I've recently been getting back into collection laserdiscs after giving up my player and collection several years ago.

My specialty are films from the silent era through the early 1950s.

I've got a couple thousand titles on dvd and blu-ray, but getting attracted once again to laserdisc for a few reasons. One, of course, is that there are some obscure titles that still haven't come out on dvd or blu-ray and some have extras not present in the current versions.

I'm also noticing that some lesser-known catalogue titles from the major studios, particularly on MOD dvds, are still using the same interlaced video masters used for laserdisc releases in the 1990s. It's particularly noticeable when you get jpeg artifacts in shadows or with films that have varying contrast levels because of the film processing used at the time. The lasers, although they have a little less resolution, don't have the digital artifacts. The sound, in digital pcm, rather than compressed on a dvd, can be a little more full and rich with some titles.

Laserdisc is a good format for collecting films from this period. Practically all full frame, so they use the full resolution of the format and most are black and white so you don't have to worry about some of the color problems inherent with the NTSC video format.

I'm surprised how well many of the transfers hold up for many of these films after all these years.

Even though I have a pretty rich collection of dvd and blu-ray titles, the Laserdiscs make a nice adjunct to the main collection to supplement and fill in some holes. And, in recent years, I'm running into fewer classic Hollywood titles I'm interested in that are being released, so getting a back catalogue of lasers keeps me busy.

Good morning Coolcatdaddy,

Thank you for sharing our thoughts with us here sir,

I for one enjoy the classics on Laserdisc and have around 12+ movies from the silent era, not even on the inventory here so I am unable to list them on my collection here from MGM I think but will have to check and confirm.

The many other black and white movies that one is fond of, reveals a good deal of what has been lost over time, of which is now missing, somewhat worrying lacking from the present day movie making experience.

The depth of the human experience in rich communication has been somewhat lost over time, but there are still some present day exceptions that come up from time to time.

Thank you for your valuable words Friend

Sincere Regards

If you have the time & inclination could you not add them to the lddb listings, that way you will be able to add them to your collection here.

Regards

I'm no power collector but I do enjoy movies from this period as well. Lately I'm learning how great W.C. Fields was thanks to some LDs I got a deal on once. I'm also a big Marx Bros and Chaplin fan.

I have a lot of films on laser from that period - probably my favorite is "And Then There Were None" - no matter how often I watch it is always just delicious.

I have a lot of the horror stuff, all of the marx brothers that was on put out on ld, quite a bit of the Abbott and Costello (they are hit and miss for me - but when they are good they are great), and all of the sci-fi stuff (as far as I know). Mrs. Bear is a big fan of noir so we have a lot of that also. I also have bits and pieces from other genres.