As far as I know all CD Video releases, including 5", 8" and 12" discs, were coloured gold. My avatar is an example of one of the 12" discs. Also as far as I know all the CD Video releases were video EPs, concerts etc, all music related titles.

What films were released on coloured laserdiscs?

I only know of three. The most famous of course is Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn: Special Edition (1987) [EE3845] which as far as I know is the only laserdisc to be released coloured red:


Perhaps this is because some players had problems playing the red disc. When Elite went on to release Evil Dead, The: Special Collector's Edition (1981) [EE7264] they instead used the gold colour:


The third film that I know of to be released on coloured laserdisc is Return of the Living Dead, The (1985) [TVL 001] which again came on a gold disc:


Does anyone know of any more?

I've heard that the rare recordable laserdiscs came coloured purple but I've never seen one or managed to track down a picture of one.

Someone also once told me that they're sure they remember hearing about a film released on a green laserdisc but they can't remember what. I've never managed to find any information about a green laserdisc so I can only assume he was mistaken.

It would be a bit disappointing if there are only three films to get this special treatment, of which only one is not gold.

I believe the few Synapse Films releases on LD are gold colored.

Hong Kong distributor, Mei Ah has a "gold collection" of movies with gold discs.

I haven't seen a picture of the disc, but I have heard that the disc from Toxic Avenger, The: Unrated Director's Cut (1985) (Uncut) [TRO-7000] is a yellowy/green colour.

I heard about these rare coloured titles years ago and wooow they look different to the substandard pressings of laserdisc but even still if no has seen a laserdisc, the surprised look on their face is like “huh, wow a film is on that”?

Do they also share the same common issues of laser rot?

Only 3 titles? Maybe it was some kinder of promotional campaign what year did these coloured laserdisc start appearing was it around the time of DVD maybe to get the inertest back or other? I don’t know? I’ve never come near to seeing a coloured laserdisc expect hearing about them and I think, I saw a youtube video a few years ago of some guy showing its rare laserdisc collection.


hippiedalek this isn't your red blood laserdisc?
Playing a BLOOD RED laserdisc of Evil Dead 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXQJwhVoUdM

There's more than just 3 titles, like I alluded to before. Unfortunately, I don't know how many titles are on Mei Ah's "Gold Collection" as Mei Ah has quite a few titles beside that particular collection:

Mei Ah Laserdisc list

Synapse only has three LD titles that I know of:

Document of the Dead
Dario Argento's World of Horror
Giant Monster Gamera

And those are all gold discs.

It's just a gimmick to make it seem more collectable. Like a picture LP.

^^ "gimmick"

Yeah I’m surprised if not disappointed STAR WARS CAV didn’t get gold coloured discs.

Japanese rental discs, such as my copy of Glory are often pressed in yellow plastic to differentiate them from retail versions (apparently made, in some cases, from the same stamper). I also have the Roan [url=http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/10376/RGL9628/Fantastic-Planet-The-(La-Planète-Sauvage)-(1973)]Fantastic Planet[/url] in yellow, & it appears from the database that the same publisher's Hitch-Hiker, is also in yellow. The extras disc in the Japanese Tenchi Movie box set is yellow, but the discs with the actual film are the regular colour. There's a value in the database for "plastic colour", but I can see no way to access it from the Advanced Search page.

I might also note that, in some cases, the plastic is transparent & the metal layer is yellow. I have some CDVs that are one way, & some that are the other. I always check the box for "plastic : yellow" because it's as close as I can get. The real rarity is picture discs, but I have a couple.

Some japanese Ranma OVA LD's I have are yellow on one side, and standard "silver" on the other side.
I think it was the Super OVA series.
All japanese RENTAL LD's I ever came across were yellow.

Also, the two MAZE OVA discs have this multi color theme: One side is standard transparent silver, the other side is RED and comes with Pit-Art decoration, showing the heads of the main characters of the series. Looks very nice, never managed to make a good photo of it sadly.
Maze Mega Burst Space: vol.1 Daitan Sutekina Chousensha!! (Bold & Wonderful Challenger) (1996) [JVLA-58014]
Maze Mega Burst Space: vol.2 Daitan Sutekina Boukensha!! (Bold & Extreme Adventure) (1996) [JVLA-58015]

Here's a picture to show that. Not distinct, but it gets the idea across. The Tenchi bonus disc I mentioned, & at least one Galaxy Fraulein Yuna disc are the same way.

publius

I like the Oscar® winning Dolby Stereo 6track mix on GLORY wow the James Horner score just before the battle of on Fort Wanger starts is WOW.

Oddly enough I noticed I’m, sure maybe my mind was playing tricks when I first rented GLORY on VHS around 1990 the opening when Shaw’s mother is reading the letters I’m sure I can hear a slight chuckle sound in very faint?

Also the low end on the VHS rental I sure it was deeper in level on the Fort Wagner assault.

I have had the PAL laserdisc and sold it years ago now and the image was like not clear. I can’t recall much of the sound quality on the PCM track?

I still have the region 2 DVD and bluray now and both are not alike. The mix on the DVD Dolby digital is not bad at all nice and discrete with tiny degree of stereo surrounds on the sound effects on the surround channel (expect for score which is only mono) and stereo of course over the LCR.

The bluray looks a bit DNR plus its missing isolated score Dolby 5.0. As for the Dolby TrueHD its been slightly messed around with not drastically but I think the surrounds have been mucked around with. I’m not sure if the 70mm Dolby Stereo release print would have been Dolby format 43, that includes split-stereo-surrounds, format 42 being regular would only have mono surrounds. I’m not sure if the film was slightly remixed or it was unannounced as Dolby format 43?

Still its a magic film brings tears to my eyes at the end.

I can’t say I’m crazy about the GLORY artwork on that cover is criminal! Looks like cut outs pasted on the front!

In 1989 and 1990 a number of PAL movies pressed by PDO UK Blackburn where pressed using yellow plastics, like 007 Licence To Kill, Flodder, 9 1/2 weeks.
When CDV was rebranded to LD, the movies where using regular silver (although some sleeves show a golden disc on the background)
the PAL music titles remained yellow till the end (1994)

NTSC discs pressed by PDO never used yellow plastics

Nope, that's not mine, though I have seen that video before. It's a beautiful disc.




I've never actually added a disc to lddb before so have never seen what options are available. I just checked and found that you can select:

Transparent
Yellow
Red
Green
Other

So it looks like there is a green title somewhere out there, would be interesting to know what. And the possibility of "Other" could be interesting too. Perhaps we could put in a feature request to Julian to add this to the advanced search, once he's settled into his new job and has the time again of course : )



Looks like that means Evil Dead 2 isn't the only red laserdisc out there. Is the decorated red side playable? It certainly looks striking.

I noticed looking on LDD that Fox produced Licence To Kill (1989) but its also a candidate for low possible laser rot. I then noticed MGM/UA and no candidate issue thing being mentioned. So what is the story between the Fox and MGM/UA was Fox prone to laserdisc rot issues and MGM/UA took over or the pressings?

The ones I have are standard "dead" sides, with the 3 minutes or whatever of "Wrong side, turn over" message in Japanese. All the decoration is outside of that. It is actually recorded by modulating the laser beam of the cutting head, to change the pit spacing, so it takes the place of a video signal. If you tried to play it back you would get garbage.

Labels have next to nothing to do with pressing plants, except in the case of Pioneer releases (which were mostly pressed by Pioneer, although I have one pressed by Sony Japan), Sony/Columbia US releases (which were mostly pressed by Sony Terre Haute, notorious for rot), Philips music releases (made by PDO), & of course Discovision releases, made by Discovision. Label changes are due to business deals which affect the company that owns the films.

This one is gold. Drunken Master II (1994) (Uncut) [GD 006]

Yep, that's part of the aforementioned "Gold Collection" from Mei Ah.

Huh. I think I only have a few from Sony I might have to check them up on the database system.
Cheers for that, publius

These ones are gold too. Hitch-Hiker: Special Edition (1953) [RGL9621] and Trial, The: Franz Kafka's (1962) (Uncut) [RGL9616]

Sears 1981 Summer Tele-Shop Catalog (1981) [07-498]

The dead side has a marble stylized look.