EDIT: Laser Replay

-Adding link with site now up and running.



I've finished up some projects at home so I have some free time. I'm considering starting a site for laserdisc reviews and articles which would be completely separate from this site but the focus would be laserdiscs of course and the home theater experience with laserdiscs. Content would include unique articles about the laserdisc format (very open and general), reviews for laserdiscs and players, tips and tricks, a gallery of fine cover art, interviews Q&A style with members here, etc. I'm looking for anything relevant about laserdiscs such as: personal experiences, a walk thru of your entire laserdisc collection with pics or highlighting your favorite titles in your lot or accessories you've purchased over the years to aid in preserving and getting the most out of the laserdisc format.

Still trying to mold over what it will cover but that's the general focus. Basically the kind of stuff that gets posted here in the the forum but in a presentation-based format like a dedicated article or feature.

Anyone is open to contribute, although there would be no compensation for your work but you would have your name attached for credit (either real or your member name here, however you like). I'll cover the hosting and costs involved. I've been looking at a simple HTML 5 app solution for the mobile device side which would be basic but it would work for displaying the content just fine. One downside is it would be internet-connection based but for what I'm looking at, it should be fine and I don't know how to code for iOS/Android/Windows so it would have to do.

I'm not sure on publication frequency but I was thinking about doing it as a monthly publication. It really depends on how much content is available for the month, which would greatly depend on volunteers from here so I'll have to see. There will be no subscriptions or app fees so anyone can view the content, although in the case of the app, the usual data service charges are totally on you if you're mobile instead of wifi when on the site.

At this point I haven't decided to go forward yet as I cannot do this project alone, I would need help in the form of content, I can take care of all the web dev stuff as time allows. So if you'd like to contribute or have an idea for an article let me know. Really -the sky's the limit here, as long as the general focus is about laserdiscs. I would of course reserve the right to edit all work for content, grammar, punctuation and overall polish. There's a wealth of knowledge that gets posted here and it would be great to see it highlighted and featured.

At this point I'm just going to see who'd be interested before going forward. If it's a success, I'd consider doing a once yearly print magazine of the top articles and content which would cost to purchase, depending of course on the site and app going forward. If you'd like to see this happen chime in and if you think you'd like to contribute something post that here as well so I can get an idea of how much content there would be to work with to get started. There might be time yet to begin publication for an Aug. issue.

Your ideas are fantastic and would make a great alternative site to my LaserVision Landmarks - we're getting ready to start publishing full PDF versions of reviews, catalogs and brochures, etc... And your publishing interviews with LaserDisc collectors and such is great because it will give others info on how the format was and is still truly used. And hopefully you'll be able to interview long-term owners of LaserDisc so they can communicate how much FUN the LaserDisc format was back in the day when your only alternatives were VHS and Beta or, if you really wanted a disc based format, RCA SelectaVision CED VideoDiscs. With CED it was a difficult choice between LaserDisc and CED because of CED's incredible number of discs - and you could actually obtain the titles listed in catalogs, unlike LaserDisc where you always had to choose a few alternates since, most likely, the disc you wanted wouldn't be available.

So, there's a gold mine out there on the net waiting for you to interview them, especially forum members. We could link to each others sites and if, for example, we posted a PDF of the brochure for Pioneer's LD-700, with the first solid state laser and front loading, you could post an interview with someone who owned that player and what it was like both performance-wise and owning the most state-of-the-art player on the market.

What do you think?

Great ideas! I'm sure they'll be room for links to this site and yours so I have no problem with that. Kind of what you just said, I'm really hoping for support in the way of personal experiences and knowledge about players, production, the early pressing days of Disco Vision, etc. There is a ton of cool ideas for features to read each month, I just need help accessing that info and spotlighting it for reading. Pics, old brochures, old advertisements, inside knowledge of Pioneer and the competition, disc care, repair (a feature with Duncan would be awesome for this one!!!) All this kind of stuff gets talked about here and there in posts --that's the kind of content I want to publish.

I've been formulating the plan for the site and I was thinking about doing it in the following format:

A Monthly Edition with site and mobile app, and possibly and once yearly Print Magazine Edition (covering the top Features, supporting articles, reviews, gallery and tips and tricks from the monthly e-Edition issues from the site/app for the year.

For the Monthly Edition:
Feature -this would be the main headline article for the month, also of course the longest and most in depth read. Basically the main attraction.
Supporting Article(s) depending on what's available. Between 1-5??? I don't want to put out something that isn't worth reading so I will of course pick the best of what's available. I don't want to overrun the issue. Keeping things neat and trimmed would allow more focus on what's important and interesting and give contributors more limelight. It would also allow better time management of publishing content for myself.
Laserdisc Review - an in depth look at a title in the Laserdisc catalog. One title featured each month. These would need to be very professionally done. Not looking for, "it sounded great" or "looked awesome", these would need to be a real treat, a personal sit down with your player, disc and home theater, pictures are a must, there doesn't have to be a lot of them as long as they're of good quality, go all out and a unique approach would be great. What makes the title a great laserdisc to own? What's the best reason for owning this title? What's bad about it? How and when did you acquire it? Give us your background and knowledge of laserdisc collecting and how long you've been at it. For picture quality and sound, let us into the movie with you, give us any details or pertinent info that you think others should know before buying and playing the title.
Tips and Tricks - a featured article about how to get the most out of collecting, owning, caring, repairing, displaying, sharing, selling, buying, playing, listening, home theater setups you've done and currently use. Like the other sections, this one is wide open as long as readers can learn something.
Gallery Art -submit pictures of laserdisc covers, discs, your home theater setup, players, pictures of content playing on your display. Unique and great quality is the key. The best of the best gets published each month.

Possibly a few other tidbits that I'm forgetting as well. But that would be the main focus and format. I will probably post an article here and there myself and while I certainly don't have the knowledge, library of discs and vast shelves of players, the Editor gets special priority for helming this project. However this e-Edition Magazine is as much yours as it mine, it will be a magazine for Laserdisc collectors by Laserdisc collectors. Why should Blu ray and DVD get special treatment for home theater enthusiasts? I want my Laserdisc Magazine, I hope you do too!

Edit: actually giving it some more thought, there'd be two reviews, one for films and one for music.

All GREAT ideas. We've been talking about making LaserVision landmarks into a magazine but really had no way to do it, what with all the brochures and catalogs and stuff. Or maybe charging $1 to allow access to downloadable PDF's of the brochures and stuff - it would be cheap and help us pay the monthly hosting cost... But I don't know how many would be interested enough to give even a dollar for PDF's.

One thing we need is donations of Landmark titles - and they are usually the cheapest since they are typically old releases and such - demo discs and that kind of thing is also greatly needed.

Your movie/disc review ideas are superb - I simply hate disc reviews that talk about the plot, behind the scenes info on the film, etc... I want the dirt on the disc - who pressed it, how's the pressing, video, sound, transfer, etc... Is it a SuperNTSC disc? if the reviewer has two copies, compare them because LaserDisc, being analog, varied from disc to disc in quality although the different discs met the specs.

You live close enough that you need to make a trek over to Plattsburg sometime - get a motel room in St. joe and then come over to my house and we could view discs together on my Runco's, EAD, MSB, Philips and top loading LD-1100 players - oh, and the CLD-1010 too. I have a 60-inch LCD/LED lit 3D TV with 8 channel sound in a dedicated home theater room. I also have a VHD player and Empire Strikes Back and Jedi on VHD - both are panned and scanned, but since I have those LaserDisc'a too, they would make a good comparison. My widescreen VHD consists of 3D films like Jaws 3D and Godzilla films.

I occasionally get up to Lawrence, I'm from that area and I shall be returning there in a year or two when I put my house up for sale here. My folks have a farm where I grew up and are getting on in years and I'll likely be the one taking over it as they don't want to sell it. Unfortunately right now I only get up there to visit maybe once or twice a year which isn't enough.

But yeah, a small laserdisc convention, sounds like a blast! Who else wants to come? We're all so spread out over the globe it's hard to get together in physical form.

I'd be in for it, for sure. Same with the app/magazine/PDF subscriptions. I love flipping through the laserdisc review books/magazines at random and reading about the quality, bonus features, etc.

Suggestion? With the app, have a section for TV ads or 'local TV' bits on the format, those are always fun on Youtube.

I've been making progress on the magazine. I had originally planned on launching it for Aug. but that's not going to happen. While I had a free and fantastic html template with global css customization I located about a year ago -which has greatly helped in speeding up getting things set up, it's taking a lot longer to get things going than I planned.

I intend to launch it Sept 1, hopefully I'll have everything ready by then. Right now I have the site pointed to my ip and email set up. I'm going to run it on my server for now, albeit my upload is a little slow here so page loads might suffer a bit at first. I'm going to need to look at either changing my internet service to something faster or migrating it to a hosting service. Either way, that should happen later this year.

If you get a PM from me, as some here already have, it's probably for a Q&A interview I'd like to do for an article for the magazine. I hope to do these with members here, getting inside detail and info from collectors is a big part of what I want this project to be about.

I'm also happy to report so far I have two members from lddb onboard to help provide content in the way of features, articles, reviews and photos etc. I'll have them added to the Publication Staff on the site with the Sept. issue, although I'll probably be heading up most or all of the content for the first issue, mainly so that everyone can see the layout and what it's all about. I think it will be easier for someone wanting to contribute to see the entire concept beforehand. Publication Staff positions would be reserved for those that want to contribute on a reoccurring basis, but it doesn't have to be an every month thing.

Mainly, I want this to be a group effort, I'm heading up the site as editor and site administrator, and will be writing some articles and features for each issue, but I would like to see some content from different contributors. If you're interested in joining the Publication Staff, send me a PM and I can give you some more details about what we're looking for. Also, it doesn't have to be a monthly obligation, basically submit something when you can is the idea. But joining would get you on the staff and a first look among the content submitted to the magazine to be published for the monthly issue.

Anyone can submit material, you don't have to be a staff member. And it doesn't have to be a full-on feature or article. It can be something small, less than 250 words, the content for articles can vary greatly from what you like about the LaserDisc format, to a simple how-to in a home theater setup. Old brochures, images, photos of your home theater setup, LaserDisc library, specific titles you want to show off, a detailed writeup on a player -these are what we're looking for.

When this is launched I'll have a page for submission going into more detail. If anyone has something they'd like featured in the Sept Issue, send me a PM and we can discuss it further and where to send it. To get it in the first issue I would need to have it by Aug. 20th that way I have enough time to put it into the html layout.

Finally finished up the new site and first issue (Sept.).

Laser Replay (web.archive.org)

Going to do this as a monthly magazine. Should be more reviews next issue (Oct.) If anyone's interested in joining, send me a PM here or at editor@laserreplay.com. More info on the submissions link, about link and staff link at the new site.

Dropping the app idea, for time and I don't think it's needed.

Feedback at this point, would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

tomtastic: I like the logo, but it's heavily aliased. I can antialias it for you, if you'd like.

Alternatively, I can make you a logo like the one I have on my homepage: http://acuozzo.sdf.org/

Yeah, I know, I didn't spend a lot of time on it. The source for the Laser part I think I got from wiki which isn't great at all unless you size it down pretty small. But it saved time in not starting from scratch. I'm not very good at logo's so I'd even be up for a change. Any ideas? I like the idea of having the triangle in the logo, it separates the double R while also resembling a play icon since play is in the title.

Fantastic effort tom. I am scanning the site now and its very well done. I love the reviews and gallery the most, that is the stuff that I will look forward to reading/seeing more of in the coming months.

Thanks, for your kind words. There will be more focus on reviews in future issues. I ran out of time for Sept. to get any more in so I only did 3.

What's happened to laserreplay.com? I read the september issue, and was good, but now all I have is a "Mac OS X Server" page... (**_)

Back when the site started tomtastic asked me to contribute some articles to the magazine. I wrote a laserdisc review and an article about storage which was published last month. Unfortunately, the site did not receive a lot of traffic and the concept was "pseudo-abandoned" with the goal of adding articles periodically. The actual site is hosted on tomtastic's own computer and not a hosting service so it may be that his computer crashed or other software glitch on his side? We'll have to see.... I feel sad that the site didn't receive more attention as he wrote some really fantastic articles the quality of which I have not seen in the laserdisc community for years. Oh well.

I upgraded my server last week, from a 2003 Xserve 1.33 dual processor to a 2.8 8-Core Xserve, right now with 8gb memory, installing 8 more when it gets here. I haven't gotten around to setting up the webserver page yet. There didn't seem to be much interest in the site so I haven't spent any time on it since Sept. The old server was ok, but I also used it internally to host all my movies for Plex which was really slow at pushing data. So the new server speeds up things pretty good. At this point I haven't decided what to do with the site. I thought about just scaling it back to a post when content is available format but haven't completed anything new right now. I'll see if I can get the new server set up and files back in place, then make a decision at least.

Tom, I like laserreplay.com articles really much, and was awaiting for the October issue... and, I know how you can feel right now, but I'm sure there are many other laserdisc lovers out there that will be happy if you want to continue your work; it will take some time to spread the word, after all, we are an "elite" community, you know... (^^,)

Good luck!

Tomtastic, looking forward to your site to get up and running again. Missed it the first time. Hope it again becomes a reality. Thanks for all your hard work.

It was a good idea but unfortunately died a quick death. I enjoyed writing some articles for the site and (somewhere) have pdf's of the articles I wrote but the site is down forever.

If you ever find them, would be nice to get a link...

So it appears pdf files and attachments of over 2 mb are not allowed on LDDB. It's going to be difficult to post the two articles I wrote.