different group. Laserdisc modules were ran by entire families. It ran 24 hours a day and they worked in shifts. Some would live at home while the others were working, then switch. Module one was ran by a man named <Name 1>. Module two was ran by a guy named <Name 2>. Automation ran mostly by pneumatics and Allen-Bradley ladder logic programmable logic controllers. Prices were hand operated, but they added automation piece by piece over the years.

When each of the laserdisc modules ran, they had a lady who sat in a room with about a dozen laserdisc players of different models. They would give her samples and she would sit there watching every disc playing simultaneously, looking for any kind of dropout. If she saw anything, production would stop and the issue corrected. Most of my laserdisc collection are vintage test discs. The engineers would grab samples to see if they were working or not and then throw them out and I would take them. Most don't have labels and only a few have jackets. Some were side A on both discs, but I usually didn't take those. I got a couple of good ones in my collections like the Star Wars set, take right from the factory floor. I think they caught a few people stealing the test samples and selling them at a local video store. I never sold mine. I just kept them to watch.

The real collectible gems were the radio CDs. Back then they would mint CDs with a collection of songs for the radio stations to play. We would get one CD with 15 songs. 5 rap, 5 rock, 5 country. They would ship them to radio stations, and they would only use the five tracks they needed. Whatever the top songs at the time were, they were on the playlist. Near the end we made a few CD-ROMs. There are a couple of collections of women in swimsuits as JPGs. Plus we made the Rush Limbaugh Mega Dittos screensaver CD. Last time I visited the old Technidisc building, it was a warehouse for cellphones.

Fans of the format have been trying to decipher Technidisc mint marks further. Do you happen to know any more detail on this: 025-085-649C 5H9H# ? We know 025 is Image Entertainment, 085 is August 1995, but no clue on other numbers. I’m guessing it has something to do with the day or possibly the modules you are talking about.

No because they moved stampers between modules. I think those numbers were used for what shelf it was on in the storage area, but I don’t know if there is any other meaning. I know they would make three or four stampers for every job incase one had a flaw they would switch to the next. So that might have been the way to tell the different stampers apart.

Did you ever notice that some laserdisc manufactured there have metal that goes all the way to the edges, and some have it that only goes partly to the edge? The last few years module 2 got a sputterer for metallization, replacing the vacuum chamber. So any disc that did not go all the way to the edge was from the sputterer. The German manufacturing video had a big metallization chamber that looks a lot like the one in module 1.

Did Technidisc use injection molding?
We had two large hydraulic injection mold presses that could do laserdiscs. We had seven small ones for CDs and later bought a faster one for CDs that could produce faster than the other ones combined. The modules had the press at the far end. Automation would reach in and grab the clear disc. An operator would stand there with an air hose with anti-static air and blow on the disc. It would then be picked up and put on the drum for the metallizer. Once they had a full drum, they put it in the metallizer and ran it. From there they were unloaded and ran through a conveyor belt that put on the glue and other side. They were then pressed together. From there they went outside of the cleanroom to a finishing room. There was a lady that would grind the edges smooth, stick on a label and put in a white sleeve on a cart. These carts were then shipped out of the building to a different facility that would put them in the packaging and ship them wherever.

I remember one time they were taking some samples off to an electronic show, then realized the width of the tracks was badly out of range on the samples. It was too late to make replacements, so they had to stand there and say “Our discs are just like these, but they will be right.” We had one engineer who was fixing stuff. He would come in and see that everything was working right. Then go away for a few months and things would slowly get worse and worse. He’d come back and set everything right again. He was one of the engineers at Technidisc.

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Posted: 01 Sep 2022, 17:23 

rein-o wrote:
Yes it does and hes been gone for some time and did cause trouble.
Now it seems more spiteful, but so it goes.


Was checking laserbite34/Andy's YouTube for signs of improvements, but I can't say he's doing great :-(



Julien

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Posted: 12 Nov 2022, 06:27 

edwin240170 wrote:
Hello Julien, what's the difference? Thanks Edwin


The Top 100 is by individual release.

The list above is by movie, all releases included.

Julien

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Posted: 16 Sep 2023, 03:33 

Interesting.

You can browse the evolution of "released, "to be released" and "cancelled" releases timeline here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20000502014105/http://www.enc.co.uk/new_list.htm

Alien Resurrection was announced with a batch of other releases that got half cancelled.
And then postponed to 1999. By then Encore stopped releasing.

The latest update to this page remains stuck on 22nd January 1999 .

Given the ratio of collection-to-wishlist, and the stock cover image, it quite safe to assume it was cancelled.

That would make these releases the last batch that made it before Encore Ent. shut down:

Broadcast News (1987) [EE 1126]
Full Monty, The (1997) [EE 1201]
Romeo + Juliet (1996) [EE 1134]
Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951) [EE 1138]
Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) [EE 1106]
Volcano (1997) [EE 1154]
Alien Resurrection (1997) [EE 1230]

Asking the only member who added it to collection if it's a mistake... or a copy that leaked before the cancellation?

Julien

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Posted: 17 Sep 2023, 10:31 

Adding all the info I can :-)

One more moved to "Cancelled" => Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996) [EE 1093]

These cancelled titles were added, filling gaps in the numbers:

Mysterious Island [EE 1081]
Young Guns [EE 1101]
First Men in the Moon [EE 1104]
Man Who Would Be King, The [EE 1109]
Buster (1988) [EE 1140]
Fifth Element (1997) [EE 1144]

... and these were cancelled but the Cat # was recycled -- must have been cancelled very early in the process!

Oklahoma [EE 1126]
Broadcast News (1987) [EE 1126]

Hello Dolly [EE 1127]
French Connection, The (1971) [EE 1127]

South Pacific [EE 1130]
Big Blue, The (1988) (Uncut) [EE 1130]

Patton [EE 1134]
Romeo + Juliet (1996) [EE 1134]

Robe, The [EE 1136]
Final Conflict, The: Omen III (1981) [EE 1136]

Demetrius and the Gladiators [EE 1137]
Entity, The (1982) [EE 1137]

Cleopatra [EE 1138]
Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951) [EE 1138]

Witchfinder General [EE 1154]
Volcano (1997) [EE 1154]

... and these were cancelled twice !

Kiss of Death (1995) [EE 1058]
Red Dwarf: Series 5 [EE 1058]

Nine Months (1995) [EE 1152]
Red Dwarf: Series 6 [EE 1152]

Julien

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Posted: 02 Dec 2023, 20:09 

Webserver is still being hammer/DDOS'ed by thousands of IPs since Nov 27th.

I'm going to block MANY, MANY IP addresses for now.

Some might get caught in the cross-fire. Contact me directly if you can't connect anymore...

Julien
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