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cessnaace
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Post subject: LaserDisc Manufacturers. Best. Worst. First. Last. Posted: 31 Oct 2011, 05:40 |
True fan |
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Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 23:56 Posts: 451 Location: United States Has thanked: 1 time Been thanked: 6 times
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First facility: MCA DiscoVison. Their first release of "Jaws" was the first LaserDisc released anywhere in the world. This would later become Pioneer's USA plant. Last facility: Probably Kuraray, which continued making discs into 2002. As the end approached only two facilities were still in operation worldwide. Pioneer Japan and Kuraray. But who stuck it out the longest? Those of us with large LaserDisc collections built up over time have our own opinions as to which manufacturer was the best, although awarding the title of "worst manufactuer" would greatly depend on your collecting habits. The best (in the USA): I'd go with 3M. Except for a period in the late 80s, a time when Image Entertainment was relying on them heavily, 3M's quality has been very high. I'm speaking of my experience, so yours my be different. The best (worldwide, outside of the USA): I'd go with Kuraray. Their quality was extremely good, and I believe it was the only facility worldwide to never replicate a title that was a complete failure. By that I mean no good copies of a run. DADC USA had a huge problem with entire runs being bad, but this never happened at Kuraray. When Pioneer USA started replicating "Star Trek: First Contact" THX actually had it pulled and replication was moved to Pioneer Japan, delaying release by 4 weeks. By 1997 or so Pioneer USA began importing the raw plastic they used from Kuraray, after which time Pioneer USA's quality went up. Mitsubishi rates highly with me as well. The Director's Cut Special Edition Boxed set of "Aliens" was made at two different facilities. While the defect rate is very high with this title, my copy, made by Mitsubishi, plays perfectly. The worst (in the USA): A tie between Technidisc and DADC USA. Both facilities produced entire runs which later proved to be bad. I'm not counting DiscoVision, because they were the "Pioneers" (sorry about that) in disc manufacturing. Their defect rates were really high. The worst (worldwide, outside the USA): PDO UK. This has been my experience anyway. Eventhough they replicated relatively few NTSC titles I have nearly 30, all released by Image Entertainment. I'd estimate approx. 30% are bad. The worst LaserDisc: In my own collection that would be "I Spit on Your Grave." This film was released by three different companies on LaserDisc, all for the US market. Mine is the very first release, from Vestron Video. It is the only disc in my collection made in W. Germany by Sonopress. Laser Rot is the worst I've seen, with the added bonus of numerous video and audio dropouts. Speckling and static abound. What has been your experience? STAY AWESOME!
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cessnaace
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Post subject: Re: LaserDisc Manufacturers. Best. Worst. First. Last. Posted: 31 Oct 2011, 14:27 |
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Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 23:56 Posts: 451 Location: United States Has thanked: 1 time Been thanked: 6 times
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publius wrote: Information from Japanese Wikipedia, & you can put whatever value you like on that, suggests that the last LDs, in the 20 cm size, were manufactured in spring 2007 by a company called Memory Tech, which appears to have acquired the Toshiba-EMI pressing plant. Have any of these Nenory Tech discs wound up in the LD Database? STAY AWESOME!
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cessnaace
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Post subject: Re: LaserDisc Manufacturers. Best. Worst. First. Last. Posted: 31 Oct 2011, 14:29 |
True fan |
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Joined: 06 Dec 2009, 23:56 Posts: 451 Location: United States Has thanked: 1 time Been thanked: 6 times
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laserdisc_fan wrote: I'd certainly agree PDO were terrible. Early batches were so bad the discs actually fell apart - I've several that fall into this category where the two sides are literally coming apart! Later gold coloured pressings issued under the rebranded CD Video name were not much better - virtually all play poorly. I don't think I have ever seen a single gold CDV that didn't have some form of speckling at some point during playback. Although those gold discs looked stunning physically don't be fooled - as they say all that glitters is not gold! Technidisc had the same problem when they first went on-line. Discs would seperate. I think this explains the excessive amount of clue that 3M used (sticky edges anyone?). It never happened with them. STAY AWESOME!
Last edited by cessnaace on 09 Jun 2015, 18:39, edited 1 time in total.
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blam1
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Post subject: Re: LaserDisc Manufacturers. Best. Worst. First. Last. Posted: 09 Jun 2015, 04:34 |
Advanced fan |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2002, 18:44 Posts: 959 Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 122 times
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cessnaace wrote: Technidisc had the same problem when they first went on-line. Discs would separate. I think this explains the excessive amount of clue that 3M used (sticky edges anyone?). It never happened with them.
Ah, but you've not see the fun a 3M disc can be. I've seen stacks of them where the got a bit too warm and the sides literally slid apart. What a sticky mess. On a slightly different topic, I'm trying to figure out how everyone can tell the difference between early Sonopress from W. Germany and the discs from PDO. The discs "look" exactly the same - same crappy pressing (dropouts, speckles, the like), dashed lines on the inner and outer ring. The first big difference is the PDO discs have 10cm disc labels (all the way out to the dash ring) and the Sonopress discs have Pioneer (and almost everyone else) standard of 9.5cm labels. Next is the disc edge. PDO is rounded, very much like Pioneer, but the Sonopress is almost sharpened to a point.
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forty-six-and-2
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Post subject: Re: LaserDisc Manufacturers. Best. Worst. First. Last. Posted: 09 Jun 2015, 11:19 |
Honest fan |
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Joined: 31 Mar 2015, 10:21 Posts: 78 Location: United States Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 1 time
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I don't have a large enough collection yet, or enough experience, to have formed a best/worst manufacturer opinion. That said, though, DiscoVision takes the grand prize for manufacturing the two worst discs I own. Second place goes to Disc 3 of my copy of "Frenzy," which amazingly is still partly watchable: First place: Disc 1 of "Slaughterhouse Five." Completely unusable.
_________________ DiscoVision Cultist
Players: Pioneer Elite CLD-59, Pioneer VP-1000
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