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themagichoof
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Post subject: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 21 Aug 2021, 01:40 |
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Joined: 20 Aug 2021, 01:25 Posts: 8 Location: United States Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 1 time
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Just bought my first player and a few LDs to get a collection going. I looked for a bit but haven't found the exact info I need, so excuse the age-old questions.
1) I see SRD and ANA next to some releases. As far as I can tell, the ones with just ANA have stereo analog tracks. SRD seems to stand for Spectral Recording Digital and I take it that it's just some kind of stereo PCM track that can fit on one mono side (left) where the original stereo analog track was stored. Looking into that further, it seems like when digital audio entered the picture, the left analog channel was sacrificed for the stereo digital track and the right analog track became a plain mono backup of sorts. Is all of that information correct?
2) I'm located in the USA but will be moving to Europe someday. I know that there are PAL/NTSC laserdisc players in Europe, but I wanted to check on compatibility. There is a framerate, resolution, refresh rate etc difference between the two, and I believe I remember something about a change in audio pitch (due to the telecining) when playing NTSC discs in Europe. Is that true? I'm hoping that when I'm over there I could just bring my collection with me and have a good PAL/NTSC player work its magic and pretty much flawlessly do a conversion with no discernable difference.
3) Going along with the 2nd question, when playing an NTSC disc in Europe, I'm going to guess that there's at least some difference in quality due to the conversion. What would that be, and how bad is it?
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rcarlson
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 21 Aug 2021, 02:33 |
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Joined: 02 Jan 2021, 00:35 Posts: 242 Location: Northern Virginia Has thanked: 164 times Been thanked: 141 times
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I don't have answers to any of the PAL stuff, but here's the deal with ANA and SRD:
ANA just means there are no digital tracks; it doesn't imply stereo or mono. And SRD refers to Dolby Surround, which on the disc is just a normal stereo track, analog or digital or both. What makes it SRD is that in production they took surround tracks (left, center, right, rear) and downmixed them to stereo in such a way that Dolby Surround-capable receivers could extrapolate what sounds were supposed to be rerouted to the center and rear speakers. If you have a modern receiver, you can just let it do its thing in any surround mode and it'll work fine. NTSC discs can have both digital and analog tracks on the same disc. The stuff you're thinking of about things replacing one channel of the analog tracks is Dolby Digital, or AC3, which is a compressed 5.1 discrete surround soundtrack that (when present) replaces the right analog track. The vast majority of discs don't have AC3, so you probably don't need to worry about this.
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admin
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 21 Aug 2021, 03:52 |
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Joined: 07 Aug 2002, 23:37 Posts: 4551 Location: Tokyo Has thanked: 295 times Been thanked: 1147 times
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themagichoof wrote: 1) I see SRD and ANA next to some releases. As far as I can tell, the ones with just ANA have stereo analog tracks. SRD seems to stand for Spectral Recording Digital and I take it that it's just some kind of stereo PCM track that can fit on one mono side (left) where the original stereo analog track was stored. Looking into that further, it seems like when digital audio entered the picture, the left analog channel was sacrificed for the stereo digital track and the right analog track became a plain mono backup of sorts. Is all of that information correct? There is a help section for that https://www.lddb.com/help/sound/Julien
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9954tony
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 21 Aug 2021, 06:27 |
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Joined: 12 Sep 2015, 05:57 Posts: 210 Location: United States Has thanked: 5 times Been thanked: 54 times
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Dual format players output the format of the disc. No laserdisc players do framerate conversion. You will have to have a dual standard display (which most newer ones are i think, here in the USA, my newer TV will recognize and play PAL just fine). You may also need a voltage converter. There were way less PAL discs made, so you may want to see if there is anything you really want on PAL before taking the plunge (NOTE: this is coming from a USA person who imported and owns several PAL players and a collection of PAL discs. Was it worth it? jury is still out...).
As for "speed up". That was done for film content, stuff filmed at ~24fps. For NTSC, 3:2 pulldown is implement expanding ~24fps to 30fps. For PAL, they just take the 24fps, and play it 4% faster. But this is / was done not just for laserdiscs, but for OTA broadcasts, and DVDs too. I am not sure if they still do it for bluray. Sometimes the audio was pitch corrected, and sometimes not.
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themagichoof
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 22 Aug 2021, 04:07 |
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Joined: 20 Aug 2021, 01:25 Posts: 8 Location: United States Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 1 time
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signofzeta wrote: Why did you buy a Laserdisc player? It just so happens that mostly all of my favorite movies are on LD, and I come from the old school so I'm partial to the era. I've been meaning to get one for years. There are also some Japanese releases that were never released anywhere else so it was just time
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confederate
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 22 Aug 2021, 07:15 |
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Joined: 23 Jun 2013, 02:37 Posts: 726 Location: Germany Has thanked: 116 times Been thanked: 60 times
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substance wrote: There is nearly nothing worthwhile exclusive to LD anymore.
Yes, that might be true for Hollywood films but I still believe there are many very interesting music releases on LD exclusive to that format and VHS. There are also other niche genre titles I find interesting plus many lesser known Hong Kong films that were only released on VCD/VHS. Plus there are also many US films that have not been released on Blu-Ray yet so I don't think the LD is a worse choice here ( better picture quality vs significantly better sound quality ). Yes but if you are into Hollywood films solely then it does not make any sense buying films on LD any longer. That is true.
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signofzeta
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 22 Aug 2021, 12:35 |
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Joined: 14 Jan 2010, 09:44 Posts: 5986 Location: Ann Arbor Has thanked: 1292 times Been thanked: 1105 times
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themagichoof wrote: signofzeta wrote: Why did you buy a Laserdisc player? It just so happens that mostly all of my favorite movies are on LD, and I come from the old school so I'm partial to the era. I've been meaning to get one for years. There are also some Japanese releases that were never released anywhere else so it was just time If you come from the old school then why haven’t you already had a collection? The very last players were made 12+ years ago, the last retail discs almost a decade earlier with the real peak of the format being a decade before that and it’s actual invention a decade before that. That statement doesn’t really make any sense. You’re *super* tardy for old school! While I do occasionally buy classic b/w movies or certain very specific LDs of other kinds my main field of interest in LD these days is anime that debuted on the format and anime exclusive to the format. There is less and less of that every day and that’s probably the largest area of exclusives on LD other than scenery discs and music nobody listens to anymore. Movies, actual normal well regarded Hollywood movies people still like are better and cheaper on Blu-ray and there is a much larger selection. Getting an LD player to watch Back to the Future or Raiders is a massive waste of money.
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substance
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 22 Aug 2021, 12:56 |
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Joined: 16 May 2009, 18:05 Posts: 3586 Location: California, USA Has thanked: 28 times Been thanked: 323 times
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Give me an example. Tell me a movie, Hollywood or otherwise that I can’t find on Blu-ray or DVD. People often make that remark but rarely mentions those movies or if they do, those movies are utmost rubbish that no one cares to watch.
Severin, Vinegar, Shout, Arrow, Code Red and many other labels produce many niche titles on Blu-ray that you can’t even find them on LD or VHS. Often times the LD versions are way more expensive and difficult to find. Especially those HK releases.
If you are a movie lover which means you watch your movies, there isn’t much business in LD. If you are a collectard then nevermind what I said.
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signofzeta
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 22 Aug 2021, 14:07 |
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Joined: 14 Jan 2010, 09:44 Posts: 5986 Location: Ann Arbor Has thanked: 1292 times Been thanked: 1105 times
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To be fair…forget DVD. Take it out of the equation. How many movies are on LD and don’t have a BR that is better? True Lies and The Abyss still? I haven’t been keeping track. Some David Lynch stuff. There are a few things. Light of Day…? If you include DVD and BR world-wide then it leaves out nearly zero Hollywood titles as LD exclusive. A lot of DVDs suck though so let’s not go there.
_________________ All about LD care, inner sleeves, shrink wrap, etc.
https://youtu.be/b3O-vHpHRpM
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rein-o
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 22 Aug 2021, 18:48 |
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Joined: 03 May 2004, 19:05 Posts: 8106 Location: Dullaware Has thanked: 1219 times Been thanked: 844 times
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confederate wrote: substance wrote: There is nearly nothing worthwhile exclusive to LD anymore.
Yes, that might be true for Hollywood films but I still believe there are many very interesting music releases on LD exclusive to that format and VHS. There are also other niche genre titles I find interesting plus many lesser known Hong Kong films that were only released on VCD/VHS. Plus there are also many US films that have not been released on Blu-Ray yet so I don't think the LD is a worse choice here ( better picture quality vs significantly better sound quality ). Yes but if you are into Hollywood films solely then it does not make any sense buying films on LD any longer. That is true. Yeah, there is a lot of Hong Kong stuff, some of which has been released on dvd or bluray but not all. Lots of anime and music, and some silent stuff, much more than lets say CED but due to years and all I can't see LD being a good option for a collector of today unless you absolutely must have a silent film, anime or music that has no other home format release. But the longer we go the more will happen and the main reason to keep LD in the next 3-10 years will be due to the fact that we can't justify to ourselves to get rid of the format as we have invested so much time and money over the years and it does still bring us joy when we hold it. I for one am sort of out of buying LDs, only stuff I will get are deals on ebay that I can filp or anime that I want to horde unless I can get a crazy price for either.
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tombstone13
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Post subject: Re: New here with a couple of LD questions Posted: 31 Aug 2021, 03:52 |
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Joined: 07 Mar 2018, 06:45 Posts: 54 Location: United States Has thanked: 13 times Been thanked: 13 times
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themagichoof wrote: I come from the old school so I'm partial to the era. I've been meaning to get one for years. There are also some Japanese releases that were never released anywhere else so it was just time The best reason to get a laserdisc player is because you want one. I've had one for thirty years and never regretted it. I've got a lot of discs over the years but who cares? It's my money. As long as you're not neglecting your family it's a great hobby. I also really enjoy searching through old collections at garage sales and second-hand stores (some countries like Japan are amazing for this), though that has become less frequent in recent years. I will probably never get a PAL player but I have found PAL discs in the past that were cool, like Charro!, a Star Trek tribbles box, or animated Lone Ranger discs. I've had people tell me over the years that I should buy VHS or DVD or what-ever. I haven't seen any reason to do it. It's not like my eyesight is getting better with age anyways! Having been stuck at home more for the past two years, I've still been finding new movies and shows to watch, plus I still enjoy re-watching my favorites all the time.
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