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 Post subject: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 11:46 
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This format is way inferior in quality, expensive, inconvenient, the players are breaking apart, the players don't have cables compatible with some of the newer TVs, buying movies is only available via online stores, Not 1 single new release in 2 decades, and it weight and size make it expensive to ship and store. Yet, here we are.

For me I never got to experience this format when it was current and it just stayed with me and I finally got to it. A hobby if you may. Different mediums interest me, and the whole thing gives me the nostalgia I crave from the 80s & 90s. I also feel it gives the older movies that extra kick of fun watching it on a medium that was current on its release date/era. Kind of why some people like to watch horror movies on VHS.

I am guessing most of you here having been with the LaserDisc format since it was in its prime, and have been 20 years after it was terminated. Haven't you already watched all the movies you want during that period of time? Haven't you got enough of experience with this medium? Why are you still interested in watching over LD?

I am guessing we ,members of this forum, are the last people on earth still watching LaserDiscs, and I have no idea why there are still people with stock of films to sell 20 years later. You would think by 2010 they threw them in the trash or something and move on with their lives.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 12:42 
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The inferior quality is not true. With the right scaling equipment LD's look gorgeous on modern Ultra wide displays. Also when it comes to surround tracks I find that they are much better than on DVD's and Blu-rays.
The jacket and their size is actually what makes them so appealing to buy. Players will keep working as long as you do basic maintenance like on every electronic equipment.
And these days Laserdisc has reached a real retro status which means it will always bring in a good chunk of change is I decided to sell a couple of movies ( depends of-course on the title ).
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 17:39 
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because I bought it and don't need to buy the same film again.
I'm not one of these people who needs the same film on every format, this one is still working for me.
my father bought this stuff new and i took the collection, only in the past 10 years have films become super dirt cheap i.e. 50 cent DVDs.
and less that you can stream good stuff for free or very little cost.

I remember when the only way you could see "insert film or anime title here" in widescreen or uncut was on LD.
Think of old and older films like horror, scifi, anime or silent films.

Lets say Angel's Egg, the only way to see that until 2 or so years ago was to own the LD now you can stream a poor copy on youtube.
If you bought that title for 50 bucks 20+ years ago you wouldn't be so willing to give it up or away.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 18:23 
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On the issue of PQ. I've just come from viewing Renaissance Man (Letterboxed) on my 2.5m diagonal 4:3 screen so no need to use zoom or letterbox pj options and the image was incredibly detailed and filmic, indeed arguably close to as good as SD can be expected get and almost 3D like it times, DVD rarely achieves this for me as most of the time compression artefacts are usually visible and I've always found this very distracting and spoiling the big screen experience greatly. DVD looks ok on anything up to about 50" after that the cracks start to become too obvious for me, regarding SQ let's not even go there lol!
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 18:41 
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therussian wrote:
The inferior quality is not true. With the right scaling equipment LD's look gorgeous on modern Ultra wide displays.

Just because LD can look really good with the right equipment doesn't mean it has comparable quality to modern formats. You're still limited to 480 horizontal lines per frame, which puts a lower ceiling on how well an SD format can capture the content of a frame of film than 1,080 or 2,160 lines can (and no, the analog nature of each line on LD is not enough to make up for this, especially not when we're talking about a composite interlaced signal). I simply don't believe anyone who tells me that their chain of video equipment can make even the best LD look as good as the UHD-BD of Lawrence of Arabia on a good TV.

The biggest shortcomings of blu-ray and UHD blu-ray are the result of poor video/audio production practices and don't extend to all discs. The biggest shortcomings of laserdisc are part of the format itself. It's just like how no vinyl record can match a properly mastered CD. Frustration with lousy CDs, DVDs, and BDs made by companies that don't care anymore is a great reason to collect and use older formats, but I don't think we should confuse this with the capabilities of the formats themselves.


Last edited by rcarlson on 11 Jan 2021, 07:24, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 18:49 
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I’m watching my LD collection because I still have an LD collection.

“Mail order only” is more or less the way LD has always been. I was mail ordering most of my movies in 1992 even though stores in my area weren’t bad at all by American standards. To be honest buying LDs is way better now since most of them are cheap as hell, can be play tested, and you can use eBay, YAJ, and this forum to help you buy any disc from anywhere in the world. You don’t know how good you have it! It used to be that usually if your store couldn’t find a disc then that was it. Out of print meant GONE. LD is a format for people who are already mail ordering their books, records, exotic tea, whatever.

The picture quality is truly very very low compared to a BR but with silent movies and anime OVAs BR is frankly overkill. LD is something I’ve been into almost 30 years now and so to me it was never checking out this wild way old people used to watch movies, it’s the way I’ve watched movies since I was old enough to buy movies. I also have to say that most people don’t have anything like my eyes so BR is double wasted on them. At some point the pursuit of “quality” has to stop if you’re ever going to enjoy the movie. Also, many people including regular posters here don’t know how to even use the correct aspect ratio let alone calibrate. LD on the right display with correct settings can be very good. However the easiest way to make an LD look good is to not throw away all your CRTs like an idiot. Btw, thanks for all the free CRTs everyone. I enjoy them very much. I still have yet to find a modern TV with no composite input so that’s not as issue yet or not as issue with most TVs, probably only the very high end and the utter s**t, to I’d suspect.


Last edited by signofzeta on 10 Jan 2021, 20:16, edited 1 time in total. _________________
All about LD care, inner sleeves, shrink wrap, etc.

https://youtu.be/b3O-vHpHRpM
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 18:56 
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Short answer, because I already have them.

Long answer, I bought them inexpensively when they were somewhat relevant in the early to mid 2000s. I bought most of my more expensive discs and imports in the very early 2010s when my income grew. These were almost always “not on any other format” or “NTSC-locked” content like concerts and TV series. I don’t think I bought more than a dozen LDs in the past 8 or 9 years. I rarely watch them in the last 5 years. Now I moved to the southern LA where room is precious. I will likely unload more than half of my LDs in the next year.

If I have never bought LDs in the first place and now newly going into it, I would probably buy a CLD-97 or alike player and the Star Wars box set only. And if my income didn’t grow enough to allow some silly spendings, I would never buy the expensive titles (although mine aren’t as expensive as the late titles). But hey, that’s me. I have been there, done that, I am satisfied, now I can move on. After all, it’s your money and whatever makes you happy.

I agree with your opinion and disagree therussian on the PQ. For me to watch an LD, I must stay away from watching TV for a few days and forget what modern UHD and HD looks like. Yeah, its comparable to DVD(if you have a good setup) but who watches DVDs nowadays anyway?
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 19:21 
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substance wrote:
Yeah, its comparable to DVD(if you have a good setup) but who watches DVDs nowadays anyway?


Rein-o and people Zeta made fun of who their tv with s**t settings, don't care about aspect ratio only that there are no "black bars". :lol:

rcarlson wrote:
Post.


There is no convincing people at this point but this was a nice effort.

signofzeta wrote:
LD is a format for people who are already mail ordering their books, records, exotic tea, whatever.

The picture quality is truly very very low compared to a BR but with silent movies and anime OVAs BR is frankly overkill.


My favorite tea (sourced from Japan) is sold out right now and they have no idea when they will be able to get more. Thankfully I bought a lot last time.

With anime it really depends. BGC, Crusher Joe, Giant Robo, Cagliostro etc all look good enough to where I am very happy I have them in HD and look good on a 4K projector with a 100'' screen. Stuff like FotNS tv or Marmalade Boy? Those need to be watched on a smaller screen.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 20:09 
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I like the way the video looks and the big shiny discs.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 22:44 
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@rcarlson

I never claimed that it is as good as an UHD-BD. The upscale quality brings it to a properly mastered DVD or slightly higher level.
Laserdisc has however a big advantage over UHD-BD. It's not crippled by DRM crap.

I refuse to upgrade to anything 4K because of all the DRM hoops they want me to jump through.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 22:47 
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Why still watching lds
That’s an easy question to answer
1) sound quality
2) stuff that doesn’t exists in other format
3) beautiful covers
4) comes from a time when movie collecting wasn’t a walk to the super market like present day with dvd Blu-ray and 4K
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 23:01 
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therussian wrote:
@rcarlson

I never claimed that it is as good as an UHD-BD. The upscale quality brings it to a properly mastered DVD or slightly higher level.
Laserdisc has however a big advantage over UHD-BD. It's not crippled by DRM crap.

I refuse to upgrade to anything 4K because of all the DRM hoops they want me to jump through.

I think we're misunderstanding each other, then. The OP was talking about the quality of LD being inferior to modern formats (not DVD), which is the claim I thought you were disputing. Beg pardon if I misread your post.

I hear you on DRM, it sucks. While it's not a deal-breaker for me, I loathe its existence and have no qualms about circumventing it for the purpose of preserving a personal collection or applying subtitles to foreign releases that didn't come with them for example. I agree that no DRM (or worse yet region codes) is a big point in LD's favor.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 10 Jan 2021, 23:19 
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I only really collect the discs nobody else wants but are interesting to me. Or films and other content that isn't available on DVD or better. Or has a better audio track. Or is uncensored only on LD and so on.

Basically there needs to be a decent reason for me to go to the trouble of getting an LD over another format.

Like my Japanese Railroad Constitution LD for example. :thumbup:

Japanese Railroad Constitution [MRLZ-91003]

P.s I'll update that entry asap.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2021, 00:33 
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Not able to but I think everybody needs a thumbs up on this topic.

teddanson wrote:
I only really collect the discs nobody else wants but are interesting to me. Or films and other content that isn't available on DVD or better. Or has a better audio track. Or is uncensored only on LD and so on.

Basically there needs to be a decent reason for me to go to the trouble of getting an LD over another format.

Can't agree more, thanks to your post I picked up a copy of Berlin Blues which is not on any other format that I can find as of today.
Need to watch it, its in the pile of to watch stuff now.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2021, 01:19 
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That's great, I hope you enjoy it! There is a Spanish R2 DVD but no English audio. Also a really obscure VHS release too. If your LD is as nice a transfer as my copy then you should be in for a good time I hope!

It's a VERY 80's May to December kind of film, but it's just an enjoyable 100 minutes. Yer wan Julia Mcgines was inanother Cannon film after that called Mack The Knife which looks promising. Hoping to track it down soon.

Everyone watch I Am Sartana Trade Your Guns For A Coffin as well. ASAP!
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2021, 01:24 
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teddanson wrote:
Japanese Railroad Constitution [MRLZ-91003]

P.s I'll update that entry asap.


Please do. Cover as well. This sounds really cool!
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2021, 01:26 
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substance wrote:
but who watches DVDs nowadays anyway?

Just like there is a lot of content that has not left the realm of Laserdisc, there is a lot of content that has not left the realm of DVD. Plus all of the reasons listed above; uncut versions, original sound mixes, etc.

But me, I mostly think of that one Techmoan video where he said "a good movie is still a good movie even if it looks a little soft" and that's something I've thought about a lot. And then I go watch trashy 1990s sci-fi action thrillers. :mrgreen:
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2021, 02:34 
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I still buy and watch DVD’s. My Blu Ray player does a good job at upscaling so no upgrades are needed.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2021, 03:49 
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takeshi666 wrote:
substance wrote:
but who watches DVDs nowadays anyway?

Just like there is a lot of content that has not left the realm of Laserdisc, there is a lot of content that has not left the realm of DVD. Plus all of the reasons listed above; uncut versions, original sound mixes, etc.


Yeah DVD being essentially the successor to VHS in terms being THE format means there is just so much on it. Bluray never really even surpassed it and 4K is a niche format.
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 Post subject: Re: Why are you still watching LDs?
PostPosted: 11 Jan 2021, 05:42 
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rch928 wrote:
This format is way inferior in quality, expensive, inconvenient, the players are breaking apart, the players don't have cables compatible with some of the newer TVs, buying movies is only available via online stores, Not 1 single new release in 2 decades, and it weight and size make it expensive to ship and store. Yet, here we are.


That’s why I always tell people who are considering getting into the hobby to just not do it. It just makes no sense in light of today's technology. ;)

However, you can look @ it from the perspective of a classic car collector. The cars of the past are inefficient, big polluters, have safety systems way outdated, always have concerns in respect to obtaining spare parts to keep them going, etc. And yet, some people still want to deal with it.

So a better question for you would be, "why do you want to get into it?" You wouldn't post a question like this unless you really see something in it for you (well... I guess you did answer the question in paragraph 2 :) ).
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