My interest in LD waxes and wanes. Both times I've invested in the hardware (early-2000s, and again last spring/summer) has been sparked mostly by my Star Wars interest, and both times it has grown past that. There are months where I'll watch 5-10 discs, either from my collection or new finds, and then there are also stretches of 2-3 months that I won't spin a single LD. Sometimes a spurt of LD viewing will come after boredom shopping leads to picking up a few discs, and sometimes the itch will arise out of nowhere. I don't "collect" discs as much as I grab films I'm interested in or may be interested in when I find a good deal. I don't think I've paid more than $20 for any film in my collection, and most cost less than $5/ea (usually purchased in lots of 3-5). Most of the appeal is nostalgia, usually along with a dash of boredom. I have decent equipment (late-model Pioneer-based player, AC3 demodulator, AVR with reasonable comb/deinterlacing, projector with decent scaling) but no desire to invest in the format any further (though a cheap enough VP20, VP50, etc might change my mind in a moment of weakness). I mostly feel the same about my middling vinyl collection... though there, there is at least some character to the sound of vinyl that can actually be enjoyable, while LD is for the most part just inferior.

I'm not really a fan of film esoterica, anime, concerts, or some of the other more legitimate reasons to maintain a working LD system... I'm just generally interested in the format, home theater, etc. For me (a general film and home theater fan), I've not come across any content I couldn't enjoy (in better quality) on another format... even un-molested Star Wars, thanks to the 4Kxx and Despecialized projects. Still, I own and maintain a working LD system, and sometimes I even use it. If I own a film in a newer/better format, that's usually how I view it.

I have had HT-enthusiast friends show interest in LD, and I've waved them off pretty hard. It can be an expensive rabbit hole with little return if you don't have a very specific reason for going down it. Most have listened... one didn't but luckily got a taste with a $75 player and ~$100 worth of discs before relegating it all to the bottom of his closet.

Why I still watch laserdiscs

A. I like the big shiny discs and jackets. It's the most beautiful physical media format ever released. I just love physical media in general and LD is top of the food chain for me.

2. They still look and sound great. You aren't going to get much more detail out of composite; and how they figured out AC3 is beyond me.

D. I am extremely nostalgic for the 80's and 90's; peak laserdisc times. If you had one then, you were a rich guy (and lets be honest it was mostly guys buying this stuff) and therefore i feel a little swanky even now using them.

-The retro-futurism/meta aspect. I like my Hackers on LD, etc. etc., it was the "Format of the future" and retains that cache/cool ESPECIALLY in 2021 when everything has gone digital (booooooring) I want to hold and see the future, yesterdays future; in a big shiny disc, a cartridge, or floppy, or a tape.

-Lots of great movies on the format. I'm mostly interested in pop-culture from the 20th century. I'd rather discover stuff from back then (tons we all haven't seen) than watch the tripe that's being released these days. I don't really care much about anything post 2003 or so and if i do it's few and far between. Often times the LD version of a movie is the highest quality you can get, especially if it was only otherwise on VHS or a poor early DVD release.

I sit here in my navy Laserdisc T-Shirt (thanks Etsy) and really enjoy many things about the format that have been previously mentioned. I try to buy locally but not much comes up on CL anymore. The only reason i ship players is because they are in need of repair, and i ship them to Kurtis in one of his properly padded boxes.

I have really got my wife into them and we watch 2-3 a week every week together. Great format that i plan to enjoy as long as i'm alive!

I only still watch LD if it's a film or program that isn't available on a better format. Or if a version of a film isn't available on another or better format.

Plus they're neato.

What I love the most is our OP, we had someone else on the forum who posted close to the same thing then after the first post disappeared.

I know we all know reasons we like LD or keep hanging on to it but these new limited posters are sort of odd to say the least.
its like they want to start a conversation but then after asking or starting they walk away.

Just imagine when we used to go to bars and turn to talk to someone at the bar, you say hey nice day then turn away and ignore them...........
How do you call it, ghosting............

I am no "ghoster" and not a "limited poster". I have been member here for 7 years with 160 posts. Its hard to make conversation on a dead format of 2 decades as there is nothing much new happening+traffic is slow on this site so you have to wait for the posts to come in. I am also member on many forums and have many conversations all over the web+I am juggling a lot of things in my life so I don't have much concentration left currently.

I have read the 3 pages of members input and the reason I didn't reply is because my thoughts on the topic was included in my original post, I just had nothing much to add. I of course thank every one for sharing their thoughts.

My assumptions were right most people are in it just for nostalgia or pure interest in the format mostly. I read some say some titles only exists on LD but its hard to believe when everything is digital now. I am going to guess they mean its not available "legally" for sale, as I am sure someone has a .mp4/.mkv of it somewhere. Most surprising are people who say they still have a collection that they didn't go through it all after 20 years.

I am happy that all responders are - unlike other special interests hobbyists - didn't go "fanboy" on me proclaiming how great LDs are compared to other formats. Everyone kept it real and put it as it is, its an old dead format with the newer ones much more convenient and cheaper to have+superior in quality.

@signofzeta

I am one of the new people joining the wave. You might be lucky to live in the US where you can get everything locally, and I noticed in the US many people keep their old stuff so its easy to find it. Else where in the world, if it has not been used 3-4 years to the trash it goes. Shipping is our only option.

You make shipping sound like mail men are playing hockey puck with the shipments, and while I have not worked in shipping, I always imagined they handled shipments responsibly. I heard they have the pick up-place down rule, what I understood of it is that they don't take they hands off it unless its laid on the floor. Do they apply this? I don't know. One thing I can see, due to how heavy the player is, the slip-drop of the player is very possible and that will be a really big bang. The mail man can also get tired and just decide to drop it on the last few inches before it gets to the floor.

I got my player shipped international and it works and for that I am glad. Life taught me, sometimes you need to take a risk you can only do so much.

EDIT: I forgot some thing, some people mention DRM free laserdiscs, what does that mean? its not like you can play them else where

Something else just occurred to me; SD video is something even your standard home toaster can edit, HD not so much, so DVD is a bit more amateur-friendly in that regard.

I think there's some boutique label that specializes in releasing really crappy movies - I'm talking shot on consumer grade videotape kind - on freakin' blu-ray and I can't think of anything except "overkill".

I've had 5 of 6 players mailed with no issues, but all the posts here about repairs I would never do it again.

Either these sellers in America are just picking up cheap and flipping then refunding as they never knew how to test
or if you are lucky you pay the full price from a pro and they pack it well.

DRM means "Digital Rights Management" and that is essentially copy protection via the HDMI standard for audio video transmission. It can be a pain because sometimes there are issues w/ product compatibility such as using a dated AV Receiver and/or TV with HDMI switching and they don't play well with newer source devices such as your streaming sticks. A good example is that some Roku devices are sensitive to DRM and they will place a purple screen on your TV telling you of an issue. Obviously, we aren't going to have that issue w/ a composite video format like LD.

In addition, another bonus w/ LD is that there is no macrovision copy protection that is found on VHS and DVD (via a macrovision flag that activates and tells the player to activate the encoding). Thus, you can copy any LD to a VHS, DVD Recorder, or any capture device w/o issue.

And I've only been here since 2018 and yet here we are.

I guess I'm just a chatterbox.

Compared to the average Japanese seller absolutely. I pack things rather well myself (pretty close to zero issues but sometimes USPS or whoever gets super rough) but I wouldn't want to ship an LD player. I did ship a VCR that made is safely to the UK. That one had me nervous just because if anything I just didn't want it to get destroyed...

I would say that the conversation is the best it has been in a very long time. The community is growing. Aside from that, there have been major advancements with the Domesday and ld-decode projects, new parts being recreated, and a constant trickle of new information about the format itself.

The forum seems to also think that you live in the US.

For me it's mostly nostalgic reasons. I never had LD player/discs back in the day, i was many times close getting one but never did. It was just too expensive for me at the time. But now, there's no such limits when you're almost 50. I love the whole works, specially the cover art, the whole process of physical disks (it's just not the same with DVD's or BR's) as there's obiously something similar with vinyl records (sold my collection in early 2000's... sadly). As well, watching LD's doesn't count it out watching other formats or even, streaming, what you want to see. It's just one part of the whole experience - even more collectable.

I had stopped buying pretty much DVD/BR's after we got our first child, as no time as well career things. That's something like 12 years. Yes. Bizarre. I do have atleast 600+ DVD's so it's not like i'd run out anything to watch.

I've had LD player for almost two weeks and i've bought... almost 60 discs. Where all this will end to?

Oh dear, well that's it now and I'm afraid that there is no escape I'm afraid!

Seriously though, welcome....and enjoy this great format

Sounds like you have caught the bug!

Have fun & enjoy the format, it can all get a bit involved (in a good way!!).

Looking forward to any future posts on here.

Cheers

@signofzeta

thats where my address is for the store. I use shipping forward service or whatever its called

@cosmoza

Something about analogue video makes it feel authentic. The imperfections of it makes it more real or engaging. Maybe its like the difference between reading an e-book or paper printed book, or someone sending you an email or a hand written letter.

Dont get me wrong the BD stuff and 4K look amazing especially stuff with a to of computer graphics but it lacks the warmth or "soul" maybe of analogue.

Something to bear in mind when talking about analog vs. digital is that analog comes in a number of different flavors. The analog of film and the analog of video are quite different, and conversion from the former to the latter loses a lot of the former's "analog-ness" by limiting the picture to a set of discrete 1-dimensional lines that together approximate a 2-dimensional picture. When not subjected to excessive digital tinkering, the increased resolution on the Y-axis of 1080p and 2160p can capture more of the analog character of film than SD video (digital or analog) can, at least by that measure. The first time I saw a blu-ray on a family friend's big flat-screen TV was revelatory; it was the first time watching a movie on a TV felt remotely like watching one in a movie theater for me.

EDIT: I'm with you 100% on paper vs. screens, though. Even the most impressive e-ink solutions I've seen (and they are impressive) don't feel as nice as a real book. There's something about the completely physical, non-technological nature of paper that allows my nerves to relax more.

I mean I guess something like a tablet PC would work just as well, but since I don't have one, I find my physical comic books to never fail me during a power outage.

Now I’m even more confused. You live somewhere where LDs aren’t common but you have a STORE?

Did you make a post in the Introduction thread? Who are you? Where are you? Do you have LDs? LDDB says your collection is zero.

BD and 4K on a good projector really is something.

As far as physical books, I like the act of turning the page. I typically read right before going to sleep so it's also really convenient being able to just close the book and put it on my headboard area instead of having to power something down.