A little bit of laserdisc history about me, it sure brings back good memories...
Its a bit of a long story, hope you like it !

I must say that before 1996, i didn't even know the format, i only remembered some shiny gold discs that were demoed on tv screens in video stores with the Tina Turner live concert.

When i was 18, i stumbled accidentally, but very late in the formats' lifetime, on the LD format in 1996 when i was strolling in a busy electronics street. I passed by a shop window that had lots of 12" sized movie covers on display. I was more into music at that time so i thought... hey what the heck is all this ?
By entering the store, which had the name "home theater", a new world opened up in front of my eyes.
Beautiful movies, in the most beautiful presentation sleeves, presented in the shop on a giant home cinema system with a 32" sony trinitron tv as display and super surround sound, it was just simply AMAZING.

I quickly asked the shop keeper to explain what it all was and he introduced me on the LD format, it's possibilities etc...
The big PLUS was that the LD movies which were already available in the NTSC US format in times they weren't even watchable in a movie theater... wow !

I became addicted to the format. I was still a student, so i had to safe money to get some discs one by one. My first player was a Pioneer CLD-515D and the first disc was the widescreen collectors edition re-issue of Raiders of the lost ark.
Spending my earned money on this "obscure and unknown" format made my parents crazy: "what the hell did you buy, you've spend how much money one that thing ???" But my dad did show some interest too...

It were the days where a laserdisc movie costed about 4000 belgian franks (about 120 us dollars back then). I saved a lot of days and weeks, did weekend jobs to buy that one great release again and again.
I remembered skipping class one afternoon to catch a train towards antwerp to get Independence Day on LD on the day of its release, it felt like having solid gold in my hands. (some people will think I'm crazy but I'm sure you will all understand)
Back then a release of a huge blockbuster hit on the format was a major event. Ill never forget the release of "The lost world". This disc for example was available here before it was in theaters.

Or the day that a handful of belgian LD fans waited and waited in the "home theater" laserdisc shop on the arrival of the Star Wars trilogy special edition in 1997. I remember it was released together with MIB, and we got a phone call in the store while waiting that the shop attendant had just cleared the imported discs at the belgian customs and was underway by car towards the store. I even helped the shop owner bringing in the shipping boxes from his car into his back room. Then after a few minutes he came from behind a curtain (his shop and back room for stocking was separated with a big black curtain) with those beautiful factory sealed movies. i spend 8800 belgian franks (about 275 dollars) that day i believe (7000 franks for the star wars s.e. box set and 1800 for the men in black) Wow, those were the days.

My first home cinema was built from scratch based on a Sony trinitron (back then these were about the only tv's over here that accepted NTSC signal) with the first sony "910" av receiver that had AC-3 RF demodulation built in for an acceptable price. Back then my attick became one of the first belgian real home cinemas with 5.1 AC-3 on a student budget

I didn't have a lot of discs, but it were all precious gems for me and my collection grew one by one.

Later, when i started working i was able to extend my collection in a quicker way so that the THX wow disc (back then my holy grail) and the Toy Story box set (with the SUPERB tex thx trailer) were in my reach.

DVD was introduced in 1997 over here, but i remember the laserdisc fans said in the beginning in the store that they liked the LD's better, even for video. Perhaps that was the case for the first few dvd test discs, but of course that didn't stand for long.

A couple of years later the "home theater" store was shut down because of legal issues. You know, it was illegal to sell US laserdisc outside of the US !!! I guess that gave also some sort of a kick for non-US ld fans, if you know what i mean. It was told that all of his imported discs were taken over towards customs and destroyed. Sadly, he had to close down his business not so long after that incident. The place where this shop was is now a coffee bar.

In 2003 i started my own business in home cinema. Not with laserdisc software or hardware, but we did do a laserdisc retro event back in 2008 if I'm not mistaking and it was a huge success. Fans from Belgium and holland came over to our home cinema store to discuss the format, trade discs and even join a hardware laserdisc workshop where we opened up some played to learn the anatomy...

Thanks to my business i came in contact with other LD fans and that's how my collection grew bigger and bigger. Now there are still some holy grails left for me to search for, mostly hard to fine japanese titles and some USA box sets. I hope one day my collection (that now contains already >1200 US and JAPAN titles and box sets) will be complete.

I was lucky to be able to visit Tokyo 3 years ago on a business trip. I hunted for laserdiscs over there. While most shops like "disc union" told me laserdisc was dead i did find a chain called "RARE" that carried masses of new and second hand discs. Thanks to the taxi driver i was able to make some round trips hotel - shop to get all that i wanted. He even knew what i was carrying, i showed him the EAGLES disc and he immediately started singing hotel california in the cab with that great japanese accent... beautiful. He called laserdiscs "LAY ZU DISKU". I came back with some extra bags filled with box sets and japan versions, i almost broke by back carrying them all around the airport but they finally arrived here.
This shop chain which i believe was called "R.A.R.E." with several shops all over tokyo had a website but i cannot seem to find it anymore, anyone ?

Thanks to the laserdisc format, i also entered the D-VHS D-THEATER and the HD-DVD world. In the days of HD-DVD even a delegation of business men from Toshiba Japan came to our shop and congratulated us for presenting and defending the format in our home cinema stores. Things you'll never forget.

That's my story for you guys, from one fan to another.
Are there perhaps more belgian fans that used to buy at the "home theater" store in Antwerp ?
Does anyone have a photo of the shop interior ? That would bring back some memories.
Or is the original shop owner also here on the board ? He must still be a big movie fanatic...

Greetz from da laserlord

I'm sure you know who I am...
I remember those days.... spending every nickel on one "major" release.
Maybe I can track down the shop owner from back then... More on this later...

very nice story. aer there any place that you can buy used lds in europe today ?

and here is the RARE website: http://www.rare-records.co.jp/ not that they have anything online. I still remember when I visited Tokyo for the first times, I think it was in 99-02 and the dvd had just hit big. Every store I was in where selling their lds for next to nothing.

And I wasnt a bit interested in the format and didnt end up buying anything in several years later. Now its pretty rare in Tokyo to find anyone that sells them.

Real shops where you can buy used laserdiscs here in Belgium are gone i believe, perhaps in other parts of europe ? Anyone ?

As I've more or less stated alread in a different thread, I know of no place in Denmark where they sell laserdiscs now. Maybe you can find one or two in different second-hand shops across the country, but only by chance as I think that the shopkeepers mostly have taken them in by mistake, thinking they were LPs.

Stil any shops left in big contries like Germany or the UK, I wonder? I have tried to look for LDs in Berlin, but no luck so far.

I remembered skipping class one afternoon to catch a train towards antwerp to get Independence Day on LD on the day of its release, it felt like having solid gold in my hands. (some people will think I'm crazy but I'm sure you will all understand)