mostly the japan pressings have a crisper clearer,sharper picture

I'm finding as well the sound is better...

my main focus in collecting LDs is music

I have a few titles in both American and Japanese versions ,and thought the video is the same I find the master level of the Japanese discs higher giving me more overhead for playback.

One glaring example is Chick Corea and Friends a very good concert recorded not so well... Joe Henderson(saxophone) is difficult to hear properly... In switching to the Japanese version he sounds better...why?? because the bass is not distorted....

after messing around with the eq and volume knobs I came to the realization ive stated above

...so WHY IS THIS??? do they have different technical standars(or equipment) to the Americans...or what???

They actually give a s**t about the quality of their work. To quote Marty McFly, "all the best stuff is made in Japan".

Of course, having customers that will pay triple what Americans will does give you more funds for product improvement.

People who will pay well for a product + people who are interested in making a good product = quality product.

Unfortunately Japan is moving towards the American way of doing things, massive outsourcing and layoffs, resting on laurels, so it's possible all this is already over.

Hello signofzeta,

The Japanese customer insisted or Still insist's on the best quality and that's one of the reasons why the overall Laserdisc and DVD product was a good grade better.

Amongst other things I really appreciated the high quality loose wrap and the OBI, not only that but the cover card is of thicker grade and made for a more collectable item indeed.

Their attitude was to make every new, leading or each format the best that you can make it, in other words they gave it their best shot and they did well.

Thank you for bringing this up as I myself stand by them and yourself on this matter.

Kind Regards

You bring up an interesting point. The jackets alone are so superior to American jackets. Even the shrink wrap. The friggen shrink wrap is patently superior. No need for aftermarket protective sleeves. Just slit the OEM shrink wrap at the top and use that.

BTW, I watched Alice in Wonderland (1951) [036 AS] the other day. The glue had failed on the jacket. Then, when I went to take the disc out I noticed the labels had fallen off both sides of the disc. Took me a while to fetch the side B label from inside my 603...

You guys ARE right...the entire productipn value is better at that.... I have four box sets of note... Ghost on the shell, Garzey's Wing,Tenchi Muyo, and Memories. the sets are all masterfully produced to the highest esthetical standards...Memories is absolutely the ultimate with its velvet box. i've been buying my discs from japan as they come new,or like new...so seeing as they are always the same and japanese pressings,so i hadnt noticed what you guys are saying as well.... Yes the covers are crisp,wrap exellent as stated.Id find the liner notes awesome if i could read japanese!!!!

Here's a funny point...why use protector sleeves?? I use them on pristine covers to keep them that way.... What's funny...my friend who collects records only uses them on the worst covers to keep them from getting worse!!!!

Hello jazz2future,

I enjoyed reading your comments

I have given all of my Laserdisc collection protective covers, from when I first started collecting Laserdisc's.

My reason for giving all of my LD's protective covers is not just to protect them but, because I used to work so many hours up to 84hrs a week at times and, I always looked at each LD purchase as an investment to take care of.

April 1998 I knew when making my Laserdisc Hardware and software purchases, that the writing was on the wall for this well loved format, and that's why I personally put so much effort in each title ect.

I have no regrets and love this format as much now as when I did when in the beginning.

Regards to all

Well Said!!

Good afternoon grasshopper,

How are you, I hope you are well

Hello benmbe, Im doing well and its Christmas here in the States.. So off to visit the Brother and his wife and the Nephew..

It makes me feel Good that I sold some good players and 1 to a LD newbie on here.

Thanks for asking benmbe, its always nice hearing from you. You take care and hope is well on your end?

Duane, MI (Grasshopper)

Hello grasshopper,

Good to read from yourself

I hope you have a pleasant visit Duane

Except for Denon and Kuraray's discs I don't think Japanese discs are any better in actual pressing quality than Pioneer Carson, 3M, Sony Austria, etc.... Discs meant for the Japanese market had just as much, if not more, rot and common disc problems like snits, crosstalk, CAV slow dropouts and such. The Japanese consumer just seemed not to complain about it much, unlike the US where a magazine (Disc Deals) ended up going out of business because the publisher would not accept Pioneer's (and the LaserDisc industry in general) answer that rot and other disc problems were a thing of the past. Disc Deals wanted answers as to rot's cause and what consumers could do to protect discs from rotting as well as wanted answers on how the industry was solving the problem. Disc Deals even retained engineers from Disctronics to start an independent investigation into LaserDisc rot. Pioneer lost their collective mind, accusing Disc Deals of having a vendetta against the format and trying to damage Pioneer's name and LaserDisc sales. Amazingly, Pioneer finally insisted that rot was real but that it was a very small problem that happened way hack in 1984 and they had identified tha cause (bad batch of glue) and fixed it (God bless 'em) and now rot did not exist - their answer to consumer complaints that new discs were still rotting was that consumers needed to clean their discs or have their player aligned. Video Magazine did an article in 1987 about rot and Pioneer pulled all their advertising for a full year in retaliation. The Perfect Vision reprinted one of Disc Deals articles on rot and Pioneer stopped sending them review discs for several years and, again, pulled all advertising, stating that by reprinting the Disc Deals article The Perfect Vision was practicing irresponsible journalism. From corresponding with people living in Japan and companies like Sight & Sound that did massive import LD business, the articles that Video, Disc Deals and other magazines published simply wouldn't have been written in Japan. Letters of complaint from consumers just wouldn't be printed. Retailers simply took back rot and other defective disc returns, reshrink wrapped them and they went back on the shelf.

Actual video and sound quality of a disc depends on the master - as an example, the 1983 Japanese CLV release of the Duran Duran videos looks better than the American CAV release because Pioneer had to take the master tape down another generation to make it CAV and add frame numbers, etc. digital tape didn't exist then and even the very best pro equipment showed generational loss when making copies. Pioneer reissued Duran Duran with digital sound in both countries, but I've never been able to find the American digital issue, so I don't know how it looks. Olivia Physical looks best in its original CAV American release - the later CLV digital sound reissues in Japan look like they are several generations removed from the master used for the MCA Videodisc release. MCA and Pioneer mastered the CX encoded analog sound of the original American release so well that the PCM sound issue isn't any kind of major improvement.

Packaging is where Japanese discs shine and beat American releases. But really, if you are not a fan of anime or J-Pop, which I am not, there isn't a whole lot of special edition releases of regular films from both countries where the Japanese edition is so superior to make one favor it. Japan had a lot more music LaserDisc's released because, for some strange reason, they just didn't sell all that well here in the US. The US market wouldn't support the high prices that the Japanese love so much either - they totally equate high price with quality, even if it isn't related. Discs and players for the VHD Video Disc system had to be sold at higher prices in Japan than JVC originally intended because Japanese consumers figured that if it was low priced, it was low quality, which VHD for the time, was not. Those high prices allowed companies to spend lavishly on packaging, which is another thing the Japanese love - the actual print or video transfer used on a film could be junk but if it's packaged beautifully, the Japanese consumer would eat it up. Anime is a perfect example - many, many expensive anime box sets have horrific NTSC transfers that have been mastered from U-Matic and such, but because it's an expensive box set, it's all right. To me, that's just weird.

So, personally, I don't think you can make a blanket statement that Japanese pressings are always better than American releases. It's a title-by-title thing.

I totally see what you are saying there, Disclord. The Japanese make very obddient customers for sure.

I do sometimes wonder about how much your impression of laserdisc seems to be formed by the very early days. In my collection, which is less than 300 LDs, rot is virtually non-existent and I have very little of the old stuff. When I think "Laserdisc" I'm not imagining stuff from 1983 or even usually pre Digital Sound stuff. I judge LD by its best era, which was probably 1990-1997. The Physical LD you mention once in a while seems to be a pretty popular reference point for you, for example. I only have a couple of things that old.

Regarding special editions from Japan: while I agree the LEs from Japan are extremely impressive, it's really the common release that's more important to me. I have 3000 yen LDs from Japan that still have the thick jackets, full color inserts, etc. Nearly every 2LD set from Japan I've seen has come in a gatefold jacket as opposed to most US stuff where both LDs are just crammed into a single paper thin Jacket. The technical information (sides, surround, digital sound, etc) is usually standardized on the back of the disc too, as opposed to being spread all around the jacket (or completely missing) like it is on US releases. Art direction on US discs is often...absolutely horrible.

I agree that the discs themselves don't seem to be as superior as the jackets are, but at the same time I've never seen a Japanese rotter before in person so...maybe there is something to that. JP discs seem to make my player vibrate less often and I've never seen one with the glue oozing out and sticking to the plastic sleeve either.

I personally really love the thicker cardboard Japanese discs would come in, compared to the flimsy stuff we got, but does anyone else find that the Japanese jackets are just a tad too short? When I replace the "camel condom" sleeves they come in with new poly-lined paper sleeves, they fit fine in my American Jackets, but stick out just by ever so much in my Japanese jackets.

disclord and signofzeta sum up very well.
Gatefold artwork is another fine aspect about the Japanese LaserDisc imports.
Adds an extra dimension to the LaserDisc experience in my book.
All around better quality for the reasons mentioned in this thread.

The diverse title selections are another attractive selling point.
Many rare obscure titles were only released in Japan.

Invested heavy in Japanese titles for my personal collection and also for speculation......and so far very glad that I did !

Still wish a trip to Japan with time allotted for some shopping ............

Hello disclord,

I really enjoyed reading your valued personal experience and also what seams to me to be ''a well read, researched & well informed''
assessment of the Laserdisc format. . . . . Respect to you.

Your reply was extensive and must have taken some time to write, of which in itself speaks volumes about your passion and enthusiasm in making sure that others are aware of checking titles and comparing them on a side by side, and comparing each one.

Hello naiaru,
I personally really love the thicker cardboard Japanese discs would come in, compared to the flimsy stuff we got, but does anyone else find that the Japanese jackets are just a tad too short?

Reply: When I replace all of the inner sleeves with the anti static LP type, I have personally found that it's because of the corners of these that are a tight fit, but when I turn them virtically they always fit exactly the same as the US type.
The reason for this is because the extra thick card on the Japanese titles makes for a tighter fit, of which makes itself know when the anti static LP sleeves. . . . . .Again this is what I have found especially with the US and Japanese Gatefold titles.

Hello firehorse_44,
disclord and signofzeta sum up very well.
Gatefold artwork is another fine aspect about the Japanese LaserDisc imports.
Adds an extra dimension to the LaserDisc experience in my book.
All around better quality for the reasons mentioned in this thread.

The diverse title selections are another attractive selling point.
Many rare obscure titles were only released in Japan.

Invested heavy in Japanese titles for my personal collection and also for speculation......and so far very glad that I did !

Still wish a trip to Japan with time allotted for some shopping ............

My Reply:I couldn't agree more with what you wrote...........I would love to take a trip to Japan but available funds are somewhat slim and I really need to complete my remaining order reserved in Japan as this has taken some time now.


Hello signofzeta,
I do sometimes wonder about how much your impression of laserdisc seems to be formed by the very early days. In my collection, which is less than 300 LDs, rot is virtually non-existent and I have very little of the old stuff. When I think "Laserdisc" I'm not imagining stuff from 1983 or even usually pre Digital Sound stuff. I judge LD by its best era, which was probably 1990-1997. The Physical LD you mention once in a while seems to be a pretty popular reference point for you, for example. I only have a couple of things that old.

Regarding special editions from Japan: while I agree the LEs from Japan are extremely impressive, it's really the common release that's more important to me. I have 3000 yen LDs from Japan that still have the thick jackets, full color inserts, etc. Nearly every 2LD set from Japan I've seen has come in a gatefold jacket as opposed to most US stuff where both LDs are just crammed into a single paper thin Jacket. The technical information (sides, surround, digital sound, etc) is usually standardized on the back of the disc too, as opposed to being spread all around the jacket (or completely missing) like it is on US releases. Art direction on US discs is often...absolutely horrible.

I agree that the discs themselves don't seem to be as superior as the jackets are, but at the same time I've never seen a Japanese rotter before in person so...maybe there is something to that. JP discs seem to make my player vibrate less often and I've never seen one with the glue oozing out and sticking to the plastic sleeve either.

My reply: I've never seen one with the glue oozing out and sticking to the plastic sleeve either.
I couldn't agree more with you on this..........Spot on.
I myself have spent well in excess of £8000 on Japanese titles and have still got another around £4000 to spend on what I still want in my collection.

Good comments and thank you for all your efforts.

i think that around 1991 or a little later is when Japanese discs started to be at their tops.

discs before that were just mastered very fast, almost like some discovision but then there are titles that you
can't get on LD even newer.
so in a way that makes Japanese discs better!!

the cover art, box sets and all that good stuff.
even isolated soundtracks.

but i think the true answer to the topic question is that Japanese discs are better since there are more titles
made that were never in the USA! and i'm not just saying Japanese titles but also USA titles.

I have to confess that i bought many titles early on from japan just because they were cheap...and "suffered" with the subtitles.... I even bought my LD-G player thinking it would cover the subtitles(it doesnt)....

It is only from my personal observations that ive come to find the mastering and sound better....when ivehad two discs to compare.....

i was never that upset about Japanese subtitles, that's like people saying they don't like films with subtitles
in their native language and they would rather have it dubed.

it's just part of how things were done before newer technology.

A good number of the original Japanese discs were bilingual with no subtitles, but the Japanese hate dubbing and demanded original soundtracks with subtitles. They wouldn't stand for time compression either. Discs back then were so cheap to import into the US - a Japanese disc like Star Wars, which was not time compressed, could be bought for little more than the same US title, and then Japanese titles became expensive. I did not like side subtitles, like Star Wars had - I prefer them across the bottom since they are easier to tune out.

For the japanese i suppose vertical sidetitles are easier to read