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forty-six-and-2
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 12 Nov 2015, 01:58 |
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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blam1 wrote: I'm sure I speak for every DiscoVision collector - we don't collect them for the quality of the mastering or the transfer. If you want to watch "Psycho", there are far better mediums to view the Hitchcock masterpiece. Precisely this, right here. I bought the DiscoVision edition of "Frenzy," for example, not because it's amazing, but because it's broken. The LaserVision edition that MCA put out in the mid 80s is vastly better to just watch. It's the flaws and the baby steps toward making a new technology come together that are what fascinate me about DiscoVision. Of course, there are the odd films you more or less can't get anywhere but DiscoVision. "Diary of a Mad Housewife" or "Fellini's Casanova," for example. The former is available on VHS, but it's altered and cut down, and if I recall right the latter is only officially available in Italian instead of the original English.
_________________ DiscoVision Cultist
Players: Pioneer Elite CLD-59, Pioneer VP-1000
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nordkorea
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 28 Nov 2015, 14:03 |
Genuinely interested |
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Joined: 03 Jun 2014, 09:13 Posts: 38 Location: Germany Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 0 time
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Only by accident. 3 years ago, Ive found a small collection of Discovision titles, they were part of a large collection of US/Japanese silent movies on LD. A strange mixture.
Only regular and not so scarce titles, like Xanadu, Sgt. Pepper, Rollercoaster, the art gallery title, Abba, Donald Duck, etc. Quality varies, picture quality of ABBA was bad, but the sound was ok. The 3rd side of Sgt. Pepper was weak too. In general the quality was moderate and ok for its age. I try to collect more titles, but I dont want to pay above $ 20 for a title, because of the high postage fees to Germany. So I have to miss "women at work" and cant watch "the solar system".
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je280
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 29 Nov 2015, 19:09 |
Hardcore fan |
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Joined: 13 Sep 2012, 23:14 Posts: 1199 Location: United Kingdom Has thanked: 265 times Been thanked: 259 times
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ace2184 wrote: I recently came across Raise the Titanic on laserdisc. It has a grey cover similar to Discovision but different enough to not confuse it. Are these done byba different company, or were they an in between period after Discovision but before regular LD releases? Is it perhaps Raise the Titanic (1980) [9023-80] which was released in 1981 by MAGNETIC VIDEO? That one was pressed by PIONEER in Japan. Most of the MAGNETIC VIDEO issues were pressed by PIONEER Japan though a few were pressed by DISCOVISION, not sure what the actual number was but other users here will be able to provide more information. This was released while DISCOVISION were still issuing discs I believe.
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ace2184
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 30 Nov 2015, 07:29 |
True fan |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014, 02:27 Posts: 428 Location: Washington State Has thanked: 5 times Been thanked: 2 times
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je280 wrote: ace2184 wrote: I recently came across Raise the Titanic on laserdisc. It has a grey cover similar to Discovision but different enough to not confuse it. Are these done byba different company, or were they an in between period after Discovision but before regular LD releases? Is it perhaps Raise the Titanic (1980) [9023-80] which was released in 1981 by MAGNETIC VIDEO? That one was pressed by PIONEER in Japan. Most of the MAGNETIC VIDEO issues were pressed by PIONEER Japan though a few were pressed by DISCOVISION, not sure what the actual number was but other users here will be able to provide more information. This was released while DISCOVISION were still issuing discs I believe. I'd have to check the disc, but I believe it is the Magnetic Video copy. To my untrained eye they resemble a Discovision disc.
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samaron
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 30 Nov 2015, 22:13 |
Advanced fan |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2011, 15:10 Posts: 898 Location: Norway Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 5 times
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Got my first DiscoVision title to complement my laserdisc collection. I got Shogun Assassin. Really like the movie, and wanted to own it on laserdisc. Seems the only NTSC version available is this ancient release. So far I've bought two of the same movie. The first one had a cover that looked like it barely survived Hiroshima and have light rot. The picture is okay, but the sound reminds me about a worn LP record. The second I got had a perfect cover. Put in the disc and side 1 were rot free, and side 2 were heavily distorted in both sound and picture. Swapped around the discs so the one with a nice cover have the least damaged disc. Guess the s****y one goes up on the wall. Do I have bad luck, or are these old DiscoVision discs prone to laser rot? Besides my slightly bad introduction to these releases, I must say it is still fun to own one. The name it self is probably as 1970s as you can get it. Loved the DiscoVision opening title too. Quite unique and distinct cover art as well. The early baby steps of the LaserDisc format.
_________________ Player: Pioneer HLD-X9 and CLD-2950 My LD collection Recently started collecting some anime on LD
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laserdisc_fan
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 30 Nov 2015, 22:20 |
Jedi Candidate |
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Joined: 29 Jan 2006, 20:05 Posts: 2266 Location: United Kingdom Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 23 times
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blam1 wrote: Japan discs from that period were somewhat better than those from the US DiscoVision plant, but not by much. Pioneer Japan's output quality in 1981-1982 was sub-standard in my opinion. Quite a few of the early music Japanese titles from 81-84 are a certainly risky to buy. In particular ones beginning with the MP catalogue number. That said I've perfect copies of all the titles I own, but did need to buy 3-5 copies sometimes to get a good one! If they are bad, they are usually really bad!
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blam1
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 30 Nov 2015, 23:28 |
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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samaron wrote: Do I have bad luck, or are these old DiscoVision discs prone to laser rot? "Shogun Assassin" was pressed by MCA DiscoVision, in Carson CA - what would later become Pioneer USA. Your experience is fairly common. There has been the old "Does DiscoVision Rot" debate going on for years - and while it looks exactly like rot, it's really just s****y manufacturing. There are reports of the odd disc getting worse over the years, but by-in-large that has not been my experience. Discs that looked good back in 1979 typically still look good today. It's also important to note what kind of player you are attempting to use. Pioneer's players hare actually pretty good at hiding most speckling. They can't hide a full-on snow storm or the audio issues that are related to contamination, but the individual speckles themselves can be cleaned up. Panasonic and Sony players SUCK at speckle rejection. I personally think they make it look worse. If you want to know what the disc REALLY looks like, put it into a first or second generation player (Pioneer VP-1000 or PR-7820 [1st Gen]; Pioneer LD-660, LD-1100, PR-8210, Sylvania VP-7200, Magnavox VC-8010 [2nd Gen]) and play the disc. I actually use a VP-1000 when I check my DiscoVision discs. If it looks good on that player, it will look good on other Pioneer players. It isn't very forgiving with disc lockups, so really ... if a side plays all the way through on a VP-1000, it's going to play in just about anything.
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blam1
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 30 Nov 2015, 23:36 |
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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laserdisc_fan wrote: blam1 wrote: Japan discs from that period were somewhat better than those from the US DiscoVision plant, but not by much. Pioneer Japan's output quality in 1981-1982 was sub-standard in my opinion. Quite a few of the early music Japanese titles from 81-84 are a certainly risky to buy. In particular ones beginning with the MP catalogue number. That said I've perfect copies of all the titles I own, but did need to buy 3-5 copies sometimes to get a good one! If they are bad, they are usually really bad! You're absolutely right. I was trying to be kind - but the Pioneer Japan quality issues were not really cleared up until early 85 in my opinion. Anything from 81-84 is a crap-shoot. I've never found a clean copy of "Galaxina", "Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack" was another problem. Every single copy of "Picture Music" I have ever seen is garbage, both the US release and the Japanese release. A bunch of the early 8" titles are junk too. Lately, I've been trying to go back and get clean copies of really old titles from Warner Bros and Columbia. "Close Encounters", "Caddyshack", "Night Shift", "The Man with Two Brains" all Japanese pressings are a colossal pain in the a**. Pioneer very quietly repressed them with great 1990 era pressings. Sometimes updating the cover art ("Private Benjamin", "Deal of the Century") and sometimes not ("Night Shift", "Man with Two Brains"). They are not remastered, they are the same analog only horrible Pan & Scan transfers from 1980s. But they are clean.
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samaron
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 01 Dec 2015, 12:15 |
Advanced fan |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2011, 15:10 Posts: 898 Location: Norway Has thanked: 0 time Been thanked: 5 times
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blam1 wrote: "Shogun Assassin" was pressed by MCA DiscoVision, in Carson CA - what would later become Pioneer USA. Your experience is fairly common. There has been the old "Does DiscoVision Rot" debate going on for years - and while it looks exactly like rot, it's really just s****y manufacturing. There are reports of the odd disc getting worse over the years, but by-in-large that has not been my experience. Discs that looked good back in 1979 typically still look good today.
It's also important to note what kind of player you are attempting to use. Pioneer's players hare actually pretty good at hiding most speckling. They can't hide a full-on snow storm or the audio issues that are related to contamination, but the individual speckles themselves can be cleaned up. Panasonic and Sony players SUCK at speckle rejection. I personally think they make it look worse. If you want to know what the disc REALLY looks like, put it into a first or second generation player (Pioneer VP-1000 or PR-7820 [1st Gen]; Pioneer LD-660, LD-1100, PR-8210, Sylvania VP-7200, Magnavox VC-8010 [2nd Gen]) and play the disc.
I actually use a VP-1000 when I check my DiscoVision discs. If it looks good on that player, it will look good on other Pioneer players. It isn't very forgiving with disc lockups, so really ... if a side plays all the way through on a VP-1000, it's going to play in just about anything. Yeah, were thinking it had some relation to poor manifacturing. This is the very beginning, after all. Saw a video from 1978 where they show the production. No gloves or such when handling the master that they use to stamp up the discs from. Of course, things were clean, but not nearly as clean as the Japanese Pioneer production facility from the late 80s/early 90s. There they dressed like it was a biohazard lab from a zombie movie. Full coveralls, masks, hair net, gloves, etc. In the old one, they just threw on a white lab coat to look fancy... Not a bad idea with using a very early player to test with. I've found the HLD-X9 to play almost everything you throw at it, no matter how distorted. Light rot is indeed hidden and not noticable during playback. I've had discs that the LD-S9 (my previous player) wouldn't play, but the X9 managed to do it. Are the first generation players hard to come by, or prone to breaking down?
_________________ Player: Pioneer HLD-X9 and CLD-2950 My LD collection Recently started collecting some anime on LD
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happycube
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Post subject: Re: MCA DiscoVision Collectors? Posted: 12 Dec 2016, 04:18 |
Absolute fan |
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Joined: 18 Apr 2012, 18:02 Posts: 1614 Location: United States Has thanked: 71 times Been thanked: 88 times
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Cool How well does it play? (31-32dB isn't that great for a handpicked disk, but I guess it was acceptable to them then)
_________________ Happycube Labs: Where the past is being re-made, today. [meep!]
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