Hi, people! I have registered here a short time ago, and now I would like to introduce myself. But first, take my apologies for possible mistakes, as of course English is not my main language. But I will try my best and hope you will understand all my writings. Parts of this posting I have yet used before within a letter at another active US laserdisc site, and I also want to tell this here. This is my personal story of experiences with home entertainment, as I collected movies since about the middle of the 80's - first with VHS, later with LD, and today with DVD and BD. As the most people out there, I guess, but actually I am not satisfied with home entertainment on DVD and BD...
Well, I really know about the huge differences between the markets of home entertainment for the US region and the European one since a long time. Especially in Germany we are more restricted as you may imagine, and this was always like this. No matter if on VHS, LD, DVD or now BD in the end. This is a matter of dubbing on the one side (all English movies are being dubbed into German language normally), and censorship on the other side. We have indexing of movies (means that only adults can find those movies in special stores or in the web) and we have confiscation, if our censor agency means a movie is harmful for people, then they confiscate it. There is a huge list of such movies which are forbidden in my country, what you would not believe...
Well, but most of all the reason of disappointment for me is, that dubbing changes the movies for us a lot, as in most cases the original quality is weaker afterwards. Especially for the German audio tracks. From the beginning of home entertainment in Germany in the year 1980 on VHS, Beta and Video 2000, we always took a back seat to the USA, at least for audio tracks and often also censor settings. When you had Stereo movies at home, for us monaural sound was still standard a long time, as original versions were produced in stereo or even in multichannel stereo. And of course, until the 90's, also full screen was standard, no matter about the original ratio.
A long time - within all the years of collecting VHS movies - I was very naive about all that, as I didn't know better. I collected VHS movies in a huge number, and the world was very easy then, until a new friend opened my eyes. He also collected movies, as I got known to him. But next to normal VHS movies, he was a huge fan of the laserdisc at this time yet. Not German LDs, of course, and a lot of people like me even didn't know about LDs at all, even though they were available yet in my country. There was almost no real publicity for that new medium, and in Germany (but also whole Europe as I believe), the LD was never a success because of the restrictions we had for our PAL system.
My friend collected US LDs only, and so he told me about. He told me really all about this medium - and what original US movies on Laserdisc really could achieve, what even oldest classic movies now could offer qualitatively. Can you imagine, what this was about for a movie fan like me, who never had seen any movie at home in this high end quality at this time? On VHS we just started with first Letterbox movies at all then, and we could be happy if we had Hifi Stereo or even analog Dolby Surround Sound. With the poor VHS quality generally, of course. Well, I was not able to really believe all this until I saw it myself. My friend showed me with his own home cinema equipment, and I only watched with huge eyes and open mouth...
Well, for many years I was simply collecting and watching movies with no sense for real quality of video and audio, and now suddenly I felt like a little boy, who got out from home the first time, seeing the bright heaven at night with full of stars and feeling smaller than even the smallest insect...
Yes, this was my entry into a whole new world, never experienced before. After buying all necessary equipment myself then, I started to buy LDs from the USA myself at once. VHS was no longer important for me, and neither were the prizes for the movies on LD. We had a lot of seller who specialized on US LDs at this time, so ordering US LDs was no problem. Also wasn't the language, as English always was my second language, of course with better understanding than talking. And by the way, next to quality of LD Movies one further great fact was the cover designing for US LDs, I really loved those covers, more than those from any other medium. Of course not all labels, but some as MGM and others which used fold-out covers...
My LD collection increased steadily from then. It was always about approximately 5 % German LDs and 95 % US LDs. In the end it was a huge collection - until the days the DVD pushed the LD to the back of our minds. I was certainly one of the last ones to change the medium, but sometime there was no choice any more. In the end I was convinced by the DVD, believing what most people believed then, that all movies would now be released on DVD anytime with even better quality. But what an error!
However, this was the end of all former media - I sold all my VHS and LD collection and also the technical equipment. For many years I really forgot about all that and collected only DVDs (and BDs later...), and all the movies being released then really made me blind for a sad reality, that at least in Germany a countless number of movies, available on VHS and/or LD before, then vanished forever. I really had no idea, until a few years ago, as my priorities for movies totally changed. Evermore I realized, that the movies from today more and more no longer were my world of fandom. I really got bored with increased regularity and stayed unsatisfied - and this was the time my "retro" idea was born. It started with VHS again, as I began to research about (German) labels and movies (my first experience with foreign media really was the LD, VHS movies I only collected in German language...), which got lost since the official days of the VHS then. What started with spending some time on that research besides, more and more got intense then, and in the end was a real life task. I was totally surprised, what we really lost since those first days of home entertainment - only in Germany Thousands of movies never to be seen on DVD or BD until today...
This was a real shock for me. I found such a lot of movies again I really had forgotten myself meanwhile - movies with which I grew up. In the end this "retro" research was a trip into my own past, and into the movies I really loved so much in former days. And with the VHS in the end also the LD came back to me of course, and also there the same result now. Such a lot of movies on LD also got lost - in this quality or at all. I can hardly believe today, but though it is true. And so those media are not dead for me, not at all - as long as there are such a lot sad losses, LDs and VHS can never die...
First I bought a VHS Recorder again some time ago (what was before starting my research also for LD again...), and now I really also think about to get an LD Player again. This will be my only chance to find all those lost movies again I love, and forget about so many movies from today I have no connection to any more. And of course my retro reports (first only for myself, since a longer time also for several forums in Germany then...) will continue, on several websites, where I try to reach other people so they may get known with what I also had to learn. This is my current life task now and will stay - with VHS no problem, but with LD more difficult because of missing covers. My reports work with cover previews, but while there are a lot archives in the web where to still find a lot of VHS Covers today, finding LD covers is much harder - there is no site for. Here at least I could find front cover pictures, but I always stay searching for more. Of course I also could write such postings without covers - but this would not be the same.
This is my first reason why I registered here, as those water marks on the front covers disappeared then, and If I will buy an LD player again, then I certainly also will order LD movies here, for it is a great archive for US LDs. And I hope I am welcome here with my writing projects, to not let it happen to forget about VHS and LD totally in my country.
I will continue...
