That is because it is now a dead system, just like DAT and MiniDV. Blue Ray is obsolete, rewritable DVDs tend to lose reflectivity over the years and become useless.
I gave away all of my laser disks with the player about 8 years ago. I was lucky to find someone to take them. They look terrible on a modern 4K flat screen, although in the late 1990s and early 2000s with NTSC TV they were the best of a lousy set of choices. LOL
BD and BD 4K disks are still readily available, and the 4K disks in general look better than 4K offerings from Netflix and Amazon.
There are people who collect old NTSC TVs perhaps there are some here, LD would be the ideal playback source.
BD and BD 4K disks are still readily available, and the 4K disks in general look better than 4K offerings from Netflix and Amazon.
There are people who collect old NTSC TVs perhaps there are some here, LD would be the ideal playback source.
| Title | Director |
| 400 Blows, The | Truffaut, Francois |
| 8 1/2 | Fellini, Federico |
| Amadeus | Forman, Milos |
| Andrei Rublev | Tarkovxky |
| Bank Dick, The | Cline, Edward |
| Barton Fink | Cohen Brothers |
| Beauty and the Beast | Cocteau, Jean |
| Beloved Rogue, The | Crosland, Alan |
| Blue Angel, The | von Sternberg, Josef |
| Christmas Story | Clark, Bob |
| Die Zauberflotte | Levine, James |
| Edison, Young Tom AND Edison the Man | Taurog, Brown |
| Ein Deutsches Requiem | Karajan, Hervert von |
| Empire Strikes Back, The | Kershner, Irvin |
| Excalibur | Boorman, John |
| Fantasia | Stokowsiki, leopold |
| Fortune Cookie, The | Wilder, Billy |
| Graduate, The | Nichols, Mike |
| Hommage a Sevilla | Levine, James |
| Hoop Dreams | James, Steve |
| Hud | Ritt, Martin |
| Importance of Being Earnest, The | Asquith, Antony |
| Intolerance | Griffith, DW |
| L'Aventura | Antonioni, Michelangelo |
| Name of the Rose, The | Annaud, Jean-Jacques |
| Pagliacci | Pretre, George |
| Parade | Tati, Jacques |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark | Spielberg, Steven |
| Ran | Kurosawa, Akira |
| Return of the Jedi | Marquand, Richard |
| Seven Samurai | Kurosawa, Akira |
| Seventh Seal, The | Bergman, Ingmar |
| Shoot the Piano Player | Truffaut, Francois |
| Snow White | |
| Star Wars | Lucas, George |
| Tannhauser | Davis, Colin |
| Vivre sa Vie | Goddard, Jean-Luc |
| Yojimbo | Kurosawa, Akira |
Yep still have a pioneer CLD-91 and 97 players and remember the laser disc warehouse sale with people lined up
around the block (me included) and bought about 30 discs on the cheap. I recall 3-5 $ each back then
Used to be quite a few laser disc rental stores around me
It was a short lived 480p era along with my CRT projectors and scalers
Took up too much retail space in stores and of course dvd fit that bill nicely
around the block (me included) and bought about 30 discs on the cheap. I recall 3-5 $ each back then
Used to be quite a few laser disc rental stores around me
It was a short lived 480p era along with my CRT projectors and scalers
Took up too much retail space in stores and of course dvd fit that bill nicely
I put "Vivra sa Vie" on this afternoon. 1962, one of Goddard's best. I don't think I will be parting with the LD anytime soon given the investment in high quality disks.
I had a Laserdisc player in the late nineties , and got rid of it 5 or so years later. DVD was just as clear on NTSC and can be upscaled to 4k and look great doing it. Interestingly my panasonic DVD player has 24/96 Dac and is my main cd player now.
Flogged my player and discs together for a mint on an auction site only a few years ago and got that shipped off to a place half way around the planet. One man's junk is another man's treasure !
Yes, I got to get around and packing my 100++ LDs, Sony MDP-700 and Pioneer LDs and see if someone wants to buy them on Craigslist.
Maybe also the Sony SLHF1000 and editing control board...
Maybe also the Sony SLHF1000 and editing control board...
My dad had a incredible laser disk collection as a kid.
Every classic movie and more you could think of.
Most people had Mono VHS with tracking glitches and maybe 240 resolution.
Many often squeezed 2 movies or recorded at at even worse resolution.
We had both, beta was better around 290 to 300 if I remember.
Was stereo, so automatically far far better for movies and music
So uncompressed laser Disc at around 420 up to 440
was mind blowing really.
We watched in stereo with big speakers, unheard of back then.
People were blown away watching movies at our house.
The resolution of our sony triton went above the laser disc.
So just the res of the TV was miles higher.
large screen size as well.
Anyways great memories with laser disk.
Had many music concerts too, so watching in stereo with big speakers.
Was uplifting for a young music fan.
No muddy tape bass, or crackle pops like my records.
Although I did make darn good tapes back then of my records. To keep them cleaner.
Every classic movie and more you could think of.
Most people had Mono VHS with tracking glitches and maybe 240 resolution.
Many often squeezed 2 movies or recorded at at even worse resolution.
We had both, beta was better around 290 to 300 if I remember.
Was stereo, so automatically far far better for movies and music
So uncompressed laser Disc at around 420 up to 440
was mind blowing really.
We watched in stereo with big speakers, unheard of back then.
People were blown away watching movies at our house.
The resolution of our sony triton went above the laser disc.
So just the res of the TV was miles higher.
large screen size as well.
Anyways great memories with laser disk.
Had many music concerts too, so watching in stereo with big speakers.
Was uplifting for a young music fan.
No muddy tape bass, or crackle pops like my records.
Although I did make darn good tapes back then of my records. To keep them cleaner.
I used to rent Laserdiscs and record them with Superbeta HiFi.
Used the SLHF1000, MDP700 and editing controller board. The VCR had (has) flying erase heads, the LD player has a digital memory buffer and both have a jog wheel. With the jog wheels I could bring the VCR and LD to the first image I wanted, then hit record on the editing controller, the VCR would do a pre-roll gig and the LD would spin up nicely.
Always used the good tapes... Metal?
Later, when looking at the edits, it was incredibly clean... no noise, nothing, it went from one screen to the other.
This is how I would record movies,... one side of the LD at a time... for two hour movies. In HiFi.
Our Sony XBR TVs also had very good resolution, so pretty much the Superbeta II recordings were superb.
That way I built a collection of over 200 movies in Beta and another 100 in LD.
Used the SLHF1000, MDP700 and editing controller board. The VCR had (has) flying erase heads, the LD player has a digital memory buffer and both have a jog wheel. With the jog wheels I could bring the VCR and LD to the first image I wanted, then hit record on the editing controller, the VCR would do a pre-roll gig and the LD would spin up nicely.
Always used the good tapes... Metal?
Later, when looking at the edits, it was incredibly clean... no noise, nothing, it went from one screen to the other.
This is how I would record movies,... one side of the LD at a time... for two hour movies. In HiFi.
Our Sony XBR TVs also had very good resolution, so pretty much the Superbeta II recordings were superb.
That way I built a collection of over 200 movies in Beta and another 100 in LD.
I have between 50 and 75 VHS tapes which I am finally converting to digital media. My (unused for 15 years) VHS player wouldn't work when I powered it up. I finally bought one off Ebay, and have started the process of saving them. I already saved roughly 20 8mm tapes of the kids growing up.
Yes indeed, really wish I could remember the Beta HiFi editor/player we had.
It was a very big deal at the time for my father. We tried editing or had done editing with other players.
Always slight glitches and misses at editing points. The new machine with jog wheel was rather flawless.
With tapes, yes TDK Metal and had the decks with heads to do it.
Seemed just more alive and dynamic. We had countless large speakers at home
good bass and mids most still paper tweets or ring tweets.
Man what a difference when we got our first speaker with silk domes.
Could really hear the difference with different tapes in high frequency.
Laser Discs sometimes had better (studio rendered, non-sweetened) audio tracks than the DVDs / Blurays that followed. Retrieving and syncing such tracks could give the newer HD video a good original sound to go with.
Also, sometimes the negatives of old movies are damaged due to improper storage conditions and in such cases, retrieving the video and de-interlacing it (properly, line by line) could allow a half decent (1080i/2 =540p) copy to exist.
Also, sometimes the negatives of old movies are damaged due to improper storage conditions and in such cases, retrieving the video and de-interlacing it (properly, line by line) could allow a half decent (1080i/2 =540p) copy to exist.