LaserDisc Database • Search

lunarjetman · **Posted:** 24 Jan 2012, 15:27

Having bought many second hand collections over the years (in order to cherry pick titles to build my own collection), i've come across all of the usual suspects. Most of them were pressed at the dreaded SONY DADC US plant. I'm a serial Sony hater to this day, just because of the way they handled (or didnt, as the case may be) a replacement / return scheme for defective discs. i.e. - they didn't. No company would be allowed to practice in this way today, so goodness knows how they got away with it 15 or so years ago.

I've never found a decent copy of a US pressing of Eraser or Starship Troopers, for example - and i've gone through dozens. Luckily, there's usually an exceptional Japanese pressing of the same title available, as is the case with these two.

In fact, the only Japanese rotters I have had are a very small number of early Pioneer pressings, way fewer than my US discs. Sadly, the US rot figures are usually artificially bumped up by the crappy DADC discs. All of my late (1995+) Japanese discs have been exceptional quality.

The 'coffee staining' that some people mention has also manifested itself on my PDO UK PAL pressings - it's quite common for some of the early PAL laservision discs to turn bronze in colour over their lifetime - some play absolutely fine.

None of my discs have developed rot on the shelf - like others, if it had rot when I bought it, it still has - but none seemed to have developed it during my ownership. Let's hope it stays that way! I'm sure it will.

All the best.