Hi,

New to the forum! Basically I'm an 80's guy and I'm interested in old tech. I'm just curious about purchasing a laserdisc player to basically play the original Star Wars Trilogy for nostalgic reasons.

I completely understand that there are better ways to view them. I have the 1995 VHS release where it was the final time they would be available on VHS in unaltered form and I also have the 2006 Special Edition DVD set where they include discs of the original films unaltered that were ported over to DVD from laserdisc. I also have digital files of the Despecialized Editions.

I don't know much about laserdisc players but I'm just looking for a good basic one for just playing these films. Apparently there are certain players where you have to get up and flip the disc over and I'm absolutely trying to avoid that.

Any suggestions or help is appreciated. I would be hooking it up to a 65" Samsung LED HDTV.

Zeta! It's for you!

I recommend buying a player locally if you can, to avoid the hassle of shipping. LD players are extremely large and fragile. Most people don't know what they are doing well enough to pack on properly. If you do buy online, it would be worth paying a bit more to get one from someone that really knows how well the player is working and has been selling players for years. Someone that really cares if it gets to safely, not just a junk shop type guy looking for a quick buck.

Since you care about two side play, just make sure to find a player that has that feature. I would agree, it's a great feature. All my players have it and there are very few players I would ever want that don't have it.

It's likely not going to look too good on your current TV, but I don't know specifics of good that TV is or isn't. I still prefer CRTs for LD, but if you have something with good processing and color management it can be okay. And I know Zeta has swore by the recent Bravias for LD. A nice CRT is the cheapest way to get a good looking LD experience but of course there are negatives such as the weight of CRTs. You can always just try plugging it straight into your tv and seeing if you can live with that result.

I actually have a CRT in my garage if it comes to that. What is Zeta? Is that a laserdisc player brand?

Wait until Zeta sees this thread but anyway welcome.
Working players are drying up so get which ever you can even if you have to flip the discs.

Oh boy Star Wars.......

I can't believe Zeta hasn't posted yet.

No there aren't

I second everything Gypsy said.

you don't get off that easy! You can't say anymore are you serious;)

That depends entirely on whether you mean owning them or simply viewing them.

There is absolutely no better way to view a movie made pre 2000 than on the best pre 2000 equipment.

Pretty sure this means you can't use your HD CRT anymore.

I think he also has a DVDO those are later too aren't they???

Well I doubt he's going to dish out the dough to buy himself a 35mm projector and prints of the movies.

He’d need Laserbite’s massive collection of theater gear and $20,000 worth of speakers.

He straight up introduced himself as someone who wanted to watch Star Wars. I only ask that question of most new members because we’ve had a (IMO straight up bizzare) run of people who only seem to be into LD so they can talk us to death about all the weird fan edits of Star Wars they want to make even though they don’t always make that obvious when they come here. Some of these weirdos are the same guy, I’m pretty sure. He doesn’t seem to be one of those/that guy.

If someone was into 80s anime I’d say a similar thing, that LD is the way to watch them. Due to the weird way Star Wars exists on home video it’s debatably true for that too.

That's fair.

As far as OP's question is concerned however, I'll probably reflect xtempo's opinion that any working player is a good one. Of course I'm talking mostly from my own perspective; I too wanted to get something a little higher end, but the problem is that the amount of Laserdisc players of any kind, working or not, in Finland isn't even a fraction of a percent of the amount it is in the US, so I had to take what I got.

If Star Wars is all you plan to watch, you really won't even need a player with things like AC-3 or DTS since no Star Wars movie was released with the latter and the former could only be found on the Special Editions and Episode I. If I were in the position to discriminate, I'd probably go for something with a good video output first, not even two-sided play.

Perfect. Easiest thing to do then is see if you can handle it on your LED, if not try the CRT.



Don't most better/newer players have two sided play anyway? I am by no means an expert on players though. I'm happy with both of my current players (CLD-D504 and CLD-2080) and don't notice any obvious flaws with them. Maybe ignorance is bliss.

Also, since no one has said it yet to OP I will say it. Even if you get a player with SVideo out, use the Composite out anyway. LD is a composite format.

After things went all digital and stuff (1991 or so) the only single siders were the LDV (industrial), the crappy entry level S201, 301, + variants, the X-0/9, karaoke stuff, the M's (CD changers) and Laseractive. All Elites are Dual Side except the first, I think.

Even that 504 I have which is karaoke has both side play. It's the player Ive been watching everything on lately.