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| Another UK visitor https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4960 |
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| Author: | tadao [ 15 Feb 2015, 19:25 ] |
| Post subject: | Another UK visitor |
Hi, I've been a some-time lurker here (was a member for a short while some 4 years back when I purchased a few discs) and have enjoyed the insights and information from many on the forum. To briefly introduce myself, I'm quite interested in film history and historical TV and broadcast systems and production techniques, spent 11 years working at a DVD and Blu-ray authoring company, and sometimes shoot multicamera videos of live events, which since leaving my job last year I'd like to do more of if I can. I've lived in London for 15 years, but grew up on the border with Scotland and spent some time during my teens in France. After leaving that job I've got no-one to talk to in person about video esoterica anymore, so it's to the internet for rescue as usual! I'd been aware of LaserDisc as a teenager for whom the players and software were an unattainable object of envy. With a purchase of a used TV and CD player with my earnings from my first part-time job in early 1998, from an electronics store which was closing down, I was given an old top-loading LaserVision player which unfortunately seemed to be permanently stuck in fast forward mode, and with it got my first title, Squash Racquets! I've learned since then that it would have been incompatible with then-current software anyway, digital sound in PAL regions having supplanted rather than supplemented the analogue tracks, resulting in a 'Year Zero' with the coming of CD-Video branded players which probably alienated existing users, damaged widespread confidence in the format and further limited its mainstream success. I was an enthusiastic adopter of DVD when that format became available, but in 2002 while at University I acquired a batch of 8" LaserJuke discs from a fleamarket, still without a machine to play them, and found that not even the college had an LD player, presumably they'd never had one as the media library was VHS and DVD only. I began working at a media company in 2003, and after a couple of years they cleared out their basement storeroom of obsolete equipment, including two LaserDisc players, a CLD-1750 and a CLD-160K, both of which I was able to purchase in exchange for a modest donation to charity. I built up a small collection of around 30 titles, mostly US NTSC, initially boxsets from Big Emma for which the shipping cost more than the very low price of the movies, and which took several months to reach me by surface mail! I concentrated on content then unavailable on DVD, and was particularly pleased to get hold of several Orson Welles films either otherwise unavailable, or with supplementary content still unavailable on other formats. Initially I sought to migrate the content away from this seemingly archaic format and onto DVD-R, but never got results that looked as good as playing the discs themselves, recording equipment able to properly deal with 7.5IRE analogue sources being then (and still) hard to come by here, and MPEG-2 compression even at the highest available bitrates struggling very noticeably with an ex-LD signal. Over several apartment moves with the players packed away at my parents' house, and having got nearly all the titles I'd felt compelling copied to DVD, I didn't have much to do with LD for the next several years. But in 2011, looking I think to purchase the That's Entertainment Trilogy boxset for the additional musical numbers on the analogue tracks, I was able to find it at DuffsFlix and also bought several Criterion titles with commentaries only otherwise on expensive out-of-print DVDs (This Is Spinal Tap, and the Selznick Hitchcocks). I bought several more batches of films from him over the next year (all at a rock bottom price!), and having had them sent to my parents' house where the LD players were, intending to copy them to DVD during Christmas and summer holidays, I began to appreciate the format in itself rather than only as a source of rare content. In 2012 I came across the complete set of US X-Files releases locally on eBay, and won those for the opening bid, and also found a job-lot of some 75 musicals, many otherwise only on expensive Warner Archive DVDRs, on a buy-it-now which worked out at £2-£3 GBP each, by which time I felt I was was overdue getting an LD player for my apartment here, and subsequently won a CLD-2950 on eBay, for which I had to pay slightly over the odds as they seemed temporarily scarce in London at that point, but which has been excellent value for money nonetheless for the many hours of service to which I've put it. At time of writing I have around 1200 LD titles, NTSC mostly from DuffsFlix, and a subset of French and German PAL titles from friendly eBay sellers here and on the Continent. I usually like to buy a boxful at once considering how much more affordably the shipping amortizes per title (although I think it does lead to me casually adding extra titles that might not be so compelling on their own), but I do sometimes pick up individual titles too as they come up on UK eBay. I particularly enjoy Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s, and find that academy ratio and black and white titles can often compare very well to DVDs and even Blu-rays. I collect and enjoy both of those formats too, and find that there are excellent, passable and compromised examples of each format; but for classic era films in particular, I find that across many distributors there is a tendency for their masters to be overly 'cleaned' when the source is a print, or suffering from inauthentic and untheatrical colour and black density when the source is a negative. I feel that sometimes the same state of the art technology which enables a very authentic, high resolution representation of a film on a format like BD also is often employed indiscriminately and inexpertly to 'improve' a source which doesn't need it and which would have been better left untampered with... I certainly find there's something particularly enjoyable and for want of another word, 'authentic' in owning and playing LDs, which I now run through a DVDO iScan into an Acer Full-HD projector to an image area of around 60" in 4:3 and 72" in 16:9, and which I find very revealing both of the merits and deficiencies of titles in all formats! LD collecting has also opened me up to new areas of interest, and through it I have 'discovered' rock and jazz artists who might have otherwise passed me by, and found some real oddities from forgotten corners of media history! I've tended so far to drop by the forum around once a week, and going forward I might post on threads if I've got something that may be useful to add, but I'm going to try and be mindful not to stick my oar into every topic on the board at once as I know is tempting for new members! |
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| Author: | benmbe [ 15 Feb 2015, 19:57 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another UK visitor |
Good evening tadao, Thank you for stepping out and sharing a thorough well rounded introduction. I truly enjoyed reading all that you had eloquently conveyed, and could appreciate each well written word. It's a pleasure to have you here and hopefully at some stage to correspond with yourself sir. Kind Regards P.S I thought it particularly important to read all of what you wrote, as it must have taken some time to write.  
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| Author: | tadao [ 15 Feb 2015, 21:15 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another UK visitor |
Thanks for your friendly welcome benmbe, I worry that with my advancing years I'm growing overly verbose and flannelly in writing (typing) and increasingly inarticulate in person! Glad you didn't find it boring. Pleased to be here! |
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| Author: | benmbe [ 16 Feb 2015, 13:43 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another UK visitor |
Good day Tadao, Good to read from you sir, Not boring at all, as I for one enjoyed reading the experiences, views & comments A well rounded articulate and an individual who pays attention to detail, and ''on top of that'' cares about others and is selfless in pursuit in all that they convey is a rare mind. I know that in general the members here appreciate that in others. We have members here who keep their replies in most cases short and sweet, and others who take their time in thinking about how best to convey and be understood. On the other hand and also regardless of content, most are happy and feel relaxed about anything that they write. Yes we have had the odd dispute, but when that is encountered it then reveals how much we care about each other here, and the importance it is in showing a level of Dignity and respect across the board. I for one appreciate all of the members here, and would always go above and beyond to convey that to all that I write and, all with whom I correspond with. The members here have busy lives and much is understandably not mentioned, particularly unrelated matters that each one encounters each day in their daily lives, but ''please trust me when I mention'' that I consider all of life's matters when writing to others.................and I mean that! I correspond in private messaging with one person in particular, who has gone through a number of life changing experiences and life threatening, I have worried about this FRIEND as we have built up a strong trusting bond, of which I am truly grateful for. This friend has shared much, and has trusted myself with such things, that one could only but give & take a deep sense empathy, comfort & personal responsibility for such trust shown to thyself and toward each other. I have even neglected sleep in order to let that FRIEND know that they are not alone....... It really is a shame that many live so far away, as I would like to treat others to a good meal and a healthy wholesome chat, but alas that is life... No doubt there are many others here who regularly keep in touch and build friendships through personal messages here. The reason why I have shared this is because I care for others and would do the same for anyone in need, or otherwise on other matters unique to each person. Also the overall reason why I write such things on this site is because it is a credit to all the members here, and how pleasurable they have made it so by each personality, of which shines through with each message written. Some messages are written in haste, others relaxed and also I can sense other things that are happening in their lives, and to all members please note that I think your a great bunch of people. Thank you everyone and for Julien Wilk for this forum / site. Kindest Regards to everyone
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