Hi, I'm new here in this forum.
Does anybody know is there is a way to fix a cracked laserdisc?
Unfortunately I received two discs in that condition (it wasn't bad package but I suppose they were cracked long ago)
and I was wondering if you know how to fix it.
Of course if there is a professional here I can gladly offer payment for the service.
Kind Regards

Vince

PS: in the picture below the "line" is in the whole surface. On the other disc the "line" is on half surface only.

From your description both sides will be unplayable.

The only way to fix a cracked laserdisc is throw it in the bin and buy another copy of the same title.

What was the title?

Even attempting to play such a disc is risky as it could fall apart inside the player due to the high speed of rotation and damage your player.

Though i would never want to witness a disc flying to pieces within my player, i am curious what exactly would happen. Would the player just try to fiercly jolt/rotate, the way a washing machine vertically does when with bricks in it (like in the youngster youtube vids)?
Or would it be so ferocious that it kind of really explodes cracking the tray to pieces and shards flying through air, making cuts up to your bones when hit by those shards?

I very unfortunately received a howard jones ltgtkyw ld broken in the mail years ago. I won it for just 30$ .
It could have been so nice, low price so no customs, cheap delivery. Though it was in a cardboard box, the disc was on top of the ld sleeve, not in it. There was a dent on the box, right where the disc was underneath.
I however notice many sellers put the disc with only the thin plastic sleeve on top of the ld sleeve. I hate that.
It had one crack from somewhere near the middle to halfway the disc.
When i tried to play it, the D515 as well as the D925 didn't even spin up the disc, but returned a U1 message and ejected the disc half a minute after the message.

On the contrary, i realize how painful it must have been for employees to literally crack nice functional discs in half to be destroyed. Like the Praxis Pop discs, those were meant for a music channel like musicbox or mtv who had to pay 400 pound per disc which had to be destroyed afterwards. Expensive playlist then in those days .

The title on the picture is Faith No More live at Brixton
It is not the price I paid which was pretty cheap but the low availability of the title.
So doesn't it really exist a way to fix it?


Vince

Your best bet is raise a paypal dispute against the seller and send the disc back with a tracking number to get a full refund.
You wont fix the disc but at least you'll get your money back to buy another copy.

Failing that you could try sellotape however I do not have high hopes it will yield a playable/watchable disc.

Already heard back from the seller and he is offering many options such as replacement (if he can dig up another copy in his store), refund or other items with the same value.
I hate paypal disputes and I always prefer to resolve the matter between gentleman.
What I want mostly is another copy, of course, because if he doesn't have a replacement the refund won't cover the price to get another copy which is everywhere over 100euro+shipping.

The sellotape thing was a joke? Did you ever try that on a disc?

Maybe it could work on the other damaged disc?
In spite of the previous picture where the damage is like a diameter, the other cracked disc is ruined only half of the whole surface like a radius.

It's funny that you buy a big stock of discs and the ones you don't care arrive safe and sound while the ones you want mostly (and tough to find), show damages even if they were sealed and well packaged.

The greatest stuff is always rare to find. That's the main rule between collectors

Vince

If the radius of one side is damaged that whole side will be unplayable.
The only scenario where a cracked LD will partially play is if one side that has content is not cracked at all or if one side has a small crack on the outer most portion of the disc. The reason is because the disc plays from the inner most portion to the outer most portion.

Many music LDs don't fill an entire side as they tend to be shorter than movies so you often find that even a large crack on one side may have no impact at all on playing the content as long as it was on the side only partially filled.

I've spares of that Faith No More laserdisc.
What was the other disc that got cracked?

BTW - The sellotape will likely make the playback worse but it will at least prevent the disc from falling apart inside your player. I once received a laserjuke LD that had a tiny bit of sellotape stuck on the play surface. I initially didn't notice it as it was on the underside of the disc. When the track where the tape was present tried to play it caused noticeable playback interference on screen but it did still play. So not a good idea if you are wanting to improve playback but might be a lifesaver if you own the only copy of a disc in the world and just have to watch the content at any cost!

I know there are copies out there of that FNM laserdisc but the one a friend of mine found was a bargain in terms of quality and price...sealed and complete with OBI.
Once I opened the seal I noticed the disc was cracked...the seller apologized and I trust he didn't know about the damage...other discs my friend bought from him were new or like new.
If you have a copy with destroyed jacket (that I already have) or without it that you want to get rid of for 20 bucks, here I am.
Otherwise I will wait for another copy of that title.

As far as the other broken disc (with the radius crack)...well, I won't tell you which one it is but it was on the whishlist I sent you a while ago before I thought I could have asked my contacts to retrieve those titles locally (and it is working quite good)!

If you know all the places and people who sell laserdiscs now you should be able to tell me the title I am talking about and how much I spent for it
If you get it at the first attempt I show you a picture of it where you can see the crack and what the title is

Just kidding, I am pretty confident I will find it again but It's a shame I already had it in my hand

That can mean only one thing - Bullet Boys! .....for everyone else who is not in on the joke....

Not, it isn't the Bulley Boys That one is perfect!

Luckily Queensryche Tokyo was in great shape and it is the one I paid less
That's what I call asymmetric information
If the seller spoke english he could have charged me 10 times the price and it would have been still 1/10 of the price that title sells on ebay
If my wife comes to know its value she'll threat me to put it on ebay.

That's my copy. And that one was not my priority. It just showed up during the search.

Good find but missing the OBI so incomplete.

According to LDDB.com there was a later re-issue of that title:
Queensryche: Live in Tokyo [TOLW-3060]

Have to say though I've never seen a copy of that later copy ever.

All the copies I've ever seen were the first edition (as is yours):
Queensryche: Live in Tokyo (1984) [L098-1019]

Yes, missing OBI but it does include the Insert.
I remember I saw the re-release of this title a loong time ago and it had a different cover, If I remember well.
I would put it on ebay if it wasn't that I like Queensryche and it was on my wishlist...

" All the copies I've ever seen were the first edition (as is yours):
Queensryche: Live in Tokyo (1984) [L098-1019] "

In all honesty I begin to doubt if that entry is correct or was not released, I do have multiple JP catalogues where I can find :

Queensryche: Video: Mindcrime (1989) [TOLW-3069]

but in none of my catalogues I can find reference to the TOLW-3060, so I digged up one of my other bibles : LDexpress from 1993



This is the pre 1992 section, it only shows the TOLW-3069 for Queensryche, so I checked all foreign music releases and there is no TOLW-3060, looks like it might have been announced at some point but never released [if it would have existed it should be above or below the TOLW-3069, which is not the case

I agree completely. Even if a second pressing was released there is no guarantee it would have been better than the first edition. Some later Japanese EMI releases from the early 90's had defective digital audio and/or suffered from those horrible sticky edges. The really early pressings had analogue audio which is less effected by rot and they also never suffered from sticky edges. I've also never encountered a rotted copy of that early Queenryche title to date - it seems very reliable to purchase. Even if EMI had re-issued this title there is no guarantee any later edition would have had digital audio anyway. Some later EMI re-issues from the 90's still only had analogue audio so to me a re-issue would have been pointless. The first edition is all that was needed with great picture and sound.

Hi Edwin, where can I find a copy of that laserdisc book?
Regards

Vince

This looks a lot like the LD Quarterly books published in Japan. I've got an almost complete collection of them.

Hello Vince,

LDexpress had a quarterly edition catalog, there were 2 versions, one with only the LD's from the last 4 quarters and once a year a version with the last 4 quarters + a back catalog of still available releases. The last 4 Q has small pictures with each LD, the back catalog just text.

I started to buy them in 1993 [in fact when I bought my first JP discs] and my last version is from 1999.

Most of them I bought with Ro-Disc, however my last versions I bought when I was in Japan.

you might find copies on Japan Yahoo auction

I check them regularly, most are on LDDB - some JP movies or JP specials are not yet on LDDB, if I find them I add them - also when there are questions or doubt on LD version.

Additionally I do have some import sales catalogues (1993 - 1997), these are often my first quick look-up.

Edwin

If you can trick the laser to be on the outside of the crack it would play for maybe final few minutes but please don't try it.

I have one cracked faces STAR WARS V side 3 I think and last I played it, played fine as the crack is on the inner-side and just a few millimeters away from where the laser would be tracking the disc. If the disc gets bent any more it would be useless.

Wonder if you can smooth on like a epoxy resin strong glue. Remove the labels carefully and then smooth on the glue, let it dry and if a little bumpy sand it down with fine sandpaper and then stick the labels back on with some spray mount clue.




Top side label side 3 is blank side and it won't run as the crack is far too over on the inside of the disc for the laser to pick up and read the disc or even start playing.


Program content side 3 CAV the crack is just a small shy away from where the laser would start reading the disc.

Now if I can get some glue and try this out to strengthen both sides thou still a risk that the resin glue epoxy may weaken or I can do some simulated tests on paper on both sides let it dry and test the resistance?

The TOC table of contents is in the center of the disc, this is how the laser reads and starts the disc.
I've never had any luck watching cracked discs without the laser reading the center part.

So just toss it.
I was laughing about the tape.....

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Hi Laserbite, would you try to fix my disc?