So then that means the prime must have been between March 1989 and February 2000?
In NYC at least.
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| What years was Laserdisc in its prime? https://forum.lddb.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4390 |
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| Author: | alien [ 10 Aug 2014, 03:48 ] |
| Post subject: | What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Laserdisc never even got a quarter of the popularity of VHS or DVD playing second fiddle to both and was always a niche format at best, but what years from the late 70's when it launched to the early 2000's when production for discs stopped was Laserdisc at the peak of its powers in terms of profitably for the mass market? I don't mean on a technological level with the actual best transfers coming in the late 90's and in 2000/2001 when the format was slowly dieing to DVD, but rather when the format was growing legs with the people. |
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| Author: | jdeavs [ 10 Aug 2014, 04:26 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
alien wrote: Laserdisc never even got a quarter of the popularity of VHS or DVD playing second fiddle to both and was always a niche format at best, but what years from the late 70's when it launched to the early 2000's when production for discs stopped was Laserdisc at the peak of its powers in terms of profitably for the mass market? I don't mean on a technological level with the actual best transfers coming in the late 90's and in 2000/2001 when the format was slowly dieing to DVD, but rather when the format was growing legs with the people. Well, if it's any frame of reference for you, I worked as a designer/installer for high-end audio/video systems ($100,000 + per system) in NYC for many years, except for the time range from February 1989 to March 2000. And, I never installed a single new laserdisc player. Removed a ton of them from 2000 on, though! je |
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| Author: | lons_vex [ 10 Aug 2014, 09:29 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
So then that means the prime must have been between March 1989 and February 2000? In NYC at least.
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| Author: | ffutures [ 10 Aug 2014, 10:40 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Realistically, it must have ended as soon as DVD launched in 1995 - if DVD had been around when I first got into home cinema I would have never looked at laserdisc, because the sheer convenience of the small disk and player, relatively cheapness, etc. would have been more attractive to me. So from that point onwards sales of new equipment must have slumped badly. There was a period circa 1998-2000 when most of the UK distributors were selling off their laserdisc stocks chap, I'd imagine that happened in most countries. Once that began the end was in sight. |
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| Author: | laserdisc_fan [ 10 Aug 2014, 11:18 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
There was renewed interest in the laserdisc format in the early 90's. CD was well established by then and most of the new LD players were dual combo players able to play CDs and LDs. In addition pressing quality was more reliable and lots of people wanted the home cinema experience. For those reasons I'd expect 92-94 to be the peak laserdisc sales years. This probably also accounts for why there are so many copies of blockbuster movies like Speed and Jurassic Park on laserdisc which received their first release during this boom period. This previous thread shows the rapid decline in both hardware and software laserdisc sales after DVD came to market. The decline of laserdisc hardware and software |
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| Author: | benmbe [ 11 Aug 2014, 07:44 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Good day Guys, I got into AV in late March 1998 and from the information that I gathered at the time along with DOLBY DIGITAL (AC-3) DTS 1995 until 2000 was the height of Laserdisc (this is just a personal observation) The release of AC-3 DOLBY DIGITAL brought Laserdisc to the for front of home entertainment like never before. 5.1 sound in the home at that time was such a breakthrough in terms of a major WOW!! Factor that quite frankly has never been matched by any other format since......... For the above reasons and also because of the fact that Purchasing a Laserdisc was ''A COMPLETE EXCLUSIVE EXPERIENCE'' with each new title. The size of the disc's and the Art work made this a purchase to remember every time. Each Laserdisc Customers attitude was also different and was a ''A UNIQUE WORLD WIDE CLOSE COMMUNTY'' quite different from anyone else who were into Home Theatre............... I will never forget the ''INTENSE IMPRESSION THIS LEFT ON MYSELF AT THE TIME'' The Home theatre experience since that time, has lost it's raw Passion, as the simple movie experience has now been replaced by lets just say: Movie trailers and adverts before the movie / The Laserdisc intro ie: DOLBY DIGITAL & DTS are no longer part of the Home theatre experience. The closest that a I now come to experiencing the Laserdisc experience that feels a distant alternative, is purchasing & importing selected collectors edition BLU-RAY movies from the US as I truly believe the the NTSC format is superior to the European counterpart. Thank you for raising a subject that is dear to myself. Kind Regards to all members. 
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| Author: | admin [ 11 Aug 2014, 10:56 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
If we look at the number of releases for which we have a release year in the database (even only the year, but not 1900=Cancelled or NULL=Unknown), we can get a clue. It doesn't mean MORE discs were manufactured that year, just that more titles were released across countries. First few years are the DiscoVision era, then the LaserVision (analog) then a push by the "Digital Sound" then a good last few years with AC3/DTS before quick extinction. If we take that point of view 1993 would be the best year: Attachment: years.png [ 5.51 KiB | Viewed 8118 times ] Code: Select all +------+-------+Julien |
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| Author: | benmbe [ 11 Aug 2014, 11:24 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Good day Julien, Thank you for providing the information for the Laserdisc format growth and demise chart / s Very informative indeed sir Kindest Regards
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| Author: | johan184 [ 11 Aug 2014, 11:32 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Can you make a split for Japan and usa ? Is there any difference or is 93 the top year for both countries ? |
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| Author: | admin [ 11 Aug 2014, 12:08 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
johan184 wrote: Can you make a split for Japan and usa ? Is there any difference or is 93 the top year for both countries ? USA = blue, best year 1992 Japan = green, best year 1993 Attachment: years-split.PNG [ 16.29 KiB | Viewed 8111 times ] Julien |
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| Author: | firehorse_44 [ 12 Aug 2014, 07:04 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Very impressive chart. Tells quite a story in two countries. Glad the Japanese market held out till closer to the end of the format ......... Nice thread here. Cheers |
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| Author: | kris [ 15 Aug 2014, 09:11 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Living in europe didn't make things easier  back then.I got into collecting around 1992-1993 The first major improvement i can remember was getting the first ac -3 release available. Clear and present danger was the best thing available back then My cld-1950 got modded for ac-3 playback and got my first brand new demodulator in antwerp that same day. Boy, was i impressed with the audio. Also getting jurassic park with dts made it all very high end sounding The shop i got my discs from did have it's regular customers who spended tons of money on the new audio codecs. Getting players modded for ac-3 playback was big bucks back then. Who minded spending another 400-500 dollars on upgrading since we all invested in the best thing available at the time. Ld "peaked" nearing the end of it's life imho. In belgium that is. Remasterd ac-3 discs etc made that happen. |
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| Author: | benmbe [ 15 Aug 2014, 20:24 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Good day or evening Kris, I have just read your post and enjoyed your shared experiences with reference the Laserdisc format changes from 2 channel to 5.1 Digital Surround with the advent of DOLBY DIGITAL & DTS. I experienced the benefits of going from PAL surround sound in the beginning and then was SERIOUSLY WOWED BY the DOLBY & DTS and used to grin like a Cheshire cat when viewing each movie. Thank you for sharing as I genuinely enjoyed what you wrote sir. Kindest Regards to you  
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| Author: | kris [ 15 Aug 2014, 21:07 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
benmbe wrote: Good day or evening Kris, I have just read your post and enjoyed your shared experiences with reference the Laserdisc format changes from 2 channel to 5.1 Digital Surround with the advent of DOLBY DIGITAL & DTS. I experienced the benefits of going from PAL surround sound in the beginning and then was SERIOUSLY WOWED BY the DOLBY & DTS and used to grin like a Cheshire cat when viewing each movie. Thank you for sharing as I genuinely enjoyed what you wrote sir. Kindest Regards to you My father was a big music collector in those days. Sadly he isn't with us anymore  I got home on the 29th of september 1993 with my first brand new cld-1950. I lived with my father back then. I remember him saying " why do we need another cd player?" I gave him that look  Connected the player on our 16:9 widescreen crt tv and fired up raiders of the lost ark. Five minutes later he grabbed a cinch connector and plugged it into his technics amp with bose speakers. He got his own player on the 30th of september We picked up temple of doom and the last crusade since we were in antwerp again Dad made the trilogy complete , got himself a player and we started our collection Boy, i miss that man. That was the time we were in our prime  George Harrison said, all things must pass (sadly) |
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| Author: | elieb [ 15 Aug 2014, 23:51 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
well, i'd say 1988-early 1995. because of dolby surround at home. |
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| Author: | laserdisc_fan [ 16 Aug 2014, 00:22 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
I think the graphs show the true picture of the period when laserdisc was growing. The fact remains most people today judge quality by the size of a TV screen (which of course is laughable) and don't even factor in getting a decent sound system so why would the masses care about DTS or Dolby Surround when most people don't even know what those stand for today! I got into LD long after it was dead but even I remember the shops starting to resell LD players and discs in the early to mid 90's that quickly vanished out of sight by 1996. By that stage the game was up for laserdisc and no amount of new technology incorporated into the format was going to grow sales. In fact I remember two colleagues telling me they had just bought LD players in 1995 but by 1996 no shops were even selling the discs where I lived! It was a very fast extinction. Whilst enhanced sound was a great idea it came way too late and also the number of titles featuring it was tiny in comparison to the total number of titles produced. This was all the more true if you are only interested in music titles where only a handful featured DTS or Dolby Surround. Certainly this would not have swayed me to keep buying LDs. Content is way more important than a sound tweak. |
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| Author: | substance [ 16 Aug 2014, 02:05 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
Multi channel music is still rare. Dts produced about a 100 or so DTS cds. Dvd-a is dead. Sacd titles are scarse. There is a handfull bluray music discs and concerts. Mass dont really care for multi ch music or high fidelity. Peak was probably early 90s. By mid 90s every knew dvd was coming. They advertised dvd as something like bluray today. It was supposed to be high definition and all digital. Ld people were generally well informed nerds or super rich who buys s**t to buy s**t. None of the nerds bought new ld players and slowed down disc purchases by 1994-95. Only the rich who paid designers to build their HT got new players. The disappointment with the dvds picture quality allowed ld to live a few more years. Nerds figured the new dvd was not so high def and the audio sucked. There might be slight increase in ld sakes here in 1997 and 1998 due to this and huge discounts on lds. But new titles werent coming so everybody had to make the switch in 1999. |
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| Author: | elieb [ 16 Aug 2014, 02:08 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
substance wrote: Multi channel music is still rare. Dts produced about a 100 or so DTS cds. Dvd-a is dead. Sacd titles are scarse. There is a handfull bluray music discs and concerts. Mass dont really care for multi ch music or high fidelity. Peak was probably early 90s. By mid 90s every knew dvd was coming. They advertised dvd as something like bluray today. It was supposed to be high definition and all digital. Ld people were generally well informed nerds or super rich who buys s**t to buy s**t. None of the nerds bought new ld players and slowed down disc purchases by 1994-95. Only the rich who paid designers to build their HT got new players. The disappointment with the dvds picture quality allowed ld to live a few more years. Nerds figured the new dvd was not so high def and the audio sucked. There might be slight increase in ld sakes here in 1997 and 1998 due to this and huge discounts on lds. But new titles werent coming so everybody had to make the switch in 1999. nice to see you alive, substance. 
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| Author: | laserdisc_fan [ 16 Aug 2014, 11:56 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
substance wrote: Peak was probably early 90s. By mid 90s every knew dvd was coming. They advertised dvd as something like bluray today. It was supposed to be high definition and all digital. Ld people were generally well informed nerds or super rich who buys s**t to buy s**t. None of the nerds bought new ld players and slowed down disc purchases by 1994-95. Only the rich who paid designers to build their HT got new players. The disappointment with the dvds picture quality allowed ld to live a few more years. Nerds figured the new dvd was not so high def and the audio sucked. There might be slight increase in ld sakes here in 1997 and 1998 due to this and huge discounts on lds. But new titles werent coming so everybody had to make the switch in 1999. I agree completely. I don't even remember seeing laserdiscs being sold in the same shop as DVDs - that is how fast they vanished. It was out with the old and in with the new, so even if you were trying to hold out switching it was impossible because the industry was moving to DVD with or without you. Only a handful of enthusiasts were still buying LDs in the late 90's - the core customer base had either transitioned or completely ignored the format. |
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| Author: | substance [ 16 Aug 2014, 19:38 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: What years was Laserdisc in its prime? |
elieb wrote: substance wrote: Multi channel music is still rare. Dts produced about a 100 or so DTS cds. Dvd-a is dead. Sacd titles are scarse. There is a handfull bluray music discs and concerts. Mass dont really care for multi ch music or high fidelity. Peak was probably early 90s. By mid 90s every knew dvd was coming. They advertised dvd as something like bluray today. It was supposed to be high definition and all digital. Ld people were generally well informed nerds or super rich who buys s**t to buy s**t. None of the nerds bought new ld players and slowed down disc purchases by 1994-95. Only the rich who paid designers to build their HT got new players. The disappointment with the dvds picture quality allowed ld to live a few more years. Nerds figured the new dvd was not so high def and the audio sucked. There might be slight increase in ld sakes here in 1997 and 1998 due to this and huge discounts on lds. But new titles werent coming so everybody had to make the switch in 1999. nice to see you alive, substance. thank you my friend:) |
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