Reasons to have a Laserdisc Player in 2011?

I've been pondering getting a laserdisc player for several years now. Besides Star Wars untouched and blemished by George "I never finished these movies" Lucas would there be anything on Laserdisc worth owning?

 

Few logical reasons. Mainly I'd say you'll either get satisfaction by collecting and utilizing the format or not.

For me, "obsolete" formats have a place in my heart because I can't bear to see great entertainment and equipment get discarded or locked in someone's basement for the rest of time.

 

It's great for my anime collection too.

The problem is finding a good player (besides Ebay I refuse to use ebay) and a place that sells the discs.

I obviously should get a Pioneer player they were the ones that supported the format to the bitter end.

of course I can't find a player online anywhere that ISN'T a Pioneer player

 

The shipping from Japan is prohibitively expensive, but Japanese releases on laserdisc (IE, no subtitles) are ridiculously cheap these days. I see sets that my friends spent upwards of $2k on back in the day sell for 10,000 yen now... if that.

 

Strong Kids! Safe Kids!

best laserdisc ever, and only available on laser disc, might I add.

 

Well, I have to find a player first and a good condition copy of Star wars that's the whole reason I'm looking for an LD player to begin with

I mean I'm no Star Wars Freak but I want the movies the way they were made before George Lucas lost his fucking mind I'm guessing the LD versions of Star Wars is the definitive one.

Care to elaborate?

 

if you are into baroque techno-curiosities an LD is of course a must-own... I still find it an amazing piece of technology, especially considering it's mostly analog!

But in the real world? I dunno. The sleeves look a lot better than DVDs, that's for sure. :thumbsup:

 

Reminds me of an interview from my favorite band, Tambersauro - in particular, a section regarding vinyl and "why vinyl".

Jeff Price writes:

"There is nothing that sounds quite like a physical needle digging into actual bumps in a slab of wax and making sounds come out. The tactile nature of the technology lends a warmth to the music that is lacking in digital recordings. To me, analog (vinyl) records just sound more inviting, although I think this has a lot to do with the presentation of vinyl as well.

In terms of aesthetics, there’s no question that vinyl is the best medium for the recording as an art object. It’s a material matter — there’s simply more square inch for you to work with than a CD or cassette. Releasing a translucent powder-blue vinyl record with a triple-gatefold, burgundy-cardstock record sleeve and a hand-made papyrus insert, or what have you, is going to beat the pants off a CD version every time. Even if you replicate it in CD format, you’ve lost about three-quarters of the surface area, which will obscure details and just not be quite as impressive."

I think a similar to LD. Then there's the fact that you have to flip the damn thing, which is kinda like:

"Moreover, the very fact that a record is mostly immobile — you can only listen to it within relative proximity to the turntable on your stereo — makes you focus on the act of listening. Since technology has so acclimated us to instant access and a startling degree of transience, it’s a fairly radical notion for kids to have to actually sit still in one place and focus on the machine making the music come out. It’s much easier to sit down and really wrap your ears around someone’s songs if you aren’t perpetually doing something else, as one usually is when sporting an iPod. To me, it helps recover the particularity of listening to music and the rewards that brings. Throw in some decent packaging and you’ve got a nice little memento of your adolescence and hopefully beyond."

I guess this means you have it in the back of your mind that at some point your entertainment will be stopped temporarily, but I think it's little things like these that keep you slightly more united with what is going on, physically, that make the experience more interesting.

 

I'm a big Laserdisc fan. Got over 300 now and lots of anime.
Done a little article on my site about the format and my setup:
http://www.8bitplus.co.uk/articles/laserdisc/
Got loads more than in that picture now. Having a good player makes a huge difference. The cheaper ones can be poor.

 

So, what LD player do you recommend for starters?
Of course it should be compatible to all standards and have high picture quality, RGB and AC3 output.
Does a Nec/Pioneer LaserActive w/ RGB-mod have everything needed or is MUSE Hi-Vision an important feature to go for?

 

I'm in the market for a turntable too The art of the album is lost on CD and digital music. I want to get all the all time great albums on Vinyl hiss and pops and all It's just a richer homier sound.

If a band has the sense now to release albums on vinyl then you know they're serious about music and not Noise wars or record label greed. Plus the fact that sound comes out of grooves on a piece of Plastic amazes me

Also my TV? widescreen CRT and it's very hard for me to find a plasma/LCD that has a better picture for games/TV, Downside blurry edges when I hook up my computer so small text can be hard to make out sometimes.

 

I'd say its the high end Pioneer units that do the best job. CLD-925, CLD-2950, DVL-909 and 919.
Don't bother with MUSE or Hi-Vision players. Cost thousands and only play NTSC (in think)

 

pink floyd's, pulse concert. it has a different "cut" order and director choices than the dvd version... might wantto check it.

 

I've got a slowly growing collection myself. My current player is a Pioneer CLD-1580K which is more a karoake unit than a serious piece of home theater but meh it was cheap and local.

I personally am just staying away from digital purchases. I can lose a file, a company can go under taking my license with it. A piece of plastic with aluminum inside is foreverish. At least when it fails due to laser rot I still have a legal claim to the movie formerly contained.

Current collection:
http://www.lddb.com/collection.php?action=list&user=APE

Though I have some that aren't listed there. Mostly anime titles that aren't in the database at all.

 

I have 4 different versions of Star Wars on Laserdisc, took this picture the other day:

(missing a RotJ)

Really, I need a better player. Mine is pretty awful. A lot of movies have better bluray versions at this point though, so laserdiscs are less "necessary" than they were in the past.

 

Well Star wars and Rare anime are why I'm getting an LD player

 

That's really all the reason you need. They're pretty cheap. Not sure how you're going to find one without using eBay, though. Good luck with that. I saw one at a yard sale once, but for whatever reason I didn't pick it up. I guess I didn't know what it was at that point. I think it's interesting to have things like this simply as relics of days gone by. I have a Betamax player that I've never used. Anyway, good luck.

 

See if there are any record shops in your area. I know one near me has a decent selection of LDs and a couple players.

I currently only own one LD and that's 'The Princess Bride'. I saw it at another record store and the artwork was cool and it's Criterion Collection. I just have it displayed on a shelf. One of these days I'll get a player and watch it.