Laserdisc Newbee: Player wanted ... which one to get ?

I recently purchased my first Laserdisc, now I am looking for a cheap player, which I can purchase in Europe ... what should I get ? how much will I have to pay for it ? what features should I look out foor ?

thanks for any suggestions ...

 

Most people who collect LDs go for Pioneer models. They were the dominant brand back in the day. You can pick up some models for less than $20, ot you can go really high end with $1000 models or even up to $1,500/$3,000 with the hi-def players. I'd just pick an amount that you want to spend then find the best LD player from Pioneer that you can get for that amount on eBay.

 

the best available player in europe is the Pioneer DVL-919 (plays dvd aswell), but far from cheap.

check for CLD-925 and 2950 , both are very good player and not too expensive.

 

I'd agree with what Japan-Games said - Pioneer models are generally the most relieable & easier to get spares for. You may want to look for models from other manufactures, like Denon, that were often clones of Pioneer models - these are often less expensive to obtain than their Pioneer equivalents.

Personally, I would go for one of the LD/CD combo players, rather than the LD/DVD/CD combo's, as the former are mechanically simpler & DVD players are really cheap now.

Here's some links you might find useful:

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/ (this one has a big list of player models)
http://www.mindspring.com/~laserdisc-forever/
http://www.access-one.com/rjn/laser/laserdisc.html

Cheers, Limey.

 

How's the picture quality of Laserdics when compared to DVDs?

 

Some people claim that Laserdiscs have better quality than DVDs, but I think that's only true if you use discs that are in very good condition and you have a really nice player. In any case, I believe the picture quality is pretty close in both, though I've never actually seen one. The recent release of the Star Wars trilogy on DVD was actually transferred from the Laserdisc version, as apparently the original film was lost.

 

DVD's are far better than 98% of LDs except for sound quality. There are Hi-Def LDs that used to be the best picture quality you could get, but with Blu-Ray and HDDVD that's no longer the case, and honestly you can get the high end DVD players for cheaper than the high end LD players.

The LDs are still being sold and collected by those who either want a cheap way to get a nice collection or by those who want things not available on DVD. I sell a lot of concert LDs that still haven't been released on DVD and probably never will be. I bought an LD-S9 which is a high end Pioneer model and the seller threw in 100 LDs for free. Now when I work I can pop in a copy of Beverly Hills Cop or Streets of Fire which is a cool way to pass the time. On Yahoo Auctions I can pick up a bulk lot of 50 LDs for $30. Can't beat that.

Back on topic... I agree that you should go for a CLD model instead of a DVL model. The difference is that the DVL model plays DVDs, but if you're not going to be using it for DVDs then you're just going to be paying more for something you won't be using.

 

In Europe you cant really go wrong with the CLD-D925, it has pretty much all the features you ever need........like above for sure LD isnt as nice as DVD in "nearly" all cases, but it can be very nice....the only nark is in these days od 16:9 TV's you end up with a floating letterbox.

^^Haha I actually have Streets of Fire on LD, only got it sa few weeks back, badass movie.

 

Just out of curiousity, are laserdisc player region free or not ? because when looking at european ebay i see way more NTSC discs on offer then PAL ones.

 

Yeah, they'll play whatever you throw at them Laserdisc wise, but not DVD (if it's a combo machine). The main thing was obviously back then as to whether your TV could cope with NTSC / PAL / SECAM. These days most European TVs do.

I'd definately recommend either a Pioneer or Sony. Technics LD were pretty poor as were Kenwood. The fewer "unnecessary" features on the machine (Karaoke for example - who the hell wants to sing along to 1980's Euro-pop?) then the better the audio/video quality. It's always the same, the fewer components the signal is required to rattle through the better it is at the other end. Hence why a lot of stereo units have "direct" signal paths.

You have several Pioneer units to choose from, but remember that these days obtaining spare parts is one thing (just buy another unit), but finding someone capable of repairing them is another. Get one you have either seen working or the seller is prepared to take a few shots of it functioning, such as turning the disc over (a very handy feature).

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/pioneer1.htm

The CLD-925 mentioned earlier is a great unit, but if you can source one and afford it you should go for the Pioneer DVL-909. It has the AC3 output built in for AC3 (digital surround sound). They still change hands for silly prices.

Picture quality wise, anyone even remotely suggesting that they can get laserdisc to beat DVD is talking crap! Perhaps with a brand new machine, with a brand new disc, with brand new cables on a stunning TV then you'll see something remotely similar, however laserdiscs degrade and most of them are a few years old now, have been used, have worn a little and the colours start to bleed, the machines have worn mechanisms etc.

Most Laserdiscs were copied directly from VHS & Betamax and redubbed with stereo & AC3 audio. There are a hell of a lot of truly awful laserdisc films and that was part of laserdisc issue. Size, cost and the hit & miss quality issues. Many producers of laserdisc really didn't spend enough time or effort on it.

You will however come across a number of laserdisc producers who did a remarkable job considering the technology involved. One particular top production of quality was "Criterion". So, if you see Criterion edition written on the sleeve then you know that it will be a good reproduction. In particular their edition of Seven (and not the more commonly found edition) is on several discs as they attempted to ensure that the film was not poorly compressed and in my view remains one of the best films ever committed to laserdisc.

Criterion boxed sets still sill really well. I had about 180 laserdiscs when I sadly felt the urge to sell my two LD units last year. 30 of those were boxed sets and mostly Criterion as they are worth it.

Even with these well produced editions, you can still see the leap from LD to DVD was a necessary step despite the drop in audio quality.

This is where laserdisc comes into it's own. Sound wise, having an uncompressed sound track on Seven or the original press of Star Wars was stunning!

Another advantage is that often the films available on laserdisc will never make it to DVD, or in the case of Star Wars you have the original unedited versions which George Lucas has stated will never appear on DVD.

Anyway, I recommend a unit if you are a film buff and have the time to find good editions of films or already have access to a collection. If not and you are just acting out of curiosity, then I would suggest putting your money into buying a very good DVD player (HD for example), Surround Sound system and putting up with compressed audio over the far superior video output.

 

Is that true for all/most European LD players? It's an issue I never crossed since I only got into LD here in the US & as mentioned, most LDs are NTSC. I'm pretty sure that my CLD-704 is NTSC only (though I have no PAL LDs to prove otherwise...).

There were definately some players that were explicitly PAL/NTSC - from memory there was the CLD-D925 previously mentioned & the DVL-919E, the latter of which could also do PAL/NTSC DVDs.

BTW, back in the early days of DVD some of the mastering wasn't so good & it could be argued that in some respects (macro blocking etc) LD video performance was better. Not so nowadays. The other thing that can come into play, is that (in my experience at least) todays LCD/plasma displays tend to hi-light LDs difficiencies compared to DVD much more than CRTs did. Despite it all, there's something special about LD, in much the same way as vinyl is special to me.

 

I've had a pile of Pioneer units (roughly 7), some marked PAL some PAL/NTSC and used to import a lot of laserdiscs from the US as frankly the UK never picked up on the laserdisc thing and all of the editions I had played on both machines. Whether Richer Sounds had them specifically chipped (as they did with DVD players) I am not sure, yet I never had any issues playing NTSC discs on the PAL only unit. Anyone in the UK able to check?

Julian Richer had a bit of a thing for sending everything off for chipping prior to selling it. I am amazed RS were never taken to court over this actually and they are still the only company to sell multi-region units off the shelf. That Pioneer website I pointed too will show all the PAL/NTSC editions anyway, so I strongly recommend going for one marked as such to avoid any issues.

Yeah, if you view an LD on LCD / Plasma it looks awful imo - that was one reason I decided to ditch mine in the end. Sadly, a lot of those films are never going to appear in my DVD collection though and the Star Wars boxed set (I had 3 different editions) were superb. Lucas really should reconsider releasing a pre-tampered version of Star Wars on DVD, but he is a perfectionist and continues to tamper with the films.

I happen to prefer the faults, such as Hans Solo walking into the door frame. Ho hum!

 

A few of the Pioneer units can be internally modified to produce an AC3 output. Here is one such guide for the Pioneer CLD-D702, but I know there were several others for various models: http://www.laaudiofile.com/ac3mod.html

If you have to obtain an AC3 box, then you should go for the Yamaha unit as it is excellent. It was called the Yamaha ADP-1. You just connect it to the back of the LD then into a Dolby Digital processor. Hard to find now, but I bought my last one in France for £50.00 about 3 or 4 years ago.

Baring in mind, a modification would probably cost you less!

 

There is an isssue with PAL/NTSC, most good players in europe will do both, but there are no NTSC players that support pal unless modified, tho really anyone wanting a decent player will get a dual system one, the D925 for instance can play in pure NTSC or force the NTSC disc into PAL depending on your TV set up etc......if you have a pal only player your gonna be pretty screwed, tho in theory PAL discs should be better due to the higher resolution, there are some superb ones (Terminator 2: SE for example), but in general a lot of pal pressings are...ahem...lame, giuess our market wasnt really important.

I use a Denon AVD-2000 for AC-3, its a pretty nifty pre amp processor if you can find one http://www.homecinemachoice.com/reviews/hccreviews/Processors/Denon/DenonAVD-2000.php

 

I agree. A lot of PAL pressings were truly rubbish. Given the opportunity to obtain a PAL or NTSC version of a film I usually plummed for the American version just to be on the safe side. I never actually sat and compared the output from both, but I did have enough PAL discs that I thought were of dubious quality to just avoid them if I could.

T2 - boxed set was great! As was the Criterion editions of Kevin Smith's films such as "Chasing Amy". Never found "Mallrats" no matter how hard I hunted.

That Denon was offered to me a while ago for £30 and I turned it down. No use to me now, but I guess I missed a good bit of kit according to that review. Is it future proof then? lol

 

The Denon is good as far as AC-3 from laserdisc goes, its not so future proof unfortunately, it has a good few coax & toslink inputs & analogue multi but no DTS unless paired with yet another pre amp, only DPL & Dolby Digital. I imagine the processing is better than my entry level Sony AV amp, but I probably couldnt tell the difference hehe.

When people see it in my set up its pretty comedy trying to explain what its for, I guess thats a sign of the times this LD stuff is so old now its not compatible with modern tech.

 

Regrettably (in some ways) laserdisc technology was undermined in most instances by the poor production values of those producing material for the systems. It has to be admitted though that laserdiscs were exceptionally expensive, hard to store, bulky, heavy, easily damaged and the hardware was prone to glitches and errors. The costs involved in producing end-to-end were too high. DVD is a much cheaper alternative.

I bought my first Samsung DVD player about a year after DVD players were originally announced. It was bloody expensive at the time, but you soon made up for it in the cost of the films. Some of the price tags on the laserdiscs editions were testimony to this fact. Who generally had a spare £150 for the complete (3 films) Star Wars box set? These days you can get the lot for £20 in certain high street stores.

I don't lament the passing of the laserdisc at all, I just wished that audio compression was less brittle and they put more space on the disc for the audio aspects (I definately CAN hear) rather than the visual enhancements I struggle to really see.

That's advancement for you...

 

Not true. LaserDiscs are a non-contact medium so won't degrade any more than, say, an audio CD will.

The exception is poorly manufactured discs that rot over the years and eventually become unplayable. Most discs with this so called "laser rot" were manufactured Sony DADC, who were arrogant enough to never acknowledge the problem (some things never change huh).

But you're right, for an LD to beat a DVD in terms of picture quality, it would have to be a seriously badly produced DVD.

 

Sorry for the bump, but lets get back to LD talk?

whose still rocking an LD collection?

what set up do you use.......favorite discs?

 

I'd get the one compatible with PC Engine and MD addons.