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Laserdisc vs DVD
https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4292
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Author:  Guest [ 08 Jul 2014, 03:21 ]
Post subject:  Laserdisc vs DVD

What are the differences?

Author:  substance [ 08 Jul 2014, 03:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

Ld and dvd are both 480i vertical resolution. Dvd has over 500 lines or horizontal resolution and Ld has 425 (theoretical) lines of horizontal resolution.

Dvd has 240 lines of chroma resolution in alternative lines (4:2:0 sampling) that is 4 bit of Cb and Cr (chroma)on every other line where as 8 bit Y (Luma) on all lines.

Ld has 120 lines of chroma at best. Most older pressing (pre-superNTSC) have half of that and 2D comb filters can only retract limited Chroma from the composite signal. So early 1990s releases played through 3D comb filter gets 100+ lines.

Dvd is a digital medium. Its samples of discreet info. Imagine you want to draw a line in digital. In 1000 sampling you draw 1000 dots next to each other. In 100 sampling you draw the same line (same length) with 100 dots. If you draw your line high enough number of dots you might create one straight line without breaks.

Ld is an analog format. Its continuous time. You draw a line scratching your pen on the paper. The quality of the line depends on your pen and the paper. If its a good ball point pen and a fine paper, you will have a beautiful line. Ld can record 7mhz of continuous electrical information pet second for its video.


dvd has about 65db of signal to noise ratio. Ld is 54db on the best machine. Most average player is at around 48-50db.

dvd can be read quiet accurately and the same on most dvd players. If I tell you to draw a 1" line with 100 dots in equal spaces, you can imitate my line easily. If I ask you to draw a 1" line with a pen, your line will look like mine but if you examine closely each line is unique with different strokes. Thats why analog recording and reading differs each time and each equipment.

Dvd is compressed in mpeg-2. It has side effects like banding, pixelation on motion, mosquito noise. Ld is uncompressed and immune of these but separating luma and chroma has its own artifacts .

Author:  Guest [ 08 Jul 2014, 04:19 ]
Post subject:  Re: Please delete...

Thanks substance.

I thought better of my post...that I should use the search function and deleted it. But that was very helpful and much appreciated.

Author:  ertoili [ 24 Oct 2017, 02:41 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

I think "Transformers 5" DVD release will reveal more than ever DVD limits with lots of pixelation....the damn movie is 140+ minutes full of smoke and particles every second

Author:  signofzeta [ 24 Oct 2017, 05:02 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

I don’t know why this thread got bumped but I’m glad it did because Substance’s explaination is very good and I’ll link noobs to it in the future.

Author:  forper [ 24 Oct 2017, 07:44 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

The difference is:

DVD sucks and LD rules!

Feel free to link my explanation too.

Author:  ertoili [ 24 Oct 2017, 17:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

Substance's explanation is true wisdom but he forgot conclusion....the conclusion is that DVD mpeg2 is not only limited...it is "useless" due to pixelation when you want
to resolve the 4K filmed Transformers 5 (for example) in one averaged 6Mbps mpeg2 disc .

Anyway I will review the Pal T-5 DVD9 to extract conclusions;. A DTS Cav Laserdisc will lack the pristine DVD color separation and resolution but I feel the DVD will have an almost unwatchable motion

Remember the confetti particles final scenes in Strange Days and The hunchback of notredame....the DVD were trash and the LD's a pure delight !

Author:  audioboyz1973 [ 24 Oct 2017, 17:31 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

ertoili wrote:
Substance's explanation is true wisdom but he forgot conclusion....the conclusion is that DVD mpeg2 is not only limited...it is "useless" due to pixelation when you want
to resolve the 4K filmed Transformers 5 (for example) in one averaged 6Mbps mpeg2 disc .


This might be very true (though perhaps just highly dependant on the compression you choose to use?) but I'm quite lost as to why anyone would buy anything on DVD now? Even if you choose to pirate it via torrents you're going to get a noticeably better PQ? Never mind a decent BD should easily outdo that option?

Author:  rein-o [ 24 Oct 2017, 17:45 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

Can you imagine in 10-20 years all the young hipsters of that time saying how much better the picture quality of DVD is over BR or 4K :|

Author:  audioboyz1973 [ 24 Oct 2017, 19:19 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

rein-o wrote:
Can you imagine in 10-20 years all the young hipsters of that time saying how much better the picture quality of DVD is over BR or 4K :|

haha good point - well I'd like to think so, just to prove how stupid hipsters are. But I think digitally compressed formats are fundamentally different to analogue ones. So saying DVD is better than BD (or UHDBD/4K) is like saying CED or VHS is better than LD......

Author:  signofzeta [ 24 Oct 2017, 21:00 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

Please have some perspective. Transformers 5 sucks so much worse than DVD, come on.

Author:  ertoili [ 24 Oct 2017, 22:05 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

Yes i will buy the T5 DVD to test it....and cause want to watch it again on crt .

...remember this is LD vs DVD thread guys

Author:  signofzeta [ 25 Oct 2017, 04:09 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

You can watch BRs on CRT. I’ve done it 1000 times. It looks like LD with more color, or DVD with no macroblocking.

Furthermore, there is only one Transformers movie and it came out in 1986. Both LD editions are decent but not great. I don’t know how this terrible 2017 movie has anything to do with LD so please follow your own warnings. :)

Author:  forper [ 25 Oct 2017, 08:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

audioboyz1973 wrote:
t I'm quite lost as to why anyone would buy anything on DVD now?


Because the only other option would be dumb-ray. Which is dumb because old movies look too smoothed out and fake. and new movies are just dumb.

Author:  audioboyz1973 [ 25 Oct 2017, 10:31 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

forper wrote:
Because the only other option would be dumb-ray. Which is dumb because old movies look too smoothed out and fake. and new movies are just dumb.

But that's the fault of the choice made to apply dnr in the mastering process; not of any format itself. There are bd releases with grain nicely preserved. It wasn't so commonly done in the days of LD but SW definitive box is one that's bad for it.

Author:  rein-o [ 25 Oct 2017, 14:29 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

And as we all know there are blurays with added grain to make it look like garbage also.

Author:  signofzeta [ 25 Oct 2017, 14:52 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

audioboyz1973 wrote:
forper wrote:
Because the only other option would be dumb-ray. Which is dumb because old movies look too smoothed out and fake. and new movies are just dumb.

But that's the fault of the choice made to apply dnr in the mastering process; not of any format itself. There are bd releases with grain nicely preserved. It wasn't so commonly done in the days of LD but SW definitive box is one that's bad for it.


Don’t engage him. He’s a deranged troll who has started this same dumb fight so many times...over and over.

Author:  rein-o [ 25 Oct 2017, 17:04 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

Any format has issues from the people involved in transfers.

Author:  forper [ 25 Oct 2017, 20:47 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

Geepers I'd sure rather watch Star Wars definitive on LD than Predator on Poo Ray.

Author:  ertoili [ 25 Oct 2017, 21:11 ]
Post subject:  Re: Laserdisc vs DVD

again and again the same discussion....

Is it ok to have any movie before year 2000 on Laserdisc and anything after on BD ??

Just want to compare against newer DVDs for the greatness of Laserdisc medium!
Have not found any decent DVD release of Matrix revolutions where scenes like centinels attack or the fight under rain were not a total bitrate disaster....at this point the DVD is so inferior to LD that we can't call it a pro-format

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