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Posted: 22 Jan 2019, 21:23 

I’m not seeing any activity from the loading mech in the video. Don’t worry about lasers and stuff until you can get a disc in there.

I don’t know much about the 925 but it doesn’t look much different from other Both Side players.

The drawer should open, you put a disc in, then the spindle moves up into the disc lifting it and clamping it at the same time. Then the spindle motor spins and only when the disc is up to speed can anything be read.

From the video I’d say your load step isn’t even happening and it’s setting the code for that or the spindle isn’t turning and the current draw is setting the U0. One or both of those. I wouldn’t worry about reading anything now. You need to get the loading working. You’re not yet at the point where the laser integrity matters.

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Posted: 28 Jan 2019, 18:05 

It could be something I like more but really its just going through the motions pretending to be 2001 or Solaris or whatever. It has the trappings of the real ish but not the meat of it.

I'm only hard on it because its Star Trek which is, net, the greatest scifi thing there is. There are places ST could never go (2001, Solaris, Bladerunner, Angel's Egg, Slaughterhouse 5, 12 Monkeys, A Boy and His Dog) but in its main work, which is promoting an optimistic vision of a better future more engaged in its destiny, no one else can compare. So that's I rag on the little things. I'd still way rather watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture than see probably anything scifi released this year.

I have similar thoughts about Gundam, which I think is ST's only competition in this area. I dunk on Wing or Seed not because they are bad anime exactly but because they are waste of Gundam.

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Posted: 30 Jan 2019, 03:16 

I would recommend staying away from 2.0 unless you like a painfully obvious new CGI mixed with old CGI. The ruined the classic opening for some awful new CGI that doesn't work and the music is different. I would just get the LDs and the 2 disc DVD special Edition. If you have BD then only get the Japanese imports. If you just stick with the LD then copy it to the Harddrive or something so If you can't play the LD anymore you can still watch it.

Wow, glad I don't care for GITS. Appleseed is all I need! And the '80s comics and OVA only!

As a manga Appleseed is the best Shirow thing. The thing is, GitS the film isn’t a Shirow thing, it’s an Oshii thing. Shirow wouldn’t have the brains to make the GitS movie, as smart as he is. Oshii essentially pulled a Kubrick on Shirow’s King. The OG Appleseed OVA just sucks. I’m sorry, it sucks. It’s not it’s fault, it wasn’t planned well, but it sucks.

If I meet Oshii at any point I’ll be sure to mention that as good as GitS is, if he wants a REAL hit (which, oh, I’m sure he does) then he needs to have more frilly panties and collectible robot toys to make you and tasuke happy and less of like...accurately predicting the nature of cyber crime before the internet even went public. Too egghead! I mean, near the end of GitS I thought we were going to get some real mall otaku pleasing action when the Major changed to the body of a child but we didn’t even get to see her take a shower so what the hell, amirightoramiright?

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Posted: 30 Jan 2019, 19:53 

Yeah I always found Oshii pretentious. Patlabor 2 and GiTs are good examples of his pretention to me. I think I saw Angels Egg on a fan tape once. I can't really remember but I wouldn't mind watching it again. I can do art movies but why let him take over a franchise like Patlabor or a Shirow comic?

The Appleseed OVA from the '80s isn't even close to the manga but at least some of the look of the comics is there. The later CGI Appleseed is unbearable to me.

The best Shirow adaption is still Black Magic M66 imo.

You think anything aimed at a 100 IQ adult is pretentious. Anything trying to take anything to anyplace but stuff you memorized when you were 8 and toy tanks. What was your major, btw? If you have a BFA and you want to call Oshii pretentious that's fine. If you've never done anything in your life creatively that you're proud to call your own then maybe you don't have any scope of what you're talking about.

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Posted: 02 Feb 2019, 00:42 

It’s perfectly OK to do everything possible to jack up prices but anyone working the opposite angle is “negative”...negative because $6000 LDs are a good idea (positive, I guess) in the eyes of people who buy and sell them.

We can talk about how much The Sixth Day is “worth” (you know, it a positive way...which is defined by how much it’s value is positively incriminating during the thread) but we can’t question those claims of value without super collectors and wannabe super collectors trying to shut the coversation down because it violates their world view.*

It’s pretty easy to see the people who got into this scene late and for hype based reasons. He jumped into this thread to argue the “pro” for $6000 LDs. He’s politicking as much as I am, he’s just worse at it. He probably thinks I’m trying to tank his retirement plan. :)

It’s in no way whatsoever a matter of artistic preference, as people keep bring up. The bad taste I’m dumping on is the African dictator school of LD collecting. I own dozens of objectively bad movies on LD. We talk about those all the time here. Nobody talks about The Sixth Day. It isn’t popular. It isn’t taste bad or good, it’s a forgotten film. Only people who buy $6000 LDs even know what it is by and large. I’ll buy and watch objectively bad movies on all sorts of formats all day but I’ve never bought one to brag about it’s value. That’s just gouche in the worst way. Like dubs on a Dodge. If someone asked me if I wanted to see their collection of “late rare LDs” I’d say, no, show me your misspelled tattoos or your mini football hemlets. Something you really have passion for. :)





* That being pretty much, “I never really got into punk rock”

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 Post subject: Re: Best quality Laserdiscs
Posted: 05 Feb 2019, 02:07 

gypsy wrote:
Zeta, what would you say are some of the best looking anime discs of GOOD movies/oavs? Disregarding DYRL and GITS as I already have those.


I will make a topic for this.

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Posted: 05 Feb 2019, 03:04 

Zeta, what would you say are some of the best looking anime discs of GOOD movies/oavs? Disregarding DYRL and GITS as I already have those.

Let’s just make this thread about good picture quality anime LDs regardless of the quality of the program since it’s unlikely to get out of hand either way.

The aforementioned Ghost in the Shell: Premium Box (1995) [BEAL-921] set is a good one. While they did use cels on this movie the master was digital so it has that going for it. It’s also multilingual.

Picture quality on Macross The movie : Perfect Edition (1984) [BEAL-448] isn’t super awesome, IMHO but it’s pretty good. It’s certainly a must have disc. The CAV functionality alone makes it an essential Macross fan item. A movie worth watching at 1/8 speed if there ever was one.

Bubblegum Crisis: Complete Collection (1987) [BVLL-539] is one I picked up a few years ago having completely missed it back in the day. Picture quality is WAY better than the 80s pressings or the Animego versions. Everything is included, even the Bali video. Even the book is good. Easily one of the best box sets out there. Again, video quality is as good as it gets here. I can’t stress that enough.

One of the biggest box sets out there that isn’t a TV series or sports is Ghibli Ga Ippai Collection (1996) [TKLO-50180] . Again video quality here is superb. Publius was under the impression that the remaster was done in HiVision for a never released edition on that format (lord, can you even imagine what that would have cost? Then or now?) but only a regular NTSC release made it. There isn’t a lot of printed material in the white satin wrapped box with foil letters but what is inside is every Ghibli movie then ever released plus Nausicaa, the TV special I Can Hear the Ocean, the On Your Mark music video, a ton of random TV promos they did. There is also a Making Of for the movie Only Yesterday and a literal fireside chat with Miyazaki and the actual holy s**t OMG Akira Kurosawa. Damn! This is my favorite box set ever. The covers are all new. Whisper of the Heart and On Your Mark have their theatrical 5.1. Dolby tracks now. All discs have new art. Mononoke isn’t on here since that came out later. IMO it doesn’t belong here. It belongs in some Blu-ray box that begins with that movie, IMO.

If you get a first print version of Mobile Suit Gundam: Memorial Box Part 1 [BELL-1201] it will come with a big outer box to also house Mobile Suit Gundam: Memorial Box Part 2 [BELL-1202] giving you a massive box. This was, amazingly, the first time the TV version of Gundam was ever for sale. (Most fandom was and is focused on the compilation movies). Being released in the Winter of 98/99 you’d be right in assuming they made an HD master for this and use the same thing for the DVD. The covers are VERY pretty in this one. All new cel art (digital cels anyway...) which was also reused for the DVDs but here it’s all square and massive like it should be. This show doesn’t have the most amazingly clean animation ever seen but the video quality of this release is as good as it could possibly be, I’m pretty sure. The packaging is first rate as well. One thing I like about Bandai’s Gundam TV release is that in the gatefold there are chapter marks and screen shots of every episode on those discs so if you’re looking for that scene where your third favorite character dies is way easier to find than it would be with more modern packaging.

Speaking of Gundam, video quality varies with theatrical and TV releases. Char’s Counterattack kinda sucks, sadly. Usually the OVAs are pretty nice. With 0083 they made a big deal about using D2 tape and it’s in CAV so quality is super high. Every episode is available individually starting with the Boobytrap long Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory vol.01 (1991) [BEAL-421] . The earlier OVA, 0080, has a different sort of feel to it. Whereas 0083 was about quick action and...a lot of robots...0080 is more subtle. There’s a lot of detail to the backgrounds and stuff and it shines as an LD in a different sort of way. That word people use a lot here, “filmic” really applies.

I’m sure we can add a bunch more.

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 Post subject: Re: PILA 1150 and 1151
Posted: 06 Feb 2019, 17:52 

That’s weird.

You can tell a CAV disc from a CLV disc just by looking at it. CAV’s have a “Pac Man” look as the wasted section gets longer and longer on the larger laps. CLVs are just one big spiral but with more texture than a CD.

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Posted: 12 Feb 2019, 00:22 

While I would love to see an adaptation of a film like Akira, I know already after seeing some of the crap they have made that it will be garbage.

What exactly do you want out of a live action anime adaptation? Why start with Akira if it’s not going be Otomo’s art style? Or that OST? Or those cool tracing motorcycle lights?

I’m asking this because while many works translate from one art form to another (such as all the great movies and anime based on books) I genuinely have no interest in seeing the same thing all remade by some opportunistic white people 30 years later in another country. Why? What do you want out of it? What did Akira fail to do on...honestly ANY level that would lead to to wanting a remake of any kind, let alone from the clueless grindhouse of anime remakes? What can James Cameron put in Akira that makes it anything other than an insult to the original? You know he’s just going to set it in LA and make the main characters marines and/or go underwater with it or something else he’s done before only this time it’s more expensive. What’s more desirable? Bastardization or mimicry? Is there another choice?


To me quality isn’t even a factor. Good or bad...it’s already artistically bankrupt. “Good” CG isn’t going to save it. Remakes are fine if they have some reason to exist other than “some people don’t watch anime” which isn’t a good reason. Why sell Akira to people who don’t like Akira? People who don’t like anime don’t get to see Akira. People who don’t like classical music don’t get to enjoy it. Making a rock opera out of The Barber of Seville isn’t a way to broaden the market for Rossini. It would just be a way to give some uninspired composer a starting point for his hackery.

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Posted: 12 Feb 2019, 08:35 

I don’t know why the distinction is so important to you guys. I buy things if they exist in BR but honestly I kinda avoided DVD except for really critical stuff so I’m buying a lot of classics for the first time now. Even if I had a DVD I don’t usually feel the need to upgrade unless the thing is special. I don’t buy Casablanca every time it comes out. There’s no point. Even LD does a pretty good job with b/w. I just got a huge box set of Universal Monsters movies in DVD and I’m fine with that forever. For something like Blue Planet II or even Unico I really want the BR.

Blue ray really kicks a**. It sucks you feel you were screwed by the home video industry but...we’re here! At the finish line! Why quit %99 of the way back there at DVD which honestly kinda sucks when you can quit at Blu-ray which is the first format (RIP HDDVD) to relatively preserve everything you could want from 35mm while delivering crazy great audio?

You don’t have to keep your sets matched, you know. You can just throw them all together. It’s fine.

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Posted: 13 Feb 2019, 21:39 


I did see Boy and the World (2013) and that felt like it had the spirit of Tezuka or someone like that. The next great wave of cool stuff is happening right now someplace most likely and we just aren't cool enough to know what it is yet. It probably won't be from Japan though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_and_the_World

Wow, that looks really dumb. An art house try-hard waste of time.

Is that supposed to be anywhere near as cool as super high frame hand drawn combat sequences of gorgeous mecha with gritty war story backdrops from the 80s in Japan?

Don't make me laugh, if that is anywhere near "a next great wave of cool stuff" I'm completely right, the world of popular culture already peaked 30 years ago.

What rank were you discharged at?

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Posted: 14 Feb 2019, 07:03 

There was a BBC show in the 80s that many people enjoy for the different reasons. Its full of terrible FX but it also has those Guide animations by the guys who would eventually create Max Headroom (I think) and those are ageless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuumnjJWFO4

But yeah, the first three books are the meat of it.

The second book is called The Restaurant at the End of the Universe because it takes place there, which is a time traveling restaurant that goes to the chronological end of creation to entertain its guests and then flies back after there's nothing left, every night. There's a rock band that is so loud they can't play on the same planet as their speakers. One of the guys in it is dead but because he owes taxes his body is being dragged along in stasis to allow the band to tour. There is a factory that makes entire planets to order and in fact made Earth. This all had to be done with the same budget as Doctor Who so...its extremely bad looking. Like, I'd expect better FX live on stage from high school kids. I love those animations though.

There is also a film that for some reason never generated sequels. I personally liked it but I later learned I'm wrong and stupid, I guess, because everyone else hated it. I think most would agree the Guide animations were good in that one too.

Having been a fan of both Who and Hitchhikers for a loooooong time I can't even imagine where I'd tell anyone to start. I was preconditioned before I was critically minded! I've always loved it, since I was about 6 anyway, so now anything new is like buying your favorite band's new stuff. Its just cool to see them still doing it but it will never effect me the same way. Most would agree the best stuff is Tom Baker and Peter Davison. Before that is great, I love them in b/w as well, but after Davidson it just suuuuucked. The original end was a mercy killing. The 2005 reboot really surprised me. I'm so used to reboots being bastardizations but they really did make something with the same spirit as the best of the original and I hope it runs another 50 years.

Maybe watch City of Death?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxYA3FEN2-g

This counts as high budget footage for Who since its on location even though its literally just two people in almost normal clothes taking mass transit in Paris like millions of people do every day. THIS IS THE MAGIC OF DOCTOR WHO!

BTW, the girl here eventually married that jerk Richard Dawkins back when he wasn't quite so annoying. Both were pals with Douglas Adams.

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Posted: 19 Feb 2019, 21:53 

Great find!

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 Post subject: Re: Importing a LD player
Posted: 20 Feb 2019, 00:14 

I have a 115 V adapter that outputs 137 V when measured with a voltage meter, which is 37% more than japanese 100 V equipment expects to get.
So I bought a dedicated 100 V adapter, which outputs 101 V when I connect a voltage meter to it. Better play it safe. They are harder to find, that much is true.

Depending on how you measured it and the vintage 137VAC may be fine. Test it with a player plugged into it and running and see what it drops too. This is the nature of old school transformers...

To answer 666’s post, don’t waste your money if you already have a 240-110 converter. The difference between 120 and 110 and 100 is irrelevant. Most power supplies are manufactured exactly the same between US and JP. If you just bought a rare as hell high end turntable from the 70s that would be something different but disposing of an extra 10VAC is no problem for an LD player. It won’t even be measurable on the other side of the DC bus.

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Posted: 20 Feb 2019, 02:41 

Yeah, Harmony will do Play, Skip, etc. on almost any Pioneer. Good luck on Open/Eject or Audio button support though. Display probably works.

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Posted: 21 Feb 2019, 19:54 

I’ve watched Toast of London on Netflix five times through, the whole thing. It makes me laugh like crazy.

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Posted: 21 Feb 2019, 22:18 

OMG I'll have to check that out.
Just watched a few seconds on youtube.

I have to admit, it is in fact one of those shows...where you take a real life comedian and base a sit com on his actual life ala: Maron, Lady Dynamite, Everybody Loves Raymond, half the shows on TV in 2017, etc but since it’s Matt Berry it’s so weird you can’t even tell.

Also check out Snuff Box, which is another show of his where he and an American are royal executioners, hangmen, in modern day Britain somehellhow.

And Garth Marengi’s Dark Place which spoofs Stephen King and crappy 80s horror.

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Posted: 25 Feb 2019, 01:19 

It’s a brand of universal remote. You buy it, put codes into it, use it. If the device is supported then then you’re good. I don’t know what else to say. I suppose you could email them to verify that your specific device works.

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 Post subject: Re: Ripping LDs
Posted: 26 Feb 2019, 21:51 

I hate to be the forum language lawyer but Laserdiscs are not “ripped” they are recorded or captured, please. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU1JWHDPc0o

I made that by playing my CLD-99 into my DVD recorder and then dragging the VOBs into YouTube. The recorders HDMI output is even better than the DVDs it makes so I’ve been meaning to try capturing the HDMI with my Elgato doodad but these look so good I guess I haven’t bothered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5jOMLbyozg

Considering how bad DVD often is with action that one turned out pretty well. I use the highest setttings which I think will only put one hour on a DVD-R.

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Posted: 02 Mar 2019, 16:37 

The 960 digitizes everything it sees. It can’t display LD resolution, it fully digitizes everything you put into it. If you feed it a 240p Genesis, or a 480i PS1, or anything else, VHS, Beta, Laser, they are all fully digitized, deinterlaced, scaled, and sent to the CRT at the same resolution, 1080i. In a way this is the TV’s greatest weakness and the same one flat panels have.

And yes the USDM one has HDMI. The TV doesn’t have to do anywhere near as much work to display things coming in that way.

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Posted: 10 Mar 2019, 15:16 

Do you have a caliper or micrometer to measure the hole? Maybe it’s slightly too small or has roughness to it.

The physical dimensions should be the same as any CD. Normally the only mechanical issue associated with CDV is that they spin so stupidly fast that it sounds like your player will explode. This and the fact that Western releases can’t be trusted pretty much keeps me away from CDV or 5” LD Singles. I just have a few anime related ones.

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Posted: 11 Mar 2019, 23:11 

Pretty much, but you have to consider that since LD was Multi-Audio to begin with Criterion was really just fulfilling the promise of the format when most publishers wouldn’t consider the expense. They weren’t in a position to innovate anything that wasn’t already built into the format and demoed by Leonard Nimoy in the Magnavision promo.

Criterion were the first to make spending money on special features a normal thing. Their main goal in the beginning was just putting out movies period and making things available that could normally only been seen in very limited engagements at very few theaters. Realizing that meant their movies would cost more I think they considered it an obligation to make the releases as good as possible. It was $150 for some of these things, which is a lot of money for movies almost nobody wanted to see. They made sure you had a good cover and the transfer wasn’t too messed up and if it was a release that would pay for itself and worthy bonus material could be found or created they’d try to include it.

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Posted: 12 Mar 2019, 20:36 

Regarding the audio, does this happen with both Digital and Analog sound discs? Have you tried flipping between the two while playing it? Also, are you using digital or analog outs when you experience this? What is your overall LD experience level? It helps to establish this when diagnosing things. Do you have other players to verify the quality of the discs? Does the issue happen more on side B than Side A?

Usually the video suffers in some way before the sound does unless it’s an audio hardware issue. If you haven’t spent 10,000 hours watching LDs though the video faults may be too hard to see.

What’s the history of your discs? Are they from different places over the years or did you get everything you have at once?

I’m just trying to eliminate the possibility that every disc you have is defective. That actually happens if the entire collection came from the same swap shed or open roofed storage RV.

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Posted: 13 Mar 2019, 19:18 

Who are these noobs who go their whole life without something and then once there is a soulless remake or a celebrity death they will pay ANYTHING to have this greatest thing ever?

To be fair, the LD isn’t very common as far as anime OVA LDs go but it’s also...it’s also not very unique. I apologize in advance to hardcore fans of this show who didn’t even know it existed six months ago, but it’s just another OVA. Flashy and superficial like many others, no better or worse than many.

I’ve never owned it but I did buy the manga back in the day and I helped my then girlfriend build a Gally garage kit for a show but that’s the extent of my fandom on this and it should be the same basic way that anyone enjoys this show. It’s not...great. It’s just manga, ya know?

I absolutely refuse to watch that insane huge eyed CG monstrosity called Battle Angel. I’m honestly stunned that they use those giant eyes. That’s one of the most horrendous things I’ve seen in ages. It’s like seeing the Munsters in color and learning they are all green for the first time. You’re like...what idiot thought that was good?

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 Post subject: Re: How about a Discord ?
Posted: 20 Mar 2019, 23:04 

It’s the new way to suck forum traffic away, from what I can gather. Like Facebook but not as terrible.

Or it’s the new IRC. I don’t know. I’m totally ignorant!

Don’t care either way. I like forums and email. Forums and email rule all over this new ad driven crap.
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